Priorities

I've been in a brooding funk for the last few days. It's kinda like when I get into a severely depressive funk, except instead of feeling absolutely immobile from sadness, I've been feeling pensive. Broody. Funky in a broody way. But this year, I'm looking around me and realizing a little more how things are just fucked up.

During the bottom of each year, I usually think about death and dying. It's a seasonal thing. However, instead of pining for relatives and friends who have been long gone (or short gone), I think about the living and how I wish some of them would just die so I can talk with them all the time in that whole communion of saints thing. Then I think that's awfully selfish of me, because if they're not talking with me now, why would they want to talk with me then?, but then I know some of them aren't able to because of physical infirmities, not because they don't want to but because they can't, and then I feel a little better (though a bit self-directed, which I'm more okay with as years pass but I think I'm worrying about appearing selfish instead of continuing to be self-involved or self-conscious or reflectivey or whatever. Woo, tangent).

So the latest mass casualty event from some nut shooting off ammo has resulted in tons more people spouting out about how laws need to change, how gun control needs to be enforced, blah blah blah. It's the same old shit over and over. People go apeshit and stockpile guns and equipment as if they're going to be outlawed, which is not going to happen ever, and I think some kind of horrific record has been set with the amounts purchased. Three and a half years of ammo purchased in three days. What. The. Fuck. Seriously, setting the bar this high is going to result in even more fucked-up-ness next time (and there's always a next time because people are more interested in talking than doing - I'm looking at you, Congress). Priorities really need to change soon, in the focusing-on-helping-other-people beneficial kind of way, with this.

Priorities about money are confusing me right now though. From reading about how people have to worry about credit score while dating to learning about tights that are as good as (if not better than) pantyhose to contemplating why I spend around $800 on pantyhose each year, I'm feeling a little bewildered. I didn't realize pantyhose was "out" although I know plenty of people who hate wearing it and favor wearing flip-flops everywhere. (Oh shit, are flip-flops out yet?)

Unless I'm wearing jeans at work, I wear pantyhose because of several reasons. I'm used to it being mandatory at the office environments I find myself in, for starters. I also like feeling all properly dressed and finished and all professional. I take myself more seriously in hose, anyway, and I know that my self-confidence is boosted when I wear it (and this definitely helps with my being 5'2" and trying to relate professionally to tall people). The mild compression (Sheer Energy represent!) helps me to not worry about having a DVT while stuck at a desk, since I take non-stop birth control pills for the endometriosis, plus the leg support is nice.

Granted, I spend less than $800 on hose because each pair lasts an average of two to four wearings (I'm careful plus am no stranger to using clear nail polish to stop small runs). Whatever I end up not spending on hose due to frugality goes towards insanely awesome apples (Ambrosia represent!), so it's all good, but now I'm wondering how I must sound to my friends on Facebook who don't know me very well.

(Not like I care what people think of me, because I don't, but I'm trying to get into the habit of seeing how I may be perceived by other people. You know, for when I become famous.)

I know as a society, with the crappy economy (and credit score asking now? Really?!?) and slowish recovery, it's considered bad form to brag about being able to afford groceries, or something. Can we like, be happy about having a good job and affording things, at all yet? I may spend a ton of money on pantyhose,  and I can afford to have a car payment for the next (zillion) years, but I do cut back elsewhere. Hell, I cut back elsewhere so I can afford to give money to people in need, when I'm able. Sure I don't have the latest greatest iWidget or Droidy-whatever, and what I have tends to not work well way too much of the time, but what I have makes me happy enough to want to spend my money elsewhere, on other things that make me happy and/or healthy. Like Ambrosia apples. Like Active Release Techniques (tm) for my continually wonky ribs and ankle. Like too many appointments with specialists and nutritional supplements and medications to help me have a decent quality of life instead of being stuck in bed and only able to work not as much as before, continually worried about the next round of disability denial while unemployed. That was me last year, but this year I'm working full time again (for the first time in five years, huzzah!) and able to afford the medical care I need, and able to afford the pantyhose that help me kick ass at what I do. Can I celebrate that out loud yet instead of worrying about offending anyone with my happiness? I still can't afford things that a lot of people have, that make them happy (vacations... hell, even long weekends away from normal life), but that's because my priorities are different. I'm happy with not traveling and seeing the world as often since I am ensuring I have a good quality of life... okay, I could be way happier about that. By a lot. But that's okay. I can deal.

