Because of this and hypodontia I'm down by three, but I'll catch up

I had my tooth extracted. I went in yesterday and found out that they were ready to get down to business, either by starting another root canal or having it extracted, so asked if I could just have it pulled. The tooth could have been salvaged, but it just didn't seem worth it to me because a) it's my very back tooth, which means I technically can do without it b) no one ever even sees it and c) there was the cost to consider. To do another root canal would have cost $1200 and taken weeks and weeks to get done. To get this tooth pulled? $110 and the actual process took about fifteen minutes. It was, by the way, one of the weirdest sensations I've ever felt. No pain, just a lot of pressure that left me gripping my armrests.

When it was all over they gave me a long list of instructions - no straws, no soup, no spitting, no smoking, but the key word they used was suction, or negative pressure. That's what it all comes down to. I'm not to create any kind of suction in my mouth, which I must say requires a lot of concentration on my part. I'm also supposed to keep my tongue away from the hole, so I fell asleep trying to keep my tongue in place and had nightmares that it had somehow touched the hole and now I had dry socket, the most feared consequence of oral surgery caused by tongue touching and allowing suction to exist inside your mouth. Also, it turns out that estrogen plays a factor in getting dry socket and I've been informed by leading experts that I have some of this so called estrogen right inside my body! But I'm not too worried -dry socket normally occurs when bottom teeth are pulled.

On the flip side, I have felt zero pain since I had this tooth removed. It does not hurt at all, which is a great relief. And I have found my new calling in life -napping. Also, Optimistic. brought me home a huge Jamba Juice that I spoon fed to myself very carefully (no straws, remember?) and it was delicious. I have watched 3 of the 4 Anne of Green Gables tapes, Mansfield Park, and something called Jane Austen Regrets. Granted, I am unemployed so there's a very good chance I would have watched all those movies and taken all those naps anyway.

P.S. I got to keep my tooth, and it is enormous! I am going to put it under my pillow and demand $1 from the tooth fairy i.e. Optimistic., and if he refuses I will chase him around the house with my tooth until he pays up.

P.P.S. M-Lite was kind enough to take me to the dentist because Optimistic. was at work, so thank you M-Lite -I will make sure your birthday gift is of extra-good quality this year.

Why I love my dentist

I'm in the middle of some dental work, meaning that last summer when I actually had money I started getting my teeth taken care of -a really thorough cleaning, 4 deep fillings, and two root canals. Root canals take multiple visits so I ended up seeing the dentist every other week from June to September to get everything done. Except it never all got finished. By the time I was in the middle of my second root canal I ran out of insurance money for the year, and after that we lost our insurance, so my #15 (back, top left) tooth has had a gaping hole in it for 9 months.

Because my tooth is hollowed out food naturally gets stuck in there (especially peanuts). I remedy this by using 20 or so toothpicks every day. I have toothpick dispensers all around the house and in my purse -I use them constantly. Then last week I was picking something out of my teeth and something came out that wasn't supposed to -a bit of the pulp cap that separates my tooth's roots from the outside world. I was in excruciating pain Saturday morning -all I could do was cry really, the pain was so bad, and dentist's offices are never open on the weekends. I've spent the last two days taking tylenol and coating my gums with anbesol (sweet blessed anbesol) while I waited until I could make an appointment.

Here's why I love my dentist's office and why you should go there too:

1) I have not been to this dentist in 9 months, but the second I told Judy the receptionist my name she remembered exactly who I am.

2) She immediately went to go get my chart to see what work had been done on the tooth in question. She didn't hassle me about cleanings or six month checkups.

3) At the end of every visit Judy schedules your next appointment, tells you what's next in your treatment schedule and exactly how much it's going to cost. Absolutely no surprises -every time I came for an appointment I knew how much it was going to cost me. At my home dentist I once went in and ended up having a surprise root canal done for $1500. That was really upsetting at the time.

4) The dentists themselves are really nice guys -competent, funny, very good at what they do. They're also very understanding -I have a wisdom tooth that needs to come out- it keeps getting infected, but instead of lecturing me about it they deduced that it was a financial problem and let it go. I have an appointment scheduled for tomorrow where they're going to check out my tooth, hopefully give me a massive dose of anything to stop the pain and discuss options.

5) I just like the feel of their office. It's small and doesn't look too modern -I don't like offices that try to make everything look super high-tech. Basically, I don't get the vibe that my dental work is paying for my dentist to have a yacht. Mainly I like Judy. Whatever they're paying her it can't be what she's worth.

My dentist is Dr. David G. Lee. Look him up.

It's mentioned in that one scene in You've Got Mail when Meg Ryan is crying in Fox Books

One of my favorite books is Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild, so I was excited when I found out a movie was being made of it. But then it never came out, or so I thought. Apparently the BBC released it on TV in 2007. They've tweaked a few things in the plot giving Sylvia an illness and a love interest, but most of it is very true to the book. Anyway, it's on youtube in 9 segments and it's pretty well done, so I encourage you to watch it if you've read the book. If you haven't read the book you should check it out. That is all.

I choose not to run for president in 1928

Since I'm home for most of the day every day I've taken to changing things around the house. In the living room I put up my fake clock (which always throws people off when they realize it's cardboard) as well as some of my slang flash cards.




There also used to be a stuffed maroon thing above the kitchen sink that I've never cared for, but when I tried to take it down once I found that it was covering up some holes in the wall.

So I finally thought of what to put in its place - my Presidents of the United States educational place mat! Now I can do the dishes and learn about the presidents at the same time.

Also, true to my love of making things out of cardboard I made a toilet paper holder for my bathroom out of some boxes I had. It holds eight rolls and is slightly asymmetric (on purpose of course).