One day mute

Today was my one day mute. This was a lot harder than I thought it would be, of course. That's the point. For one, I talked a few times... I said sorry to Mr. Gamble when I landed on him instead of over him, I said this isn't a cat stance? I also kinda yelled in traffic and I said I'll... to my daughter. I said ouch too.
I did the warm up for the kids class tonight, Sifu Wilson told everyone I was mute for the day and away we went. It worked out pretty well. At least they were all paying attention anyway, they kinda had to.
There were some funny moments, I'm trying to pantomime something and Adrien says what, Timmy's in the well? Ha ha. I smacked him for that one.
So I went out and did errands today and at the beginning it wasn't too bad. A few people thought I was sick and were really helpful. At one place a salesperson came over and asked me a question that I could answer with a nod and then I did the sign language thank you to him. He actually backed away a few steps and said "okay then" I felt a little like I was contagious or something. I don't think he was being rude, I think he just didn't know what to do with me. At the grocery store it was really busy and it was hard to negotiate my way through crowded aisles without being able to say excuse me or sorry when I was in the way. A lot of people won't make eye contact so the smile and wave I was relying on to ease things along didn't work very well. The clerk seemed annoyed that I was not communicating in a way that pleased her, again she wouldn't really make eye contact so I couldn't do my whole I can't talk thing.
I felt isolated for a lot of the day. Speech is a powerful tool and without it I felt a little helpless. I felt like some people assumed that I had less than normal intelligence. By the time I got to write something down on my little pad of paper it wasn't relevant anymore.
All in all a really eye opening experience. I just put my kids to bed and I think all our good nights were a little more meaningful because I had to show them that I loved them instead of saying it. The hugs were a little tighter and I felt a little teary putting all that love into a hug. There are advantages to communicating without words.