Priorities are different for everyone. Mine are kinda not the same as most people's priorities, I think, but that's okay. Unless most people are expecting to be in a firefight with a well-organized militia, and sorry but I can't help with that. I'm not sure where I was going with all of this except to say I really don't like being in a broody funk because I think way too much. I also don't like not having the energy I remember having a few months ago, when it was warmer and I was bitching about being too hot, because now it's cold and I love the cold but my body is not having a fun time moving with it cold out. I do like these vegetables I'm having for dinner though - I like oven-roasting vegetables with coriander and curry and olive oil, but tonight I found some three-week-old snow peas in the fridge (still good for the most part!) so oven-roasted those with broccoli and red onion in a little bit of thickish teriyaki glaze instead of olive oil because I'm a fucking genius. These veggies are *outstandingly good*.

"My wedding ring is off. Woo hoo!!" and other recent thoughts

Don't panic - I'm still married to the same guy (and if all goes well I will be getting something very shiny on our 11th wedding anniversary next weekend....unless I cave in and go before then for a test drive and the car dude I've been emailing with for two months smooth talks me into getting what I want to get that day but I'mma be so busy I don't know, and this weekend we're busy when they're open and they're closed when we're not and I'd rather have hubby there for "guy presence" in case the dealership guys try to take advantage of my fragile womanity... woo, tangent).

See, the Weight Watchers thing has been going fairly well, and after 120 days I've been plateauing at the 16 pounds lost mark. The last few weeks have been like .6 pounds down, .2 pounds down, 1 pound up, .6 pounds down, but I was sick one week and overcompensated last weekend due to having an appetite again, but I'm trending back down so hooray there. I've lost an inch off my belly, 3 inches off my hips, 1.25 inches off my thighs, 1/2 inch off my chest, a cup size off my boobs, 1/4 inch off my neck, and NOTHING off my arms. GRR STABBY with the arms but overall, not too shabby.

So yeah, the other night I was able to remove my wedding ring for the first time in 3 years, and I was pretty thrilled about it. I thoroughly cleaned it and noted that the inscription I got on the inside about 3 1/2 years ago was totally different than the one I thought I'd gotten (I didn't match hubby's inner inscription at all and I thought I did - whoops). Naturally, I put it back on after 5 minutes because the last time this happened, my fingers swelled up again, and sure enough, I can't get it off now, no matter how much I try to shrink my fingers with icy coldness. It's nice to know that the body is rearranging the real estate here and there, anyway.

In other news, I need to catch up with a lot of things, and I've been pondering about several things recently....being a different person over time, why rules exist, and how I'm going to branch out the brand of me. Branching out is pretty much figured out - one branch for health and wellness things, one branch for ottery things, one branch for writing things, one branch for photography things, and one branch for my general weirdness. I want to do some pretty expansive things in each of these areas, and I have a road map for where I want to go in each place. Laying down foundational groundwork has been taking up a lot of my energy the last few years, but I'm about at the point where I'm ready to cement all the bricks and cobblestones together and get to building up already. It feels like birthing a whole family at once.

Thinking about how people evolve over time has been intriguing me lately. Tonight hubby and I went to the place I worked at a year ago (he had an artist meeting for this neat commission he's doing), and thinking about how different life was and I was a year ago made me smile. I felt like crap from the Sjogren's, fibro, endo, not working, and being frustrated with the SSDI application process, and I was so grateful to get a church gig filing music and helping with orchestra books for 5 hours a week. Now, I've been able to work at least 40 hours a week since February/March (when I started on Deplin and Savella), I feel much better with the current twice-a-day drug parties (with the current prescription meds and supplements), and I haven't bothered to worry about disability since being able to work again (btw getting lots of health records for the third application round after being denied twice was pretty amazeballs).

