A round-up of responses:
I need a new dentist. I've only been to this one a few times, but one of those times involved a THREE-HOUR ROOT CANAL. And a crown. And NO VICODIN AFTERWARDS. This infuriates me. "Oh, you just need a couple of Advil!" is not acceptable. I had a dentist who was *very* forthcoming with the Vicodin prescriptions after crowns. He set a certain precedent. Now her refusal to prescribe drugs has turned my dentist anxiety into hand-shaking dread just *thinking* about it. I am putting off a desperately needed checkup that is likely to result in another root canal and crown largely because my current dentist refused to give me any painkillers after a THREE-HOUR ROOT CANAL. And the temporary crown? Had to be drilled off. And the permanent crown? Was the wrong color. And the second temporary crown that was put in place using only suction and *not* any sort of cement so she wouldn't have to drill the second one off? Had to be drilled off.
I have a gap between my front teeth, too! When I was a kid, I briefly had a dentist who wanted to snip the bit of skin that attaches the inside of your lip to your gums. This is why he very quickly became my *former* dentist. One of my front teeth is very visibly ground down and a little bit slanted due to a years of playing alto and tenor sax. Every time a dentist decides to try to do something (bond? I can't remember the term) to it in order to make my teeth even, the non-tooth stuff breaks off in a matter of months. I probably need a root canal and crown on that tooth, but HATE THAT DENTIST, so I'm dragging my feet on that appointment. And I don't have the $700 it will cost. And I actually probably have at least one other tooth that needs a crown.
(I think the prize for will-traumatize-you-for-life bad dental experiences will have to go to my aunt. When she was five or six, a dentist SLAPPED her for misbehaving. And by "misbehaving," I mean "squirming in the exam chair like she was five or six." This was probably in the late '40s. As a direct result, my mother always insisted on being in the room with my brother and me when we had dental anything done until we were about ten years old.)
(My wisdom teeth extraction story: Mine were growing in *sideways*, so they had to be *chiseled* out. I remember almost nothing about the experience aside from the copious amounts of drugs they gave me. It was wonderful. And no bad after-effects. I would do it again in a heartbeat if I could be assured the exact same experience.)
Snow! It snowed here very briefly, but it didn't stick. It's been so cold the past few days that the spider living in my outside light (I named her Lola) just curled up against the fixture. She started living there a couple of months ago, just hanging out and eating all of the bugs/gnats/etc. that liked the light. And there were a *lot* of them: She went from the size of a bb to the size of a good-sized blueberry fairly quickly. I told her that as long as she stayed outside, I would not bother her, but as soon as she came inside, either I would smoosh her, or Oscar would eat her. She apparently understood and never went more than six inches from the light bulb, and she stayed on her web or in one particular corner of the fixture. If she was on her web when anyone came to the door, she raced to her corner of the lighting fixture. When she was in the corner, you couldn't even see her unless you *knew* she was there. Then my light burned out, and I wasn't about to change a light bulb when it's freezing, windy, and dark (it's dark when I leave for and get home from work), especially since the spider was *right there*, and they freak me out. I changed the bulb yesterday morning. Lola was still hunched up in her corner of the lighting fixture when I did so. Last night after a breakfast-for-dinner party at my neighbors' place, I got to my door and discovered Lola dangling by one leg on her web, just swinging in the wind, but otherwise non-moving. I decided she was a former spider and flicked her off onto the shrubbery under my stairs because I did *not* want to walk outside and have a huge dead spider flip off her web and land on any part of me. Even though she freaked me the hell out (DO NOT LIKE SPIDERS), I'm surprisingly melancholy about the fact that she's gone now, especially since it's supposed to be substantially warmer this week (in the 40s instead of in the 20s like it has been for the past few days). Oh, well. That's the very brief life of a spider.
And now I'm getting ready food-wise for a big week at work: I've got a batch of Chex mix in the oven (no pretzels/nuts/bagel chips/etc. Just Crispix, potato stix from a can, thick kettle-style potato chips, and about twice as much seasoning as the traditional recipe. Funny thing: I love nuts -- pecans, cashews, almonds, you name it -- but I *do not* like them in Chex mix. I think that's the only time I do *not* like nuts!) for snacking at work and a Hello Kitty slow cooker full of chicken breasts because it's so versatile that I can use it for just about any quick dinner solution I might come up with during the workweek. Rice bowls, pasta, tacos, shredded chicken sandwiches -- basically, all of my staple quick meals. And I'll probably stash some in the freezer for future use, like soup (for some reason, I tend to make a lot of soup specifically in January). Once the chicken is done, I have a pack of pork chunks I'll toss in the slow-cooker. The chicken only takes a few hours, but the pork needs 24 hours. And I need to make some mini pizzas this afternoon once the pork is in the slow cooker and the necessary fridge space is opened up. Mondays and Tuesdays are hellish at work, and I don't usually have time to leave my desk to go grab lunch (I don't even usually have enough time to microwave something to take back to my desk), and that means I usually end up *skipping* lunch, but if I have something like mini pizzas, I can eat at my desk. And I need to make a big batch of rice. I eat brown rice, so it takes a long time to cook, and I like to just make a big batch of it ahead of time so I don't have to wait for it *every single night* because I *won't* wait for it every single night, and then I'll have junk instead, and I need to not have junk instead!
And cleaning. I need to clean up the living room a bit, but it takes time to convince myself to do it, and I may just throw everything into a plastic bin, shove the bin into the spare room, and call it good for the week. I also need to fold/hang up my laundry, but I'll do that after I eat something. Because I've been up for four hours but have yet to actually *eat* anything.
/emoticons/
