It happens every year

So I’ve got the head cold from hell going on. My sinuses cleared up yesterday (mostly) and my throat only hurts a little. In fact, I’m only a little lethargic now. so what’s the down side? No voice. Just this tiny, scratchy, cracking, joke of a sound. Any idea how hard it is to make a telemarketer go away when you’re yelling and he still can’t hear you?

Even worse, I still had to take sales calls at work today. If I yelled and *really* enunciated, the customers could hear me. This is probably why I went from just sounding silly this morning to not being able to produce anything above a whisper now. Really hoping that a good night’s sleep fixes some of this. We’re short staffed and heading into the busy season. Even knowing that I have half a voice, they can’t avoid giving me the calls. There’s just too many of them coming in.

So, seeing as I can’t speak but can move, I figured I should do some cooking. Note to self – cooking when one can’t smell and can barely taste anything is a hit or miss game.

Not dead yet

But updates might get a little sparse for the next week or two while I adjust to the new job. For those of you who are local, I will be at the faire booth this weekend. (And may, in fact, be *running* the booth for a day or so… but that’s another story)

My new T-shirt will read…

I don’t mind that one of my duties at work is to answer the phone. It’s not exactly tough, brain intensive, or physically demanding. However – I suck at voices. As in, matching a phone voice to a name for someone I have never actually met is not a workable deal for me. So everyone gets a polite “may I ask who’s calling?” before I pass the call on. For most callers, this is not a problem.

But then there are the jokers. The ones who want to play a game of twenty questions. Because it is fairly unfathomable to them that I don’t know who I’m speaking with. Guys, I’ve had to bluff my way though phone conversations with friends I’ve known for ten years when the connection is spotty or the voice just isn’t popping out in my memory. Do you seriously think that your generically male middle aged voice is going to act as a serious identifier when I’ve been at this place for only two weeks? Sheesh.

But on the up side, they are charming (if grump inducing) and I think they all really do mean well. But I’m still tempted to ask them why they feel I’m getting paid to play guessing games. Maybe it’s some off kind of hazing. Or… maybe I’ll start memorizing the voices. Odder things have happened.