My Two Percent

I wanted to title this “I hate my teeth”, but my sweet mother always taught me that hate is a strong word.  And I also am a firm believer in karma, and part of me really appreciates my teeth and doesn’t want them to return the favor of blogging about my hatred of them by falling out before I turn 40.  Anyway, I had a root canal today and I am grouchy and laying on the couch in pain feeling sorry for myself.  And I’m on painkillers which make my stomach hurt, which causes me to drink a lot of chocolate milk so I can even tolerate it at all.  (Yummy chocolate milk! - silver lining time).  I have a very strong reaction to the epinephrine in Novocaine and lately have been asking for alternatives when I go to the dentist.  The actual process of getting the shot is much more manageable but the downside is that the numbness wears off a lot quicker.  Not sure which is worse.  So, here I am.  My 3rd root canal, countless crowns, thousands of fillings (yes I exaggerate), and thousands of dollars.  Dental insurance sucks really really bad.  And the kicker is I take EXCELLENT good care of my teeth.  I brush 2-3 times a day, floss every day like my life depends on it and use fluoride rinse.  And I know it doesn’t matter but I whiten my teeth and get a lot of compliments on them.  I also (thankfully) had braces when I was young so my teeth LOOK good, but if only people knew the truth.  I don’t really understand how you can have so much crap go wrong when you take such good care of your teeth.  Just shows that you can’t judge a book by it’s cover.  Anyhow, I will continue with my stellar dental care meanwhile spending every disposable dime to my name to endodontists and dentists and hopefully, after I finish typing this blog, will stop complaining about it.  I just REALLY REALLY needed to vent about it.

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Our camping trip was terrific.  This year we went about a month earlier, and the weather was much more pleasant.  It was still hot enough during the day to float on the lake on one of our 600 rafts, yet cool enough to sleep peacefully.  Nothing is better than waking up early while camping, before the rest of the campsite is up, and listening to the birds and the trees blowing in the wind and enjoying a nice cool breeze.  It is one of my favorite things in life.  I’m sure there is much more to write about our trip, but I just got back from getting a root canal, and I’m really busy feeling sorry for myself.  Maybe more on the trip later…..

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Therefore I may not be posting for a few days.  Unless I get motivated tomorrow, but I have a tall order of packing for four days of camping, working out, and trying to squeeze in some valuable pool time.  So we’ll see.  I’m sure by Monday I’ll be dying for some air conditioning and some major computer time.  But for now, I am excited about “getting away” (see Erin how I used those correctly) from a quiet life to a quieter life for a few days.

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Erin & Ella came for a visit yesterday.  They arrived in time for dinner, we decided on pizza.  We ate, and relaxed while Ella played.  We attempted to put Ella to bed so we could watch a movie, but she wasn’t having anything to do with sleeping.  So we just lounged around and she finally fell asleep on the couch so we could start the movie.  We rented Yes Man, we both kind of wanted to see it, and I really enjoy Jim Carrey.  The movie was ok, it had some funny parts, but basically it was a carbon copy of Liar Liar.  Only instead of not being able to lie he was unable to say no.  I do really like Zooey Deschanel and she was enjoyable to watch.  Also, in spite of being mostly disappointed with the movie, I did search IMDB for trivia on the movie (I pretty much always do this after any movie) and learned that Jim Carrey did not use a stunt double for the scene where he bungee jumps off of a bridge.  Impressive.

On another subject, my darn cat kept me up half the night.  He was pretty much the most annoying he’s ever been. He wouldn’t stop petting my face, or sitting on my face, which is just, well, irritating when you’re trying to sleep.  Especially when you’re a light sleeper like myself.  Then he kept going to the window in my bedroom (kind of a bay window) and ran his paws up and down the mini-blinds making the loudest most annoying sound ever.  Every time I tried to distract him or remove his from doing this, he went right back to doing it.  I finally wised up and opened the blinds.  Certainly there must be something mystifying to watch out there?  So I did, which seemed to work for about 10 minutes.  The, he decided, this wasn’t good enough, so he proceeded to run his paws up and down the glass as quickly and loudly as possible.  And then once I had been awake for two hours I was starting to get really mad.  And it’s particularly difficult to try to sleep when you’re mad.  Finally, against my better judgement, I decided to kick his furry butt out of my room altogether.  Why, you ask, had I now thought to do this previously?  Seems like a logical answer right?  Because I knew exactly what was to come if I did.  He would simply transfer his mad paw rubbing from the mini-blinds and glass to the door. Ha ha the joke was going to be on me no matter what I did.  So after plotting his death, formulating a good ad to get rid of him in the newspaper the next day, and chewing on the idea of just throwing him outside, I decided to take the high road. So I kicked him out of my bedroom, and guess what?  He was rubbing that door like he was bound and determined to knock it down within 5 minutes.  And he never really stopped.  It was a lose-lose for me.  And although he got the last laugh, I at least felt a certain sense of relief knowing that there was a possibility that I held the upper hand in this scenario.  I knew I had to stick to my grounds, so I somehow managed to ignore the incessant grinding and fell asleep after being kept awake for over 3 hours.  Ugghhh….

