Coughing during a theater show (self obs)

[army-girl]

Alright, this cold ... it came with the works. I've already done a post and a half about nose blowing ... so why not address the cough? it's fairly fresh and I have a feeling it's gonna stick for a while *cough cough* so you might as well get your kick out of it.

My husband and I went to see a theater show earlier tonight, we have a subscription, so every once in a while we go see a play. This time we went to see a revival of "Hair", which I'm sure you're interested in knowing - holds up very well when translated to Hebrew (though I knew that before we went). Anyway, we booked the tickets 2 weeks ago, if not earlier than that, at a more peaceful time, a time I wasn't plagued with the devil's cold. Seriously you guys, in terms of symptoms this goes above and beyond - mouth sore, headache, chills, nausea, general faintness/fatigue, congestion, stuffiness, coughing ... everything but sneezing, which is technically not accurate, because my husband was sneezing up a storm and I sneezed ... twice *pout* also he didn't really cough ... and even when he was sneezing I was more busy panicking about how he's spreading germs than I was enjoying it ... frustrating! but I digress.

So last night, give or take, I started coughing ... nothing too violent, but it kept me from falling asleep for quite a while. Today at work I was still a coughing, nothing too major, and I made sure to be a decent human being and only cough into the crook of my elbow (my coat needs to be sterilized by now XD ). When did it start being bothersome you ask? why of course, while we were watching the musical ... ugh, I swear, if I were sitting next to me, I'd stab myself. Now I really did my bestest to keep things on the down-low, I didn't cough very loudly, but I coughed more frequently than I would have liked (which is none, I didn't want to cough at all, it was a total failure on that front lol). So throughout the play I was considering when's the best time to cough ... is it while there's a pause when it's quiet? because that way no one is gonna miss anything said on account of coughing, but at the same time, it's when it's most noticeable ... is it during a loud song number? which is when it's least noticeable, but since I would be coughing louder probably more disruptive to my immediate surrounding ... honestly, I did all of it. And it all felt uncomfortable and embarrassing.

Interesting things to note along the way - when I coughed, it's kinda like the yawning-contagion effect, often times 2-3 more people would follow it up with coughing. More interesting things to note, at some point it became tiring and uncomfortable to pull my arm up all the way to the elbow (when sitting down the sleeve doesn't move as easily), so numerous times I coughed into my scarf (whenever I see other people that I kind of cringe because I know they are not gonna be washing it anytime soon ... but I'm gonna wash mine, I've already made up my mind). *cough cough*.

Err lets see what else ... my cough right now isn't very throaty, it's kinda chesty and shallow, it doesn't sound wet or phlegm-y or anything. Oh, and the most annoying thing about it, is that no matter how many times I coughed, I just couldn't get the tingle out of my throat ... I'd finally decide I can't take it anymore and cough and there was hardly any relief *clears throat and cough* literally no relief whatsoever, it just kept tickling. Is tickling the right word? it didn't quite feel like a tickle, maybe more like scratching, I don't know ... I can't put my finger on it. But when you don't cough immediately when you have to cough, it gets worse, it kinda feels like the inner part of my ears itches too because of it, AH! there, itches is better than scratches and tickles for this, it's an unscratched itch. *Cough cough*.

So to recap, the play was really nice, the terrible relentless cough-itch was hella distracting to me, and I'm sure to everyone around me (I'm honestly surprised I didn't get any death stares and that no one shushed in my general direction). And as of writing this post, which is littered with coughing and throat clearing, as you can imagine, things haven't really improved, though at least *cough cough* I don't have to worry about annoying anyone (in the hopes that my husband will already be asleep before I finish writing this post ).

I'm gonna write another quick post (quick? who am I kidding) about a funny nose blowing situation from earlier today too, and then I'm off to bed, Goodnight

[SmokeyGhost]

Thanks for sharing this, I enjoyed it immensely! Love the typed coughing while telling the story, nice touch

[Sarah_Snow]

lol! I do that too at movies where I get that little tickle in my chest and try to keep it to a quiet little *mmmh mmmh mmmh* until there's a loud part and I can try to clear it a little better.