old and gray

i would say my voice is 5/8 back to normal. but straining to talk to clients at a somewhat normal volume today didn't help things; now my throat is just really tired and i'm coughing a lot. i got a few funny looks today but overall people acted like they understood me.

the sweetest clients ever gave me a gift today; the husband does woodworking and he made me a jewelry box. so what if it's heart-shaped with my name in cursive on the lid...now i'll always remember them with their great italian accents and their cute little dachschund leo who will probably not recover his ability to walk and will end up in one of those little doggie carts. another cute thing about them is that they live on "easy living drive," probably in a retirement community somewhere. what really sucks about their situation is that when they first went to their vet because leo couldn't use his hind legs, their vet sent leo home on steroids for the weekend to see if he got any better. had he just sent them to us for surgery right away, the dog would have definitely been walking now (or if not now, then very soon). but we can't tell them that. and they continue to be so positive and grateful that we're taking care of their little leo.

on other news, i had one of those life milestones last weekend...i found my first gray hair. so sad. i wonder how many more of them are out there hiding.

would you like paper or plastic?

in line at the grocery store this afternoon, i managed to expel just enough pitiful sound to make the check-out clerk realize that i really wasn't capable of speaking or carrying on a conversation. but instead of just efficiently scanning and bagging my groceries, he took this opportunity to have a one-sided conversation with me (probably to hear his own voice, or maybe because he feels it's his duty to entertain the customer). at one point he told me a really bad joke that "a veterinarian had told him earlier that morning." oh, the irony. (wait, is that irony? i'm never sure. alanis morissette and miss fisher made me question it all and i never quite regained my bearings)

poor sickly me

as a result of being sick this week, i started to lose my voice on friday. it was all husky and squeaky or cracking at times, but i felt overall much better than i had earlier in the week, so i thought this little residual side effect was of no real consequence. i went out on friday night and attempted to talk to other people all night over loud background noises (in hindsight, not a good idea) and then woke up saturday to find that i couldn't even make any noise. so i've been whispering all weekend when it's absolutely necessary to verbally communicate and have not been answering my phone. and of course this would be a weekend where i actually have time to catch up with people on the phone. instead i have to ignore their calls and send them a stupid text message explaining why i'm not answering. i'll continue to give my voice a rest today (like i have a choice right now) and keep up the gargling; hopefully by tomorrow i'll at least be able to speak. i'm wondering what's going to happen at work if i still can't talk. i'm on a rotation tomorrow where i have to talk to clients a lot. hmm, i might have to do some schedule switching if it comes down to that.

also this whole sickness is really interfering with my half-marathon training schedule. grr.

obligatory post

although i really don't have anything exciting to say, i guess i'll let you know that i'm alive and well. just a little tired and not feeling very witty or conversational. maybe i'll just go to bed instead. ah, bed. oh, i just posted this picture because i like it.

argh, one more night of this

it's driving me extra-crazy this week. it's been very quiet at night so i've had the opportunity to sleep, so i of course can not. i just toss and turn and get startled by every noise and then have wierd half-awake dreams about my pager going off or someone trying to wake me up. the nights are dragging by. two more hours until i can go home and get some more bad, interrupted sleep.

it's been an eerily quiet night at work. i'm suspicious that it may be because there have been some problems with the pager system the last few days. usually the answering service pages me when they get a call, but i haven't received a single one all night. there's usually at least the "i was just calling to see how my dog is doing" type of calls. i even paged myself just to see if it worked, which it did. i guess if there is some dire emergency they'll call the ICU. that's usually what they do when i ignore their pages. maybe i should just quit being paranoid and enjoy the quiet night.

so, going to portland for the weekend. i'm not sure what exciting activities await us because we haven't really thought about the details, except that we'll visit with mary and marcus. since monday is MLK day, i actually get a four-day weekend! (i finish overnights friday morning.) for once, a holiday that i don't have to work part of!

2006, woo

i keep wanting to play that death cab song whenever i hear someone say "the new year," which i've been hearing a lot the past few days. maybe i should just give it a couple of good plays so i can get it out of my head. so does anyone have any exciting resolutions for the upcoming year (sincere or otherwise)? i haven't decided on any, except maybe to run that half marathon. but that's something i've done before so it's not that novel and exciting. another could be to ride RAGBRAI again with my dad. the scheduling may be a problem, but i think i should look into it.

one time i made the new year's resolution to eat as many new kinds of cheeses as i could. i guess it wasn't totally successful because there is still a lot of untried cheese out there, but it was a tasty adventure. so maybe it was a success after all.