Shelby's Life and Whatnot

I'm Speechless! Literally!

You're going to have to imagine this whole post in whispers, because that's where my voice is right now. A couple of days ago I wrote about my nasty cold. Well I continued to feel better in the sense that my body didn't feel like it had been hit by a train, but my throat remained scratchy with an occasional cough. Friday morning I woke up with a rather limited vocal range. Now in the past, I have never completely lost my voice for more than a few hours or so. Usually I'll wake up sans voice but with a dose of cold medicine and a little bit of talking, it all clears up and I'm voluble from there on out. So I was optomistic that morning, speaking and saying to Kevin the equivalent of, "Can you hear me now?" Kevin suggested some tea and that seemed like a wonderful idea--it did the trick! I was up and talking in no time, so I decided not to call in to work. 5:00 rolled around and off I went to work, thinking I was just fine. Well, this is a job that requires a great deal of talking. And the store is crowded, people are talking, music is playing, and the stuffers are blowing, which creates a great deal of ambient noise as well. So the talking that this job requires is a rather loud talking. I started out okay, but about halfway through my shift, my voice declined rapidly. And unfortunately, there isn't really a station in this job that doesn't require talking, so I had to soldier through. By the time I got home last night I was in agony.

Things haven't gotten much better voice-wise this morning. With some more tea, I've gained some voice function back, but boy I learned my lesson last night--no more talking for me! I'm really disappointed because we were supposed to go to a wine tasting today, but in addition, Brad, Kat, and the girls were coming too and we were going to visit the Festival of the Trees which is a exhibition where people decorate Christmas trees and it's really pretty and well-done. Looks like I'm going to have to miss it. Boo!