Monday, November 21, 2005

If my head wasn't attached I'd lose it...

I've been a little scattered the past several days. The ongoing stress of life, combined with several major school deadlines, caring for friends, and combating the cold that has now silenced my voice has made my mind take leave. For example, I know for a fact that I purchased a drink with my dinner the other night at work, but the lady never gave it to me, and by the time I remembered, I no longer had a receipt or time to go back and get it. Then yesterday after work I purchased cough drops. I walked all the way to the other end of the mall before realizing that I'd forgotten to grab the bag on my way out of the store. Whoops... Like I said, if my head wasn't attached these days... I finished my term paper at 3:30 this afternoon and drove up to the university to drop it off. I unwittingly pulled into a "service vehicles only" parking spot, which a gentleman was nice enough to point out to me. Unfortunately, when I tried to start my vehicle so I could move, it wouldn't start. The same gentleman was nice enough to try boosting it, and a number of other things, and eventually got it to start. Now I'm in a quandry. I still need to hand my paper in. I'm still parked illegally, and I can't turn my vehicle off. Gross. So, I chose to trust a nice lady, who, when I asked if she would mind watching my vehicle, offered to take my paper in with her. I hope it made it. Picture the scene though, in your head for a minute... I have no voice, I'm tired from spending all day writing this paper, and I'm trying to communicate with the man fixing my car and the lady offering to turn in my paper for me... Gong show would be a good description. Then picture me trying to explain the situation to my parents when I got home..."my car broke down, somebody fixed it, someone else handed in my paper..." they were a little baffled, and my pragmatic mother simply commented, "I'm glad God was looking after you again." What is it about my life that magnetically attracts calamity? If anyone knows, I'd love to hear...

I'm sitting here printing pages and pages of powerpoint slides to review for a midterm tomorrow. Lets just say tomorrow may not be a very good day class attendance as I haven't prepared yet for this exam, and I've missed several of the lectures. Great. Just what I need - to miss more class! Oh well, maybe on Thursday I'll make it to all of them! I'm still trying to figure out how school is going to work with having no voice tomorrow anyway...let's just say that my participation grades won't be getting any help tomorrow!

And with that, my printing is done, and so is this latest installment in what has been a rather bizarre life of late! I'm off to do a bit of studying, a bit of reading, a bit of relaxing, and then some sleeping. An evening off - YES! A rare treat worth savouring - even at the expense of my midterm grade in developmental psychology tomorrow.

lost voice

I've lost my voice. In more ways than one it seems. It seemed to slowly be dieing on Saturday night - the results of the third cold I've had in five weeks. I figured it was just because I was talking a lot while I hung out with friends that night. But, I woke up yesterday morning, and all I could muster was a low rumble paired with the occasional whisper. I went to work anyway, came home, went to church, hung out some more. It got progressively worse through the day - only a sort of higher-pitched squeak by the end of the night.

I woke up this morning, and there is no pitch at all. I can whisper, and if I really muster all my strength, can make a slightly more audible cracking, squeaky sound.

The funny thing is, I usually don't really worry about not being able to be heard. A lot of the time I'm content to listen, to just hear what others have to say, and make the occasional comment. But, now that I can't be heard, I resent it. What if I suddenly had something to say? I had to have a friend order my drink and food last night - the waiter wouldn't have heard me over the crowd of 15 or so of us hanging out at the pub. My friend called this morning for our daily conversation, and she couldn't really hear or understand what I was saying.

And I've been trying to get this term paper done. I seem to have lost my mental voice as well. It's not going well. I'm at something like 700 words. It feels unfocused, and I need to hand it in sometime today. Nasty. So, I'm here, blogging instead. I've worked on the paper off and on for the the last three hours, and made little headway. I'm going back to this method where I set the timer on my watch for 20 minutes, and I have to work for those whole 20 minutes, and then I can take a break. Only something like 1200 words to go! Alright - back at it!