I don't always understand it, but I lose my voice a lot.
Sometimes, it seems almost out of the blue and sometimes it's totally explainable. When I was a camp counselor I spent most of my summer whispering to those around me because I would lose my voice so quickly. Every word out of my mouth was dripping with hope that my campers would listen and understand me. If it healed, it was still mildly raspy for the remainder of the summer. Even now during summer camp (in my more supervising/overseeing role), I still tend to get a little hoarse if I yell too much. And by yell, I mean if talk excitedly to one or more people in a day for longer than 10 minutes, my voice weakens.
Other times, I wake up without a voice and there seems to be little to no explanation. Sometimes I think it's because I am allergic to a lot of things and those allergens can irritate my larynx.
This weekend I thought maybe I was having some allergy issues-- then, I remembered that I was buried under snow and there isn't a lot about snow to spur on allergies. So, maybe I had a small cold. I mean, small. I blew my nose (but I do that a lot, every day, anyway) and sneezed a couple of times. But I felt pretty great.
Then- I woke up this morning. with. no. voice. When I first tried to talk to Ben this morning and no sound came out, I figured I was just getting over morning grogginess... but it didn't come back. In fact, when a friend called and I answered the phone I actually got a little light-headed from putting forth so much effort in order to be heard on the other line.
Laryngitis. More like, laryn-this is really inconveniencing me-gitis.
Again, I feel great! I wasn't doing any major cheerleading yesterday, so I guess it comes down to my mild cold. But my throat doesn't even hurt- I just hurt others' ears, as it is, I open my mouth and a squeaky yet deep and raspy excuse for a voice comes pouring out.
I drank tea, rested my voice, tried using my voice to- I don't know, stretch out the vocal chords... and it has gotten a little better. I am hoping that I wake up tomorrow totally revived (er, at least back to my normal day to day raspy voice).
I read once that there might be a problem with the way you talk if you keep getting laryngitis. Soooo, speech training maybe? Apparently, you can have speech habits that cause laryngitis. What are mine? Well, the obvious I guess is that I talk too loud and too long. But, that can't possibly be it...
For now, maybe I'll check Craig's List for a humidifier. That sounds lovely.
Today is my aunt's Birthday! Isn't she just the most?
I think so. She is one of the strongest, most beautiful, hard-working, outgoing, talented women I know with a contagious personality. Carolyn is someone who chooses joy. My aunt laughs a lot, loves a lot and gives of herself a lot. Her beautiful self is being celebrated at her new home in dixie with 60 degree weather. Today, in honor of her b-day, we are enjoying a 'nor-easter.
Though Carolyn isn't here to play in the snow-- her birthday twin and grandson (my cousin), Edward, is celebrating his birthday in the the snow!
Happy birthday to Carolyn and Edward-- I love you both, a lot.
I clean and work in the camp kitchen wearing Crocs. It's true, there is nothing like a rubber shoe, in my opinion, to clean in. When mysterious liquids leak out of trash bags onto my feet, no problem- I've got anti-microbial rubber that it bounces right off of. They never smell and I don't have to tie them (I hate shoes that tie, so restricting...) but, you have to know while I love wearing them to clean/work in the kitchen, I do realize that they look like muppet feet. I mean, they are wide rubber shoes that usually come in bright colors.
Anyway, you may recall when I tried to wash my Crocs in the dishwasher. They shrunk nearly two sizes. It was kind of a sad day. I remember thinking, these are the perfect cleaning shoe! Yet, I feel silly buying another pair!
Kaley came to my rescue and bought me a new pair of lilac Crocs (which now have a sheen of black and silver spray paint on them), I was so thankful for my new pair and I wear them all the time (to work, of course). My new muppet feet came complete with a daisy Jibbit. You know, those little things that you can stick in the holes of Crocs. Football team logos, letter, fairies, flowers, Disney characters, you name it and you can stick it in your Croc.
Now my friends I have a new, possibly marketable, Croc accessory. Since I clean in them all the time, my friend Beth felt that I needed some inspiration on my shoes. After a busy day yesterday, I was procrastinating cleaning one of our dorms and Beth helped me along. With inspirational and motivational labels on my Crocs, I felt I could conquer any building. Who needs Jibbitz, when my Crocs help me to "believe and achieve"...
