Corner of Bourbon & Division

Today's highlight was the dentist. Again. I know, I know, but you must try to contain your excitement, okay? I spent the better part of two hours with my jaw forced open at a rather uncomfortable angle while the dentist did her thing. It was not the most enjoyable experience, but I came out of it unscathed.

Mind you, she froze me but good. When I got out of there half of my face couldn't move. I looked like Jean Chrétien when I tried to smile, or maybe as though I'd had a stroke. Terrible. Eating and drinking is a heck of a challenge, too. I managed not to dribble anything down my front, but it was a close thing indeed.

Work, after a quiet holiday season, has picked up in earnest. My colleague and shift partner has been diagnosed with a tumour in his kidney, and is going under the knife on February 7th. He's off work from now until April, leaving me alone to do the job. His prognosis is good, for which we're all grateful, but I'm a little stressed at having to shoulder most of the work when I've only been in this job for four months. My boss is backing me up when he can, but he has his own job to do and can only do so much to help me.

So it's a little stressful, though not, of course, anywhere near as stressful as having, say, kidney cancer. :P

In less exciting news, I forgot my Kindle at home. I miss my books already, even though I generally don't get to read much these days. Just knowing it was there in case I found the time to do a bit of reading. I don't know, I just like having it nearby. I'll get it back Monday, though, so all is not lost. I can also read on my computer, or an actual book made of paper, too. Shocking, the variety of things I'm exposed to on a regular basis. ;)

Tomorrow is another day shift, then I switch to nights for the weekend. The roller coaster of thrills never stops.

Long week was long, and now I get to start my work week.

I am paying for going to sleep late multiple nights in a row. Monday was due to work, Tuesday was cooking day prep followed by Capricornucopia prep, Wednesday was cooking day, and yesterday I forced myself to post the promised entry about said cooking day after getting a very late start to Ottawa.

Now I am so tired I keep threatening to fall asleep over my keyboard, and it's just past 19:30. Four more days of work, then I get to go home and do some more running around. Capricornucopia prep is the big thing next week. Then Capricornucopia itself on Saturday, watching Bean solo on Sunday morning while pdaughter goes to class, then driving back to Ottawa in the afternoon to start another work week. Somewhere in there I'll need to do some housecleaning and laundry, though no cooking, thank God. ;)

I don't know. The more productive I try to be, the more it seems like I'm not doing enough. At least when I was procrastinating I had an excuse for why shit wasn't getting done. Now that I'm trying, and trying hard, I'm still failing.

In other news, I went to the dentist this morning after being a bad, bad dental patient and not going for two and a half years. I paid the price for it, though, as the dentist uttered the words "root canal" at me. It's not a done deal, we're going to try to repair the offending tooth with a plain old filling first, since I'm not in any actual pain (yet). Apparently, since I have a very good regime of personal oral hygiene, it means that the bacteria in my mouth are extra super-duper powerful, to cause this much damage in so little time. Um, yay? IDK, maybe when the apocalypse comes I can rule the earth with my pet ultra-powerful bacteria or something. :P

The verdict is that I need to step up the oral hygiene. Floss twice a day, use mouthwash twice a day, brush after every meal/snack when at all possible. Otherwise I'm looking at a mouthful of tooth decay. After 30 years of having dentists tell me what awesome teeth I had, this is a hell of a blow to the ego. Going to the dentist used to be a bit of a boost to my morale, but mutant bacteria have done away with that. Alas.

So the next few months are going to be filled with visits to the dentist's office. Huzzah. At least I got the snafu with my insurance sorted out. When I gave my card to the receptionist with my information, it didn't work when she tried to run it through the system. Turns out, when I got my permanent position at work, my insurance policy was cancelled and then replaced with another. Unbeknownst to me, I was actually uninsured for three months (even though my employment was never interrupted and I paid the damned insurance premiums the entire time!), but that ended mid-December. Anyway, I was able to get my new policy numbers fairly easily, which was a relief, but I am unimpressed at my job and their really annoying red tape and ridiculous guidelines that seem designed to screw over employees.