Recently I thought about the notion that each cell in a person's body replenishes at such a rate that we all have a new body every 7 years, and thinking back to where I was 7, 14, and 21 years ago really wowed me, with noting aspects of my personality that have changed and aspects that have stayed the same and deepened. 21 years ago I was a freshman in college.14 years ago I was going from a broken engagement to another relationship. 7 years ago I went from the field of Catholic liturgy into the field of hospital-related disaster preparedness. Everything that I've been has been burbling and simmering into a lovely stew of sorts, and I feel almost congealed enough to be put in a mold and cool and set like flan. Except instead of being flan, I'd be building on all the foundations I've laid along the different branches of my life path. (Also, I would eat the shit out of the flan before it fully set. I'm just sayin'.)

The rules thing has been turning over in my brain for the last few days. Hubby said that rules are for when there are problems. He thinks I have a problem with being on the computer a lot. I have made it known on Facebook that I have a Sims 3 addiction, but I'm not so addicted that I'm playing 24/7 and forgetting to be hygenic and losing my job. I instituted a rule for myself that I won't play start playing Sims 3 after 10pm on a school night because I will lose track of time while playing and it'll be 2am before I know it. (Had to put in that clarification because this only applies to starting to play, not actually playing past 10. I was trying to hurry while writing this.) I usually don't get tired until about 1:15 am anyway but I'm like that whether I play Sims or not, so really, not a solely Sims-related problem, and I haven't broken the rule at all. Thing is, with being an introvert, I require more alone time than most people to replenish my energy (hubby's even more of an introvert so he gets that), and with having plenty of chronic autoimmune crap to deal with after I get done being distracted from how I feel with the mindbogglingly amazing days I have at work, I require even more down time than before, so hey, I tend to do what I'm doing for a good long while, and it happens to be computery things, whether Sims or photography stuff or reading online or Facebooking. Wow that was a long sentence.

He has a rule of "no Oreos in the house" because he will eat them all and then throw them up. That is a rule because of a problem. I maintain that rules can exist without necessarily having a problem attached. Like, there are road rules for people because established standards of how to do things is important. Yes some people have problems associated with driving, but that's not why the rules exist. The rules exist for safety more than they exist for problems. (Well, that's how it seems to be to me, anyway.) Weight Watchers has the Points Plus system for people who have a problem with food, BUT it can also be seen as a lifestyle change by people of any weight, so it's really the same as adopting new established standards for safety (health) reasons. Am I bullshitting myself with thinking this way? I'm not sure. I'm food enabled (breakfast and steak and chocolate and Chinese and Mediterranean especially), but I make better choices now and the effect is pleasing me and making me healthier. I also know musicians who know the rules of music theory and proceed to break them to... still... create music. A former occasional coworker of mine taught me to "know the rules, use the rules" and that's served me well a lot of times. So rules... are problems necessary to have them? I don't think so, but that's just, like my opinion, maaan.

Ishri Devi with her pregnant unicorn Shanti.
I love this game.

Ooh, it'll be 10pm soon. Off to the land of Appaloosa Plains, where the Sim I'm currently playing with (an incarnation of Lakshmi) is expecting one of her unicorns to foal any minute now. The foal may or may not be a unicorn as the father is a regular horse, but I'll see soon enough.

UPDATE - I know the  adage of "rules are made to be broken" is held by some people. Breaking rules usually results in non-pleasant consequences. I am totally okay with breaking SOME rules if the consequences are such that I can deal. Like, uh, starting to play Sims 3 at 10:03 last night, breaking my rule for the first time, knowing the consequence would be me starting my next day with a lack of sleep. Sure enough...but I'll deal. Because I'm a big girl. And I know better. :) Also, the foal was a unicorn, and since I'm going to be picky with breeding for this game, the unicorn foal went back to the wild (disappearing from the game forever). I have one Sim with 4 horsey creatures and only 6 beings are allowed in the household, so it's breed until I get a foal that I like, then put one regular horsey parent up for adoption so I can breed another foal, etc. So now I've put one up for adoption, adopted a different horse, and will be playing with breeding next time too. But as Carl says, "It don't matter. None of this matters."

