{"id":3868,"date":"2015-08-05T11:46:40","date_gmt":"2015-08-05T18:46:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=3868"},"modified":"2015-08-05T11:46:40","modified_gmt":"2015-08-05T18:46:40","slug":"chinese-whispers-glacier-bay-alaska-08042015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=3868","title":{"rendered":"Chinese Whispers \u2013 Glacier Bay, Alaska \u2013 [08\/04\/2015]"},"content":{"rendered":"

If there\u2019s one thing I wish \"doll\"<\/a>I wasn\u2019t prone to, it\u2019s laryngitis. My voice can sing until the end of time, but if I\u2019m on a contract where I talk too much and there is even the slightest little hint of a cold going around it\u2019s going to grab me by the vocal chords and pull\u2026and it comes on sudden, I had a voice last night, I don\u2019t have much of one this morning.<\/p>\n

Sadly, I\u2019ve become rather used to this; at the advice of the HRM, I took myself down to medical who put me on vocal rest until my voice recovered; I printed up the sign for my desk advising guests to please not be offended by my attempts at silence\u2026(which is oft times useless, as people read it then ignore it\u2026)<\/p>\n

The thing is, when you never get sick \u2013 or at least when you never admit it \u2013 no one quite knows how to react when you do<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Amras has been brilliant about it, making me laugh (silently) and chiding me when I get carried away and try to speak (which results in a sound that is something like what I imagine a frog would make if it tried to form words), he\u2019s worked with me before when I\u2019ve been speechless and he knows how hard I take it \u2013 so he\u2019s very careful not to laugh at me. Instead we have bizarre conversations that are half in made-up sign language and half in a hoarse whisper that can only be heard when there\u2019s no one else talking in the area. He even took over ordering for me at dinner, and answering questions for guests who stopped me in the hallway<\/p>\n

She can\u2019t speak right now, can I help you?<\/em><\/p>\n

I did have one guest try to speak to me in sign language which I wish I understood but do not. I don\u2019t quite understand why people feel that people who have laryngitis can\u2019t hear<\/em>\u2026I can hear you just fine, I just can\u2019t respond properly at the moment.<\/p>\n

The thing is, I don\u2019t get sick \u2013 or at least not out here. I get sick at home, on vacation, when I can afford it. Out here? It\u2019s not an option. If medical ever offers me light duty I turn them down, because I\u2019m here to do a job, I don\u2019t report in if I know what\u2019s wrong and yes I self-medicate; I work hard never to let the clockwork break down.<\/p>\n

What people don\u2019t understand is that when I lose my voice I feel like a broken doll. I feel trapped in my own brain, not just because I can\u2019t talk \u2013 I mean I\u2019m perfectly happy not talking; but I can\u2019t sing, can\u2019t hum, can\u2019t make a sound\u2026<\/p>\n

You\u2019re gonna die screaming but you won\u2019t be heard\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

My current Cruise Director gets it, since she\u2019s a singer herself, and has been plying me with throat coat tea and lozenges, which is much appreciated. She advised that I use the time I\u2019m forced to be silent to read, or to meditate, or to even just listen to music without singing along. It\u2019s nice when someone in your management team genuinely has your back like that. Doesn\u2019t really happen all that often.<\/p>\n

In my previous experience this usually lasts between 3 days to (in its worst case, like on the flagship a few seasons ago) a week\u2026I\u2019m hoping that this will be on the shorter end of the scale.<\/p>\n

After all, places to do things to see\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If there\u2019s one thing I wish I wasn\u2019t prone to, it\u2019s laryngitis. My voice can sing until the end of time, but if I\u2019m on a contract where I talk too much and there is even the slightest little hint … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,80,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-below-the-waterline","category-northern-exposure-2015","category-reflections-below-the-waterline"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3GtNE-10o","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3868"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3870,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3868\/revisions\/3870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}