Croaked the raven: Nevermore

In spite of the fact that I sound terrible, I feel a lot better. I spent the morning putting on laundry while my cleaning lady cleaned, and buying groceries to stock our depleted larder.

I shocked both my students this afternoon with the gravelly sound of my voice, my speaking voice that is. I tried warming up before their lessons and found that I can actually sing, and everything from the middle of the staff up actually sounds all right, although not great. Below that it�s breathy and crackly in places. However, I chose not to stand with the choir during rehearsal, but sat in the audience, as I don�t want to risk spewing my germs around more than necessary. It meant I didn�t get to do La WaIIy, but that�s okay. I mean, I could have, but it would have sounded like shit, so why bother? It�ll be great when I do it on Sunday.

It was a challenge in writing group though, as I had to read back what I had written. That wasn�t fun.

Anyway, the worst, I�m sure, is over. My annoying student has her last lesson of the term tomorrow, for which I am incredibly grateful (she said to me today that she�d be glad to reschedule if I was too sick to teach, and I reassured her that I was fine). I have never looked forward to not teaching someone as I look forward to not teaching her. What if she wants to continue taking voice as a second instrument next year? What do I do then?

Somehow my son got black Sharpie on the beautiful pristine iMac G5. You know one thing about Sharpies, eh? They�re permanent markers. Bleach seams to have had some effect. I shan�t give up. Now my fingers smell like chlorine. Sigh.

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