I have a problem with my pants.

See, I have some pants that I've enjoyed wearing for.... what, maybe four years already? (Wowza, nice.) I'm now able to pull them down without undoing the zipper and wide thin hook catch dillie and button. Actually, I was able to do this last week, but it's kinda getting worse, and now I'm going to have to go shopping.

OH THE HORROR!!!

I loathe clothes shopping. Always have. Especially now that it's 107ish till October, I really hate it. Thank Buddha for elastic pants and laziness.

I'm down 8.2 pounds in 5 weeks, and I still have to eat 2 more required Points Plus for today, so I'mma have some booze. Yep, 2 shots of peach schnappes in diet cream soda, with my half-a-huge-cantaloupe. Tasty. I've had another 9.75 hour workday (I seem to be having a lot of those lately, which is great because I can do those again, but blargh, you know?) so I will deffo appreciate it.

In other news, it's runoff election day, and Texas has not disappointed me in the "we love tea!" category. (I hate tea. I not only dislike Tea Partiers in that they don't seem to enjoy rational conversation, but I actively dislike tea. Peach tea, green tea, apple tea, oolong tea with ginger, all that. I do not like tea. Since I'm half-asian, that makes me even more strange than most half-asians. I also dislike math, and I don't know how to play the violin other than having taken a class for one semester in college. I'm a bad asian. Woo, tangent.)

I'm worried about my cousin out in California and his new wife. They've been together for a while but haven't been married for too long, and she's having to play in Los Angeles traffic while he's starting treatment for acute myeloid leukemia. So far, so frustrating, and I hope it gets at least a little easier soon. I love how people mean so well when advising to do nutritional this and that because chemo destroys the immune system. Really, yes, but speaking as a cancer survivor, you've GOT to let the chemo work as medicine for a few days, otherwise the whole thing is a colossal and very expensive waste of time. I had to mention this on the Facespace, and also mentioned that my oncologist loved that I was seeing a nutritionist and taking Juice Plus supplements and getting massages in between treatments. I definitely felt much better when recovering from each session, and I'm glad I got the Western and alternative care I needed. I still worry about others having to go through the same and/or similar things, though.

How 'bout them Olympics? Yeah, I haven't watched any of it. I hear NBC has been pissing everyone off, but that's nothing new. They pissed me off years ago talking all over Bjork's incredible performance. She kinda had a wardrobe malfunction as the dress was supposed to unfold vertically as well (if memory serves me correctly), but it was still amazing to see. Here's that beauty unsullied by the commentary, because fuck those fucking fuckers.

Dammit, Linsanity should refer to ME!!!

NOTE: This is gonna take a while, so you might want to get some snacks.

Seriously, go get some snacks. I'm rambly in this post.

NOTE TWO: This also gets a bit TMI, so if you're squeamish, just skip the paragraph that starts with me rambling about being on Cipro. Or stop with the snacks then. You're welcome.

Why that title? Because within the last month and a half, I have not only lived more non-stop than I have in 10+ years, but have also been *able* to live more non-stop than I have in 10+ years.

See, I've dealt with fibromyalgia and endometriosis for 10+ years now, plus have been married (to the same guy!) for 10+ years, and life is greatly improved back to back in the day thanks to new meds and supplements I won't bore to list (except to say praise Shiva for NAC plus the serious cost-effectiveness of generic Deplin and Provigil).

So guess what's happened in the last month and a half?

Let's see... started new awesome job a week and a half before their centennial annual meeting (and fiscal year end, and if that's as stressed out as everyone gets at once then I am hella set as soon as life simmers down)....

Wait a sec. I should probably mention that I haven't been able to work a 40 hour work week since two jobs ago, since before I went to part-time in May 2007. (Yay for better living through chemistry!) I should probably also mention my fifth interview for my new job (phone, panel, boss, HR, boss's boss) started with getting to know some lovely women in a kinda cramped and stuffy restroom over 45 minutes while waiting for some tornadoes to pass overhead. (Everyone who was in there that I saw on my first day even remembered me when I was introduced around the building!)

