Grump. Been up an hour now, and not feeling the sleepiness.

Timelies, all! I woke up at 4 am for no good reason, and tonight I have flight class which will keep me out until around 11. Probably after 11, since the roads will start icing over after dark, and instead of the back roads I'll need to take the highways home, which will tack on several miles and minutes. We had about three times as much reading as usual for class this week. Even with being snowed in for the weekend I had trouble finishing it. All good stuff to know (radio comms, airport types, altitude and physiology), but kind of a lot to absorb.

When I was in Greece last fall, a waiter tried to guess where all of the tourists were from, and then use their language when waiting on them. I heard German, Russian, Spanish, French, and English from him (as well as Greek, of course). It was very impressive. When he got to my traveling buddy and I he started off in English, then looked at me and frowned. "Where are you from?" "I'm American." "Really? OK, before that--your family. Finnish?"

My dad's family were all from Finland, so I copped to it and we went on with our meal. (He didn't try to take my order in Finnish, which is a relief. The three words of Finn I know do not include the word for "squid.") But I hadn't really considered that Finns had a specific look. I figured my appearance was just sort of generic northern European.

The baby woke up at 5 a.m. (which is when I usually get up, but I usually have an hour without her to get ready for work) and there was 4-5 inches of snow to shovel but no work closing or late openings for my DH and me. Our inner 12 year olds were weeping.

However, the snow last night was the kind that stuck to every tree branch, so it was a beautiful ride in this a.m.

I think Finns have a look!

In Europe I am often taken for German, which I suppose is logical based on my appearance, but in fact my sole German ancestry is one guy who emigrated to Saint Louis in the 1850s. (Making this dude: [link] my grandmother's first cousin, though, and what a hassle it must have been in his career being named Adolf.)

We have friends whose two daughters are strikingly dissimilar-looking, despite being full siblings. One is olive skinned and black haired, and the other is pale blonde and blue-eyed, but has fairly asian features. The father is of mostly Irish descent, dark-haired and olive skinned, and the mother is the child of a blonde WASP and a Japanese immigrant, and looks pretty typically "eurasian". The recessive blonde grandpa came out in the younger daughter.

My sisters don't share any features (except shortness) - one has every Portuguese gene in the family and is olive skinned with black, curly hair and brown eyes and people often approach her in LA by speaking Spanish, and the other is blond, blue-eyed, with a completely different body type.

I somehow manage to look like both of them.

My sisters take after our French side olive skin, dark hair, dark eyes...both were often mistaken for native growing up. I am the red-headed step-child, strawberry blond (now dirty blond) hair, blue eyes. No one ever giessed we were sisters. At my sister A's wedding, one of her new inlaws asked me how I knew the bride!

My brother and I are very different looking but our mannerisms and speech patterns are so ridic similar that most people comment on how alike we are when they meet us.

I look exactly like my father, to the point that people who know him have stopped me when he wasn't even around to ask me if I'm his daughter.

I drove home smiling the whole way, remember that classes like tonight were why I had loved college soooo much. I'm so glad to back in school!

That's awesome.

Clearly spoken English but with a last name like that? Somehow must equal Militant Black Muslim.

That's hilarious.

My brother and I are very different looking but our mannerisms and speech patterns are so ridic similar that most people comment on how alike we are when they meet us.

I have that with my mother.

Thanks to Frisco's cough, I slept from 8-10, 12-2, and 4-5:30. I have an interview at 11. Joe's going to come home at 9:30 so I can get there on time. Frisco just has a cough and a runny nose but he's just a giant crying mess this morning.

Kathy, I'm so glad you're getting to do the school thing again. I had a blast with all my classes, and if I could only swing it I'd can this job-hunting gig and enroll permanently.