no voice. no tours.

After my stepsister’s wedding 2 weeks ago, my voice was fading fast.  I figure it was a combination of a lot of talking during all of the wedding festivities & competing with the loud band during the wedding reception (the speakers were conveniently positioned just above my end of the family dining table).  Along with my voice loss came one of those razor blade sort of sore throats.  I immediately began the usual home remedies, gargling with warm salt water (trying not to gag with every gargle), plenty of hot tea with honey, OJ, Airborne, the works!  I managed to regain my voice after taking advantage of a tour-free day mid-week.  However, I jumped back into the game the next day & the sore throat came right back, along with a progressively raspier voice.  After 2 weeks of this ongoing misery, I finally got an appointment at the doctor’s office, the diagnosis: LARYNGITIS.  The treatment: an immediate steroid injection to combat some of the inflammation in my throat & instructions from the doctor to “rest my voice” for at least the next 10 days.

Needless to say, losing one’s voice is certainly an inconvenience to anyone.  However, it quickly dawned on me that not having a voice was going to make it very difficult to guide a tour.  I had to line up subs for the rest of my tours this week & lock myself up in my house, so that I could avoid speaking all together.  As my sister put it in a text to me earlier today after finding out that I have laryngitis, “that’s no good for business”.  Of course, you never realize how valuable some things are until you have to go without them.  Anyone that knows me, knows that I’m a talker, to put it kindly, so it’s hard enough to keep my mouth shut as it is.  But, being a tour guide requires you to be a talker.  Yes, I use visuals & I also talk with my hands, but the words are the most important tool when guiding a tour. 

As I hunker down at home, relying on texts & email to maintain some connection with the outside world, I’ve been thinking about what measures I can take next time in order to avoid loosing my voice again any time soon.  I always make sure to drink plenty of water during my tours & I also carry ricola (my personal cough drop of choice).  Clearly, that’s not enough.  Again, those that know me, would say that I have no problem projecting.  Not only am I a talker, but a loud (& many times, fast) talker.  However, perhaps I need to learn some better techniques on how to project without straining my vocal chords.  Any suggestions you might have are welcomed.   

In other news, the last tour that I guided before my voice completely gave out on me was a drinks tour this past Monday for a group of girls (a friend & 5 of her girlfriends visiting from out of town).  The tour was a great success.  I’ll give a detailed report, with bar & cocktail highlights in my next blog post. 

For now, a bit of prep work for my first solo New Orleans Culinary History Tasting Tour coming up next Saturday & perhaps a movie on Netflix instant view.  Just a QUIET weekend at home.