I love handmade gifts. I, however, do not know how to hand-make many things. There is such an extra amount of beauty in something, I think, when you can look at the finished product and almost imagine its maker putting all that work and care into making it. I have always loved visiting art museums for this reason. I can't get enough of them. For some it is painstaking, just staring at... things. I can't get close enough to the art, looking at every dried brushstroke of oil-paint or seeing fingerprints forever plastered in a clay sculpture. It's wonderful, to me. And music, I love to be at a concert and watch as an artist, right then and there, creates their art. I worked at a coffee shop for a while and remember my friend saying that making an espresso drink felt like creating. She would make each drink for that particular person, creating a cup of drinkable art.
I, on the other hand, don't know too much about making things. I have tried to learn a few trades. My aunt, bless her, tried to teach me to crochet recently. She laughed, out of love, at my finished product. Mostly, I have created things only with close guidance from others. One of my favorite memories is of canning this past fall. Now, when I eat the applesauce or salsa that we made as a group, it tastes a little more delicious than any applesauce or salsa I've ever had. Because from picking the apples off of the tree or peppers out of the garden- to storing them into mason jars, it was handmade (and I had a small part in it). I love that.
Lately, I have received a lot of really wonderful handmade gifts. From people, who must full well know, that they aren't going to receive something as wonderfully handmade from me (someone who is much less crafty). And I am humbled by their kindness (and talent!).
My aunt made me scarves, friends made me pottery and ornaments and a quote (which I love as a reminder to, just "simplify") and headbands... and a man I hardly know, who shares only a love of camp and Jesus with me, took the time to carve my name out of wood. I love these handmade things...
Two weeks ago my trusty side-kick Chaych and I took on a pretty exciting project over at camp. The "lobby bathrooms", for kind of a long time, have been these tiny rooms of wallpaper disaster. The wallpaper was done, certainly, with the best of intentions. But it was time for it to go. Quite frankly because it was urine soaked and peeling away from the walls. And the artwork on the walls was suffering a little too.
For this project I was basically told "go forth, and do whatever the heck you want". It was like music to my ears. Really. I got to take down the yucky wallpaper, pick out paint colors (!) and then paint-- and not even in my own house. I know it sounds crazy, but there is something so therapeutic about painting to me. Chaych and I, however, had no idea how long it would take- just stripping the wallpaper, alone. Thankfully my aunt came to visit. My sweet, retired, enjoying her vacation, aunt- and she was more than helpful in the process. Our friend Steph also willingly stripped wallpaper with us.
Here is where it all began. This is the women's bathroom.
I didn't get a chance to take a picture of the men's bathroom because we were more than anxious, especially, to get that stuff off of the walls. And luckily, the men's bathroom wallpaper came off in large portions of happiness. This is the men's bathroom, wallpaper free!
We had just been using warm water up until this point. We just saturated the walls and peeled the vinyl paper down with ease. Then, we had to scrape up the leftover glue/paste underneath the vinyl. For whatever reason, taking down the women's room wallpaper was another story. We wet the walls and ripped tiny piece by tiny piece.
We got desperate and sought out chemicals for help. We used "Dif" spray which, on the back of the bottle had a warning. The warning read: "This product contains a chemical known to the state of California to cause cancer". Apparently this warning turns up on lots of things and we really had nothing to worry about. I say, no thank you.
With a little more patience and perseverance we got the wallpaper down. Our first corner of victory!
I don't ever need to do that again... if I should be so lucky.
Then, the fun began! We started painting the walls and preparing our decorations.
I had looked at lots of antique shops and consignment stores for simple bathroom decorations- but the budget quickly dwindled. So, we found things and made things...
Finally, (and almost to the point where we would do anything to get out of those little life-sucking holes, also known as bathrooms) we finished!
The men's (a gray for underneath the chair-rail called "anonymous" and a questionable blue or green called "watermark" for the wall color)...
The women's (my aunt made that fancy curtain)...
It was a fun project and I am thankful that we were able to redo those bathrooms. Again, it was definitely time, and a bit of an improvement, I think! Not to mention, it is my greatest hope that urine (sorry, but it's true) will not saturate the semi-gloss walls like it did the wallpaper. Here's to hoping!
...the girls were sewing and reading cookbooks.
We didn't even realize it at first... Traditional gender stereotypes, much?
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