Well, this has been an odd day.

My throat has been irritated and hurting for the past couple days, and this morning, I woke up and really couldn’t manage speaking. Laryngitis, potentially of viral, not bacterial, origin. (No fever, no general cold symptoms.) It probably didn’t help that we had a rowdy, goofy, raised-voices kind of weekend with the boys, either.

So driving the boys to camp: I can’t talk and everyone in the car is silent. I make some hand signals to Keith and he tries to make hand signals back. No no no - I can’t talk, but you can, goofball!

Most of the day was pretty quiet, lots of emails, Keith made some calls in my stead, and pantomimes to get the boys to tell me about camp (it’s pottery on the wheel camp this week - I’m envious) mostly work. Later in the afternoon, I had to try to keep them quiet so Keith could meet with a client and that mostly resulted in giggles. I was trying to ask Jack what he would like from Grandma for his impending birthday. Trying to get ‘birthday’ across to him was very funny, ended up with a Mickey Mouse doll under my shirt and popping out; like I said, much giggling.

Trying to communicate with Keith was little better and I had to resort to writing with him. I had to run and get the boys while supper was finishing up - the main course was under control and I asked him to put some peas in. Now, in my head, ‘peas in’ translates to ‘put some peas in a dish and into the microwave.’  In his head, ‘peas in’ translated to ‘put some peas into the spaghetti sauce.’ It was far too late to undo when I saw it. He sold it to the boys as ‘man food,’ assured them they would thank him some day and that was that.

I also managed to see the ex today, briefly, and he noted that this happens to me every few years, really with no notice or evident cause. I just lose my voice. It’s very strange, actually.

Now, with a couple glasses of wine down the throat, the pain is gone, but I’m afraid the pantomimes are not getting any more clear. Likely less so.