I've also had the usual May Routine Doctor Appointment Slam-o-rama, except this has been freakin' nutso, even for me. Tomorrow will make the 11th appt in 4.5 weeks. This doesn't sound so bad, except that since I'm new, I can't take any accrued time off until mid-October (my six-month mark), and I'm getting to make up all the time I'm missing by staying late most days. (My new boss is so generously awesome with that, and with letting me adjust my hours to 8:30-5:30 because the stupid Sjogren's/fibro fatigue is so unpredictable and it's so much worse in hot weather and it's been 94ish for some days now and I get more puky than usual since I'm on Cipro... woo, tangent.)

Imagine, if you will, already trying-to-stay-not-so-fatigued me working a full work week, trying to keep working a 5 hr per week part-time job (and having to give that up, boo!), and seeing my primary care PA and rheumatologist and dermatologist and eye doctor and boob surgeon plus seeing some wonderful guys who work me with Active Release Techniques and sports therapy exercises in a non-woo evidence-based chiropractor office many many many many many times for the usual ribs popping out from new desk ergonomics and running way too non-stop in life. With a few evening massage appointments thrown in to help with the A.R.T. and chiro stuff. All within four weeks. While working extra to make up time. And learning LOTS of things on the job and making forms and tools to help me learn things. And I have eye doctor part two tomorrow.

Yeah, Linsanity should DEFINITELY apply to me more than that tall asian guy, dammit. One of my friends commented that it sounded like I was being chewed up like a dead hooker in a wood chipper. I thought this was pretty apt, except it'd have to be after being sliced and diced by my pimp. For reals.

Oh, and last week a relative in my immediate extended family passed away and I wasn't able to go to the funeral or graveside. I'd only seen him twice over the last 6-7 years but I have some great memories of him from when I was a wee bohemian, and he's very missed. I also had to officially give up (for now, dammit) my part-time job full of awesomeness that I'd missed doing for 6 years. Not only am I once again out in the liturgical cold, but I don't get my weekly dosage of awesome gayness. (There is fabulous gay, and there is awesome gay. I'm so friggin' sad about this, y'all.) Not only that, but working there helped me to realize that it was still possible for me to work and be productive in spite of craptastic health crap, and that did wonders with boosting my self-esteem and morale while faghagging. (There is also a definite probability that in the near future, previously kinda mentioned immediate family will meet up with other awesome gay in a business venture, so that's something I'm looking forward to when I can think about having energy again.)

Did I mention that I was in the presence of The Surgeon General of the United States on the same day I was in the presence of The Bloggess? Yeah, that was flippin' sweet! I'll have pics up someday. Check back around Yule. I might have something up then.

Oh yeah, breast cancer recurrence scare. I'm 8.5 years boob cancer free, and the type I had was stage IIA T2 N0 M0 grade 3 triple-negative. The last .5 year has been interesting with surprise spontaneous unilateral discharge (natually on my affected side) and ductogram and Aurora MRI, and let me tell you how amazing it is to talk with health insurance people when it takes 10 referrals before they, ahem, you find a place that does the special MRI that's needed, which was the place your surgeon's office tried to recommend in the first damn place the week prior but they would only talk with you instead of your physician's office. Also, let me share how spectacular it is when 15 different sets of customer service agents in various departments (Claims, I'm looking at you real hard) can't find your certificates of coverage that have been on file for more than a minute. All of these people are special in a really special way. (Note to self: make sure those idiots paid my pcp from that appt last May.)

(And that's special, not special. As in the state of being distinct, not the designation of a species.)

(Yes, my brain is a little tired. It's the feeling-like-crap from Cipro and adjusting pill-up times to avoid taking it with anything calcium/magnesium/aluminum. I couldn't even soak in epsom salts tonight because of my near-shortsightedness.)

