Trucks, Scorpions and Woman

I stepped on a scorpion last night. It REALLY hurt.  I was glad the kids were asleep so I didn't have to put on a brave face.   But after a few minutes the pain had almost completely subsided.  A neighbor had told me it was like stepping on glass.  That is a very good description.  I thought that is what had happened until I realized that the chances of someone breaking a glass in the bathroom when no one was awake but me was pretty small.  I never even saw the perpetrator. 

Someone pointed out to me that I pitch my voice higher when I speak Spanish and ever since they pointed it out I have been noticing it.  I know that when I was learning Czech I tended (and frankly enjoyed) copying other female native speakers that were fairly nasal in their speech.  I am not even sure how common it was since I was never that great at it-  but I am aware that I was a mimic. I don't think I did so in Swedish- probably too young and I don't recall trying to sound like anyone in Ilonggo.  In Spanish, I know that a big part of pitching it higher is because I am unsure if I am saying it correctly or perhaps unsure even if what I am asking makes sense (who doesn't know how to cook field corn, right?) But because I have spent some time trying to get my female younger cousin NOT to sound as if everything is a question, I am frustrated that I am doing it in Spanish.  Granted, I do not want to sound as if I am COMMANDING everything either.  I am a bit averse to that after hearing so many gringos sound brusque in their Spanish.  Perhaps I can find something in between. 

Commanding a truck.  We now own a large double-cab, diesel 4x4 truck.  Because of rough roads it is fairly necessary here.  It felt pretty weird to drive it (or even just to be the owner of it) but let me clarify that the weirdness of it all stems from me as a person, me as a short person driving that big of a thing.  The other day, I was driving someone around and HE mentioned that he found it amusing to watch a woman drive a 4x4 truck. I like to think of myself as amusing but just because I am a woman driving a truck.

Is a woman wielding a scalpel amusing?   I met a surgeon on the beach with her family.  We ended up hanging out and the kids had fun together and I had a nice time talking to them.  And then, as we were calculating the bill, the husband (not a surgeon) made a series of comments to his wife including, "Do you think you're better in math than me?", "Have a drink and dumb it down a little." It was so awkward. I am glad I don't hear that sort of thing from the people surrounding me but it is sad people still feel weird about a woman being smart.