The Sick Bowles

THIS is why I am not too heartbroken about missing Girl Scout Day at the Lincoln Home on Wednesday--thousands of Girl Scouts roaming the streets. It sounds like it was a pretty crazy day. I returned to work yesterday--not because I felt like it--but because I knew that there was much to be done. My voice still wasn't good enough to give tours, so I worked on entering the registration information for the upcoming interpretation workshop on June 2. Some Lincoln scholars will be coming to Springfield for a seminar that will include people from museums and historic sites all over the state. It might be the cold medicine I'm taking, but I keep having these strange dreams at night about Lincoln impersonators gone bad.

My voice is coming back a bit, but the sickness has turned into a terrible cold. I feel awful, but the worst part is that now Greg is getting sick too :-( We are quite a pair. We were really looking forward to going to Charleston this weekend for my EIU graduation, but there's just no way we could make it. I was going to go down there today to pick up my cap and gown, then I was going to get to stay with the cute Stowell family! Then Greg was going to drive down tomorrow (he has some funeral home responsibilities this weekend), but we decided that it would be better not to share our germs with everyone. And, I know I need to rest up for the coming week--because come Sunday, it's back to giving tours again. I'm sad that we won't get to see the Stowells, but now we have an excuse to go down to Charleston another time.

Congratulations to Sarah and Joel on finishing their busy semester! I'm so glad that we got to go see them earlier this year. And we are really looking forward to Mom's visit at the end of this month for the Mormon History Association conference!!! That will be so much fun.

Benched

A park ranger without a voice is kind of like a baseball catcher with no arms and no legs--it doesn't work. So, much like my favorite MLB catcher Yadier Molina would be if he came to work with no arms and no legs, I am currently benched. Yesterday I went to work, but I had zero speaking capabilities, so they had me work on some of the Public Program Coordinator duties like e-mailing Teddy Roosevelt. I finished all of my pressing duties, so I left work a little early to go home and try to get my voice back. I have literally tried everything: cough drops, humidifiers, Vicks, Listerine, steam, lemon tea and honey, and of course rest; but nothing seems to be working. This morning when I woke up, I still had no voice, and now I had a terrible sore throat and stuffy head. I realized that I would be of no use at work, so I called in sick and Greg took me to the doctor. The doctor says that I might have strep throat, but it's probably just a cold and strained vocal cords or maybe laryngitis. She gave me some antibiotics and sent us on our way. She also said that I must stay home from work tomorrow and rest my voice some more. You know what that means: I won't be there for Girl Scout Day when 2,400 Girl Scouts descend on the park. I am terribly disappointed about this (just kidding, I'm being sarcastic). I feel bad because I know that they need my help tomorrow, but if I can't yell at the Girl Scouts, there would be no point in having me there anyway. So I'll be benched for one more day, but hopefully I can go back to work on Thursday. Greg has been taking good care of me, and the animal children have been extra cuddly, so I'm sure I'll be back on my feet very soon.

The Hoarse Flu

Instead of the Swine Flu, I think I have the HOARSE flu! :-) I lost my voice at work today :-( Unfortunately being a ranger does not work when you don't have a voice. I started out giving tours this morning, but by the afternoon I didn't sound very good. My voice isn't terribly loud normally, but it's even worse when I don't have a voice at all. I've been drinking soothing things this evening, but still no voice. Hopefully a good night's sleep will do the trick.

Speaking of the Swine Flu (or H1N1), hopefully none of the rangers get it after our school bus from Chicago this morning. Chicago is the only part of the state that has confirmed cases of H1N1, and when a load of 8th graders from Chicago arrived today (it's unusual to have bus groups on Sundays), the first thing they said was, "Some of us are really sick and have been throwing up all night." Oh great, thanks. Maybe we should have some of those cool blue face masks.

Anyway, yesterday was a very fun day at the Lincoln Home. It was my day off, but I needed to go to work for living history volunteer training. There was a lot of excitement going on at the park with the 114th Illinois Volunteer Regiment reenactors doing an encampment next to the Lincoln Home. It was really cool! They fired muskets and walked around the park chatting with visitors. And my favorite ranger, Kaiser, was there too! Isn't he cute with his little ranger badge? He is so sweet (unless you're a bad guy). Then when I got home yesterday, all of the animal children were more than happy to sit on my lap. They actually don't really care about being with me--they just like the heater that I usually have pointed at my legs. And they like my fleece blanket. But isn't that a funny picture of all the children? Well, I'm off to bed and will hopefully wake up with a voice.