The next day was better, Erin & Ella and I had coffee, breakfast, and headed to the pool.  It was really hot so the pool felt wonderful.  We headed back in for some lunch and off my visitors went.  It was a short visit, but very nice.  And Erin strategically left several toys behind to ensure that I would be making a visit up north again soon.  Nice.

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Traffic jams make me want to rip off my right arm and throw it out the window at all the idiots I’m surrounded by.  No wait, maybe my left arm, since I am right handed, I would want to still be able to flip people off drive sensibly.  Seriously people, it is so irritating when cars get into the lane they KNOW is ending, in an attempt to speed past the honest drivers who are waiting their turn in line.  I hate to admit it but many times I am that jerk who speeds past everyone - so I decided awhile back to try to be the bigger person in this scenario and wait my turn.  Turns out doing the right thing isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be.  Sometimes you just end up being the idiot who all the other people are speeding past.

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I absolutely LOVE my new computer.  I have no idea on earth how I survived without it.  It just keeps getting better and better.  And as life would have it, I have actually been under the weather this week.  Some sort of allergy, sinus, cold, something-or-other, which has been horrible, but thank goodness I have a new toy to play with!  I didn’t even go to tennis tonight, which I never do.  I went out running a few errands today, and just getting out in the heat to walk into a few stores practically knocked me unconscious.  If I’m this exhausted walking into Gander Mountain how on earth am I supposed to play tennis?  Thankfully we have subs for this purpose so it wasn’t a big deal.  Also, in other electronics news, the new software is available for the iPhone, so I was able to update today.  Almost had a minor setback with this, the cord came unplugged during syncing, which could have been bad, but it had just backed itself up so I was able to restore it successfully.  I really like the new software so far….most noticeably the ability to text sideways- like a sidekick….which allows for much more room to text.  Ok, enough about all that.

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From PC to Mac.  Yipee!   AND I finally got my internet hooked up so I am a very HAPPY CAMPER!

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Yes I am moving again.  Ugghhh… This move is better than the last, I know I’m not going anywhere for one year.  Last time I knew it was temporary so I didn’t really bothered getting settled in or really even unpacked for that matter.  My new place is very small, it will undoubtedly be an adjustment, but one that I happily welcome.  I’ve always been an optimist, and I refuse to be anything other than optimistic about the move.  I am excited about living somewhere new, having new surroundings, and getting the hell out of the suburbs.  Ok it’s not like I’m moving too terribly far from where I used to be but I am without a doubt very excited about leaving behind the cookie-cutter  dreariness that I have been itching to leave for quite some time.

Also, I have really been enjoying the summer.  ALthough I wish I could say I’ve spent time at my new pool (that’s on the agenda for next week), I have gotten a lot done, including lots of movies, having my name changed (holy hoops to jump through), packing, and of course fun things, which I always make time for.  This includes an incredible show that Grizzly Bear put on in Bloomington a few nights ago.  Awesome!   Also, I went to see The Hangover the other day…I hate putting expectations out there for movies, as I’ve said a million times I feel it has the potential for ruining things….but I loved it!  It was pretty freakin’ hilarious!   Not nearly as predictable as I would have imagined.  I was sort of expecting a lighter version of “Very Bad Things”, but it was a lot funnier that I would have hoped.

A million other things have happened in the past few weeks, but I just haven’t really felt like writing.  Once I get settled back into a routine I’m sure things will change.  And please cross your fingers that this rain stops next week so I can get to the pool finally!

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Human beings answered business telephones instead of computer generated mazes of confusion and irritation.

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I have spilled: half a bottle of ajax dish soap, the trash can, coffee creamer, and my coffee.

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