Oh yeah, I'm on Cipro (TMI alert; skip to the next paragraph unless you like reading about bodily fluids) because the lump under my arm that I'd noticed that was alarmingly adjacent to a boob cancer scar almost two inches long thankfully turned out to be a sebaceous cyst (which is now an inch long but finally disappearing, yay). And because my boob discharge was alarmingly green after months of being strawish-clear. And because I have my first UTI in a very long while and it suuuuuuuucks. But finally, the Cipro is working because I'm back to strawish-clear boob ooze and starting to feel better while incredibly puky. I was quite pleased to hear from my cancer surgeon that (thanks to my photography) I'd documented the best case scenario for non-standard boob juicery, with it being green and coming out of multiple ducts (like 8 or 9 at the same time, this one time, which was freaky, and I know this because I was reading while sitting naked under a ceiling fan after a shower and noticed the dried evidence when I next saw myself in a mirror).

Oh, and I am apparently aging faster than I should, since my eyes are doing things that should be starting a few years from now, and I'm apparently in perimenopause now with all this gunk, so yay. I'm really flippin' old for 38. I'll be 39 in late August. And 40 next year. OMG 40. Next year. Hubby just turned 37. (Yes, in a row.) Last week. I'm old. Okay, happy thoughts needed stat so here's some nerd love.

In really happy news, I'm so pleased (and many many other adjectives) about season 3 of The Variants. (OMG dudes, they have a Wikipedia page! Someone should add Joe as a producer sometime. Just sayin'.) Hubby and I helped make season 3 happen via Kickstarter! I'm also excited about the upcoming Stella B. and the Busted League and really happy to see The Untitled Super Cool Nerd Show on air. Dallas totally rules the nerd landscape, you people. I'd go on about Dallas Comic Con and other stuff but nah. I'm off to play Sims 3 and calm my mind a little, since my brain is tired. The game I've been playing for the last month or so is in Hidden Springs, and the local unicorn had a habit of showing up at my sims' home until it got adopted, and one time when one sim was fishing, the other came by to hang out since the unicorn was there, and they both got blessed by the unicorn, and they were already engaged so they decided to have a private wedding, and so now I have two very happily married (and hot) lesbian sims with two dogs and a stray cat that adopted them plus the unicorn which was totally cool with joining the household. My Sims are honeyadventurooning in France right now. Gotta keep them away from that damn cat. I swear, that cat is so cute that they play with it instead of going to sleep or eating or whatever. Stupid cuteness.

You know, I'm not even going to bother reading over this and editing anything. 'Cos I'm Linsane, y'all.

Okay, I changed my mind and added a few links, and while proofreading my husband asked me if I was on a Mormon site.

Whaa?

Because he saw the flowers, and he thinks that Mormon websites are apparently full of flowers. Excuse me, *I* took that photo in the background (and he knows this and he knows I'm not Mormon), and it's all watery reflection of trees and non-blossoming lotus paddery so Not Full Of Flowers. I told him he was mean. Because I'm cranky. And need to be playing Sims 3 for 30 minutes before bedtime. And need to be taking my evening meds with a nom glass of Silk Dark Chocolate Almond Milk because screw Cipro, it's time for calcium. Mmm.... meds.

Also, please don't take that as a slam against Mormons. I've had Mormon friends since high school plus we have a Book of Mormon somewhere on one of our bookshelves (along with a Qur'an, the Jefferson Bible, the Bhagavad Gita, and other sacred scribblings), so don't start any shit. Thanks.

PSA: Go see your dentist regularly. That is all.

This was not hurting me. At all. For almost a month.
For reals.

So yeah, imagine my surprise when I saw this image taken with a pen camera....

See, I'd chomped part of my tooth off a few weeks before I saw this, but I wasn't sure how bad it was because it didn't hurt, and I could feel my tooth was still there. Granted, it felt a little weird, but I chalked it up to my new nightguard. As in, my THIRD hard acrylic nightguard, because it took me like two years to chew through the first one and four years to chew through the second one, if memory serves me correctly. Yeah, I brux. Horribly. Badly enough to actually break this tooth, apparently.