On the work front, I've been given a pretty big project at work which should take up a fair bit of my time and brain processing power (what little there is of it). I'm basically tasked, along with another operator, to entirely re-vamp the office's standard operating procedures. We'll be updating them and making them all accessible electronically. Right now they're a jumbled mess of paper, outdated and often badly written. It'll be a nice challenge for me, and it's always a good way to learn the ins and outs of the work itself, far more so than simply taking notes and trying to remember it all on my own. I've always learned better by applying my knowledge.

So that was my incredibly exciting day. Work and dental work. I have a couple of fandom-related emails to send out, and I'm going to try to stay awake long enough to finish the latest episode of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which I've been watching from the beginning (though I'm not enjoying it nearly as much as I want to).

I am heading out to go to the dentist. News you need, clearly. I am not looking forward to it because it's at an awkward time in the morning for me, and essentially is going to make it impossible to do most of what I would normally be doing this morning.

I think I need to start focusing more on being content where I am and with what I have. I seem to spend a lot of time wishing I were elsewhere or doing something else, especially when I'm at work, and that can't be good for my mental health overall.

I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to accomplish this, but I'm going to try to live a bit more in the moment, and procrastinate less. This has worked pretty well for the whole gardening thing this week: just getting out there and doing it has helped considerably.

Part of this is going to involve not watching television for a while, once I've finished the current set of DVDs I have. I apparently shouldn't watch these things without supervision, as I have no self-control at all. On the plus side, it does mean that I'll be finished with them sooner rather than later.

With that temptation out of my way, I'm hoping it'll encourage me to get the small things done around my house. Tidying up, putting order into my bookcases, more cooking, etc. Yeah, part of the reason I haven't been doing any of that is that I kind of lack the energy, but I think that it's probably easier to convince myself that I don't have the energy for it when there are new episodes of Lost to watch. :P

I'd really like my tax refund to come in now, plskthx. I have a few more things that need taking care of, and my wallet still hasn't recovered from my purchases in April combined with a couple of unexpected expenses. It's very annoying to have to worry about this, even though I'm not in danger of going bankrupt or anything. I just thought I had put the days of anxiously watching my bank balance behind me. Sheesh. After this summer, though, the whole "big expense" part of settling into this place and becoming a "real" grown-up should be behind me.

Okay, I have to get going. See you on the flip side, folks!

I went for my bi-annual visit to the dentist on Thursday morning. I have a confession to make which undoubtedly make many of you question my sanity (well, what little there is of it): I actually like going to the dentist. Now, don't get me wrong: I don't enjoy the bits with drills and pain, but otherwise going to the dentist is a pretty pleasant experience for me.

I'm obsessive about my teeth. I brush and floss and generally take extremely good care of my teeth. I have a small brush that I use specifically to keep my gums healthy. I take much better care than the average person, I should think. This means that going to the dentist is pain-free 90% of the time, and is in fact a heck of a morale booster. Every time I go, my dentist compliments me on what great teeth I have. Then we go through a fun little routine, because he seems to forget about the work I've had done in the past every single time (work by other dentists, I hasten to add, I've only been seeing this guy for about two years).

The conversation goes something like this.

Dentist: "Great teeth! Have you had orthodontic work done?"

Me: "Uh-huh. Two years' worth."

Dentist: "Yeah, I can see where this tooth here was moved. Who did your work?"

Me: "Dr. [name]."

Dentist: "Oh, yes, Seymour. He's very good. Did he grind down your tooth here?"

Me: "Uh-huh. He said it would help with the crowding."

Dentist: "That's great work. Is that plastic sealant on your teeth?"

Me: "Uh-huh."

Dentist: "And who did that?"

Me: "Dr. [name of my childhood dentist]."

Dentist: "Oh, Charles, yes. He's excellent as well." *over his shoulder to the hygienist. "Come look at this, it's not something you see every day: see here how there's plastic sealant on each tooth? Excellent work. Goes a long way to preventing decay."

Etc.

I have my mother to thank for this. She's just as obsessive about her teeth as I am, and instilled in me early on the firm belief that, where teeth are concerned, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. My parents have both had terrible trouble with their teeth (you name the procedure, they've had it done, between them), and my mother was very anxious that I should never have to undergo all that.

So not only was I instructed early on about how to take care of my teeth, my mother also went out of her way to get me the best dental care possible as soon as possible.

I think tomorrow I'll give her a big smile when I see her for dinner, so she can see the results of her handiwork.