mum's the word

For pretty much the first time in my entire life, I have completely lost my voice. Oh, I've had assorted frogs in the throat and sometimes had a little bit of a husky, cigarette-fueled scratchy voice-thing going (despite that I've never smoked). But never really had my voice disappear entirely, retreating somewhere into the upper reaches of my vocal box, berating me with an occasional squeaky emergence. I think it has something to do with babysitting for nearly 12 hours today, which was fun, except yeah... a 3-year old who just didn't want to listen to anything I said today? Imagine all the sentences beginning with "No!..." that came out of my mouth today between the hours of 6:45 a.m. and 6:30 p.m.

And just a few minutes ago, Dobey started barking his head off randomly, for no apparent reason, other than he likes to annoy the crap out of everyone in the house. (Not even kidding, this happens several times a week - the unceasing, completely unprovoked and unwarranted barking!! Why, Dobey? Why do you hate us so?!?) He had food, went out 10 minutes previous to the onset of the barking, is warm and safe, got a good tummy rub earlier this evening. What more could a dog want? No, he had to start barking and would not stop, so I let him outside again, where he was fine for about 2 minutes, until he started barking AGAIN. Which, you know, normally wouldn't be a problem, him barking OUTSIDE as opposed to ten feet away INSIDE, except it's nighttime and the neighbors probably want to shoot him as much as we do when he does that outside at 10 at night. So I went to the door, and he seemed like he wanted to come in, and I opened the door and he ran away and kept barking! Then I told him that that kind of assholery is not okay in the backyard, and that, my friends, really used up the last of my voice.

Which wouldn't be a problem, either, except I have to be back up at the crack of dawn again tomorrow, for another 12-hour babysitting stint! No voice and an obstinate 3-year old? Sounds like a party! I can't wait 'til tomorrow is over.

P.S. Thank God I have a job interview (yes, a real honest-to-God job interview) on Friday!