My dentist is The Best Dentist Ever because he's been the only one to offer me nitrous oxide and it so helps me not sever fingers while someone's working in my mouth. All my life I've had dental issues and have been stressed with feeling more pressure and pain than most people. I now know that's due to fibromyalgia (pain processing disorder of the CNS last time I checked), and I've also learned that I inherited mom's "bad teeth" because she almost certainly also had Sjogren's Syndrome. I really did not realize how much saliva I was NOT producing until I took a Numoisyn lozenge to help with that, and holy crap, you people all have way too much goop in your mouths! Yeah, I'd rather have dry mouth and get dental cleanings every 3-4 months than get used to saliva, thanks.

My hygenist commented that since my med wonkiness stabilized the other year when Plaquenil was added to my regimen, my gums have looked a lot healthier. Shibby! I recently went off Cymbalta to try Savella (which is helping my fatigue but making me feel more pain and muscle tightness, but I love it because I can actually get enough decent sleep to function during a day! woo, tangent). The Savella seems to make my gums bleed more since they bleed sometimes when I floss and they bled more during the cleaning. Interesting how med changes change more things than one would think. Anyway, also thanks to the Savella, that feeling more pain and muscle tightness was enhanced by the tooth decay being so close to the root. This caused me to be extra thankful for the extra nitrous I got during the cleaning and I guess during the filling done the following week. This also caused me to get a glass of anesthetic via four shots during the filling, since I felt things I should not have been feeling.

One of these cheeks is not like the other.

It was frustrating for both me and my dentist, mainly because I could feel the nerve and not much of anything else and because the anesthetic seemed to wear off faster. He was also working on the back side of the back tooth, and commented that if he went any further it'd be a tonsillectomy. (Note to self: stay thankful for tonsils.)

Long story short, I survived, and I called with an update the following day since he'd asked me to call. (Incidentally, when I first started seeing him a decade ago, he called me the day after any kind of dental work to make sure that I was okay, since I'd had awful dental experiences my whole life. This happened for like four years at least. Best Dentist Ever, I'm telling ya!)

I mentioned that my cheek had swollen a bit, and he was really sorry that there wasn't anything he could do except recommend an anti-inflammatory (yay Advil liquigels) and some heat. This pic is from three hours post dental trauma last Wednesday. The next pic is from Saturday, when I noticed some bruising in the shape of a thumb. It's almost Tuesday morning and the bruising is larger and about the size of my lips but vertical, and makeup doesn't completely cover it but eh, good enough. It'll disappear soon enough.

I really like the new shower curtain.
I really don't like the bruise or the
bathroom lighting but at least we
haven't exploded yet.

My back teeth on that side are kinda starting to hurt, but I don't feel like getting them checked just yet because my dentist's office is closed this week for spring vacation. I have the number of a more local DDS in case anything goes wonky while they're gone, but meh. Hopefully the tooth will heal up fine. It'd better heal up. It's on the edge between dying and living, so it'd better choose living because I'd rather not have to go through another root canal.

In other news, the wonky bathroom lighting is fixed... for now. There are 10 lights in the master bathroom (5 over each of 2 sinks) connected to a light switch that was tripping a GFCI outlet breaker gadget in the master bedroom. This was fixed, but it kept happening, so it got fixed again. I'm still wary of it popping but so far so good.

In other other news, I am waaaaaaay behind in photo work and website work. WAY behind. As in, summer 2013 looks good instead of having everything done by this summer. We're more unpacked than before but still have maybe 50 or so boxes full of books and DVDs and CDs and assorted papers and assorted crap, but things are dwindling surely yet slowly. Considering that essentially half the stuff from the old place has already gone to Goodwill and a local e-waste place, I'm a bit appalled that we still have so much stuff, but we'll be ready to move again before we're ready to move again. That'll be a nice change. :) That's also likely to not happen any time soon, and I'm good with that. I had a great first day at a new job today, and I'll blog more about that later, but have got to say I'm quite pleased that I have a 15 minute (one way) commute. I don't think I'll ever miss the stupid long 1-1.5 hour (one way) commutes I had years ago. Never. Again.