I survived the dentist
Anyone who knows me and has mentioned dentistry in the last, oh, well pretty much ever knows that I’m kind of adverse to going to the dentist. In fact I’m not positive of the exact date of my last dental check up, but I was 14 or 15 which makes it just about 20 years ago. My experiences with that dentist were not wonderful. He gave me a filling and then in my next visit said there was something on my tooth and proceeded to rip out the filling he’d put in previously. He was one of those dentists who liked to teach kids a lesson about why they should brush their teeth. So the lesson I learned was brush and floss all the time and never ever ever ever go back to a dentist again.
Over the last 20 years I’ve had several things come up where I probably should have gone to a dentist. Wisdom teeth growing in and hurting to the point where I couldn’t talk. Something getting infected or abscessed or who knows what but lots of puss pouring out of my gum surrounding a tooth or two for a while. That same thing again a few years later. Because I’m a stubborn jerk, all of these challenges were met with resistance of seeking professional help and I resorted to Advil and Peroxide. Luckily that did the trick and the nasty stuff went away and all was back to normal. Sure I was scared to death of what they might do, but I was also convinced I’d need a ton of work which I wouldn’t be able to afford. So I chose ignorance – better to not know exactly how messed up things were and not worry about it, then get a detailed report of things that I couldn’t fix and eventually add an ulcer to that. This was my logic and it made sense to me, so whatever.
My dreams of never seeing the inside of a dental office were smashed a few years ago when I found a cavity. It didn’t hurt, but I knew what it was and knew that they don’t just heal themselves so eventually it would get to the point where I’d have to go get it taken care of. The question was simply how long could I last. I have to admit I’ve been extremely lucky because since then it’s never hurt me once. A few weeks ago Tara told me she booked me a dentist appointment and I figured that it was time to pay the piper. And by piper I mean the dentist. Of course.
This was me earlier today sitting in the waiting room before my appointment, not at all psyched to be there:
Funny enough I tweeted this morning that I was going to the dentist and people responded telling me how much had changed in the last 20 years but I swear everything was exactly like I remembered it. Maybe the dentist we chose just hadn’t updated his office or tools in 20 years, but I didn’t see any miracle of new technology when I got there. Anyway, I told him I hadn’t been to the dentist in such a long time and he said “OK let’s take a look” and shoved a mirror on a stick in my mouth and looked around. He said something like “Not that bad actually” then walked away.
I suspected he meant only half my teeth were rotting out of my head rather than all of them. When he came back he said “The reason you haven’t had to go to a dentist in such a long time is because your teeth look like they are in pretty good shape.” I was kind of shocked. He then took some X-Rays and moved on to the cleaning. For years people have been telling me that cleanings don’t hurt anymore but this mostly felt like he was cutting off my gums every step of the way. When he was finished he said “you floss don’t you?” and I told him I did so I was glad it seemed to have made a difference. I braced myself for the prognosis expecting a laundry list of things needing urgent attention.
One cavity.
The one I already knew about.
Everything else was A-OK. Holy crap.
The cleaning did indeed suck and now my teeth feel all weird and sharp, but I can’t believe how wrong I’d been and it’s such a relief. I still have to go back for the filling which I’m SOOO FUCKING NOT LOOKING FORWARD TO but it’s so much less than I was expecting. I’m glad Tara finally forced me to do it. So yeah, that was my day.
On Solo Travel
My friend Sloane just wrote a blog post directed to her sister about traveling alone that really nails my feelings about it as well. She writes:
“Travel is your chance to take ownership over your life – every decision you make today is yours and yours alone. Where you go, what you eat, how you deal with situations – I’ve found travel to be the one thing that picks me up when I’m down and rebuilds confidence in my ability to trust my instincts, make plans and follow through with them and yet also throw caution to the wind and abandon all plans and just go where the day take you.”
I couldn’t agree more. If you know anything about me you know I travel a lot and I love traveling with friends, as well as traveling and meeting up with friends, but there is some serious gold in traveling by yourself that is like nothing else in the world. Especially to places you’ve never been, though places you’ve been just enough to not feel totally lost are equally amazing. I’ve done it through out my life but often as more of a compulsion and never really thought out why, though Sloane kind of nails it here. When you are out in the world on your own, and only have yourself to rely on, you get to trust yourself completely and nothing builds your own confidence in yourself like that. I’ve been to cities and sat in a hotel room the entire time, and also wandered the streets aimlessly. I’ve seen great sights and also just sat on a bench and watched people. There is something about being the only one you have to think about and doing whatever whim you have that is magic.
If you haven’t been on a trip somewhere by yourself recently I highly recommend it. I always come back with new found faith in myself. I bet you will too.
Pair Down June
A friend once told me of a plan to reduce the build up around their house by picking a month each year and making a rule that any time he/she left the house that month they had to take something that required two hands to carry out of the house with them. I can’t recall whose idea this was or I’d give them credit for it. I also recall when Cory was moving from LA to London he had a policy not to take any new physical items into his possession and just about anyone who visited he and Alice walked out with something they’d given them. Of course his plan was he didn’t want to move anything extra across the world, but it was interesting none the less.
I’m still trying to reduce things myself an the other day while selling back a box of DVD’s to Amoeba came up with this idea. For June I’m going to practice a morphed combo of the two practices above. Of course I can’t be as cut and dry but my plan is as follows: For the entire month I’m not going to acquire any new physical objects with a few noted exceptions. Anything I’ve bought previously but hasn’t yet been delivered (amazon preordered books for example) don’t count because they are out of my control. Additionally, consolidation is a step in the right direction even if it required new things to replace the old – however the new thing must take up less space than the old, and can only be bought with funds obtained by selling the old stuff. For example if I had 5 jackets and sold them each for $50, and replaced them with a new jacket that cost $100 this would be OK as the end result would be 4 less jackets than I previously had, as well as extra cash from the reduction.
Admittedly this is going to be hard, but I’m committed to it and really want to put a dent in my stuff by the end of the month and for some accountability I’m going to post the results here as I go. Starting with the thing that sparked the idea.
SOLD: 25 DVDs
links for 2009-05-25
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