Speak Now or....

Sometime this weekend, I lost my voice. And it didn't go suddenly or with any dignity.

It began with a terribly minor experience with food poisoning (tip: feta cheese does not travel well), and before I knew it I had all the vocal quirks of a 14-year-old boy. My voice is naturally a little scratchy anyway, but as the weekend passed, words that normally would receive a slight inflection or emotion suddenly began to squeak sharply out of my mouth . By Sunday night, it was uncomfortable to say anything above a whisper. I thought an evening of hot tea and silence would get me up to a reasonable vocal level by the time I reached work on Monday, but I was very wrong.

In fact, it got worse. This put me in kind of a weird place when I'm trying to explain something to my boss or ask her a question. In the end, I've had to skip the chats with anyone around the office and rely completely on email. Though this has been kinda rough on someone like me who really does like to talk, it has made me think of how much I really count on speaking and how nice it is to not be forced to act like a mime in order to get your point across.

Though I must admit that at this point, I'd probably kick your ass at charades.

Baseball

Since yesterday was the official opening day for the Phils, I thought I'd revive a quote from Dr. Matthew Roth: poet, professor, and avid baseball fan.

"I found that if I changed my seat every other inning and held a dishcloth in a certain way, it was very lucky for the Red Sox."

:-)

Thots from Mr. Steinbeck

"After the bare requisites to living and reproducing, man wants most to leave some record of himself, a proof, perhaps, that he has really existed. He leaves his proof on wood, on stone, or on the lives of other people. This deep desire exists in everyone, from the boy who writes dirty words in a public toilet to the Buddha who etches his image the race mind. Life is so unreal. I think that we seriously doubt that we exist and go about trying to prove that that we do."
~J. Steinbeck
The Pastures of Heaven