"Have you called Jenny yet?"

My cold has given me a deep, raspy voice - kind of like Kirstie Alley's. I think I like my new raspy voice. It's hot, if I may say so myself.

Last night I was using my voice a lot in the EMT class, asking really great questions. I'm sure by now everyone there thinks I'm a cool person, based on my voice if nothing else. It is important to be cool in this class because most students are pretty tough. The majority are men (about 95% out of 45 students) and a lot of them have backgrounds in law enforcement, the fire department or the armed forces. They have really short haircuts and when they address the teachers they say "Sir".

The instructors are pretty bad-ass also. The main instructor, the lecture-man (Instructor P.) is a retired cop who worked as a medic during the Vietnam war. He has a deep raspy voice as well. His assistant (instructor Rodriguez) is a serious looking paramedic who is always in uniform. We're not allowed to piss him off, he says, because he doesn't like to be grumpy. For the most part, we avoid instructor Rodriguez.

Sometimes instructor Rodriguez saunters into the classroom as instructor P is lecturing and he walks over to P and whispers something. We all strain to hear what's being said but we can never really make it out. Instructor P usually nods and stays silent for a few seconds, and then continues lecturing without missing a beat. Instructor Rodriguez walks over to the other side of the room, crosses his arms over his chest, and leans against the wall. Occasionally, Rodriguez doesn’t even say anything, he just makes subtle gestures that encourages instructor P to nod thoughtfully.

I hope I’m still cool when my deep raspy voice is gone and I’m back to my old squeaky self.