Things have been quiet here on the blog, as any of you who are still reading may have noticed. Life has gone on, with parenting and pedicures, cuddly boys and cat pee, celebrations and re-calibrations.
Over the last 6 months, while I’ve been avoiding posting, I’ve been thinking about my blog a lot.
I went back to work this year as a teacher, and loved nearly every minute of it. It was a big adjustment to go back not just to the “working world
I’ve always had good teeth. They had even been a source of pride for me, until I got my very first cavity at the age of 25. With all the other freakish medical issues I have, it was nice to have actually WON the genetic lottery in a part of my body.
Since my demoralizing cavity, I have flossed every night. That’s every night for 12 years. I even buy the special floss because my teeth are tight at the tips and loose at the roots. And until recently, I had my teeth cleaned every six months, regular as rain.
I finally changed dentists about 8 years ago to find one in my city. I’d been driving too far to see our old “family dentist” I’d seen since High School and came to the realization that I did not want to use my “alone time” on teeth cleaning. My first experience here was with an office with a very weird vibe, staffed by perpetually annoyed hygenists who would read my chart and sigh. I seriously expected them to start popping their gum, and talk like Valley Girls, “OMG! You are like, so way too sensitive in your mouth! It makes my job too hard! I’m so sure!”.
I finally made another switch, only to go from annoyed to alarmist. You may remember that my last dentist was so sure I had advanced tongue cancer, that she got a busy surgeon to get me in for a biopsy that very week, and she called me at home to make sure I’d followed up with that appointment. So the surgeon punched a giant hole in my tongue (I named him “Floyd“) and sent it off to the lab. It was exactly as much fun as it sounds like. Good news: no cancer! Bad news: there wasn’t really any danger in the first place, so the whole exercise was unnecessary. My doctor says I have “geographic tongue”, which means my tongue always looks like it has teeth-prints in it.
So, I couldn’t bring myself to go back to alarmist doctor, but it had been a year and a half and I really needed to see a dentist. I finally found one who seemed promising (and who actually answered the phone..but that’s another story).
Two hours and fifteen minutes later, I have been cleaned and examined and billed and fluffed. And informed that I need 2 CROWNS, 3 FILLINGS, and a NIGHT GUARD. Apparently, I grind my teeth (I’ve chipped one already and 2 have hairline fractures). This all will take 7 (yes, 7) appointments and three thousand dollars to fix (but lucky me, our insurance will pay 60%).
Either I’m really getting old, my genetic luck has completely run out, or Floyd is out to get me.
Henry starts at my bathroom and takes a long running leap onto my bed. He turns to me, smiles, and proudly says, “I do that jump over Petey all the time, and I hardly ever land on him.”
See previous edition here (at least this time, all the objects of desire are actually human).
1. I go to bed at 8 o’clock.
2. My idea of a hot date is sipping decaf coffee on the couch and watching the stuff stacked up on our DVR (see “I go to bed at 8″, above).
3. Most of my instructions to my computer class involve the phrases “Back in my day…” and “You don’t know how good you have it”.
4. I get irritated when my boys are standing “in my light”, making it hard to see.
5. I drink my morning coffee hot, even in the peak of summer.
6. I can’t eat rich food for dinner, or it will keep me up all night.
7. When I heard the news that school was 2 hours late this morning, I was unable to go back to sleep. So I got up, cleaned the kitchen, and went to work early.
I finally broke through the fatigue of 7 flights, round-the-clock goings-on, and a 16-hour time difference. When? At 1:08 this morning. Ping! I was finally awake, eyes wide open and mind in gear for the first time in days. I have slept most of the rest of the week.
We got back from our amazing trip to the Philippines and Hong Kong early Wednesday morning. I tumbled into bed at 9am PST, and didn’t get up till midnight! Henry and I were up half the night together, then got back to sleep around 5 and up at noon. Friday I managed to get myself to work and then crashed again at 8:30pm. I didn’t get up until 4pm yesterday! Dave thought I might sleep 24 hours straight through.
So anyway, dinner was in the crockpot by 3am; my Bible study is done for the week. I graded a bunch of papers and made 2 batches of scones, all before church this morning. I fully expect to crash hard around dinner time, but it sure feels good to be coherent again. The fatigue this week was so all-encompassing. When it’s so bad like that, I start to worry if I’ll ever feel good again – if I’ll ever manage to DO anything again. One dinner and an empty dishwasher later, I am reassured.
The trip was worth every bit of exhaustion. I can’t wait to tell more about it. Now that my brain is working again, hopefully I’ll be able to put some thoughts together.
No time to write an entry – we are all go-go-go! Just wanted to say the wedding was beautiful, and so moving. I cried the whole way through.
After the ceremony, we danced on the beach in the rain. It was fabulous.
More photos here.
So here it is, a day late, but it brought a couple extra dollars with it! It didn’t really start until 3 am, and our district waited until 5:45 to make the call, but the right call was made.
We had about 3 inches by 9am, and it’s snowed steadily ever since. We rarely get this much snow here, but when we do, I always think about Pooh-Bear:
[Pooh] jumped up and down to keep warm, and a hum came suddenly into his head, which seemed to him a Good Hum, such as is Hummed Hopefully to Others.
            The more it snows
                (Tiddely pom),
            The more it goes
                (Tiddely pom),
            The more it goes
                (Tiddely pom)
            On snowing.
            And nobody knows
                (Tiddely pom),
            How cold my toes
                (Tiddely pom),
            How cold my toes
                (Tiddely pom),
            Are growing.
Usually, the school districts seem the last entities to jump on the “snow” band wagon – the first being Jim Forman, school kids, and network weather. But for the first time in (my) recorded history, we had a snow day today with NO SNOW.
Sure, school has been closed for reasons other than snow before: boiler burst, flooding in the library, trees on the roof – but never has it been closed for snow that Didn’t. Actually. Appear. Schools usually wait until the threat is perilously treacherous, and even then they usually hedge their bets with a paltry “two hours late”. But this time, the school districts here got snowed.
The usually-reliable-and-somewhat-conservative National Weather Wervice was predicting 30% chance of snow on Tuesday (didn’t happen, but the odds weren’t that great) and a shocking 100%(!) chance of snow all day today. We woke up to drier roads than we’ve had all week, but schools were still closed – they heard the reports of imminent and heavy snow for the day and probably figured it would be a royal pain to send kids home early (it’s nearly impossible) and called the day off instead. The thing is, it’s 7:14pm, and there’s still no snow.
The networks are covering their bases, saying “the (Olympic) mountains ‘stole’ all our snow”. The districts north and west of us are covered in a few inches – but they are more likely to get snow anyway. Us? Our roads are bare and dry. Monday I was praying for a late start after this weekend’s ACTUAL snow, but our district was one of the only ones to abstain. I had to navigate a bit of ice on my way to work, but it wasn’t too bad. But today? Bare. And. Dry. We actually have less snow today than was on the ground on Monday.
So, the boys and I were holed up here with no snow to speak of. A snow day just doesn’t have the same feel when there’s no actual snow. I’m glad I didn’t have to teach today – trying to keep a bunch of snow-watching 7th graders on task would have been nearly impossible – but it wasn’t a great day at home, either.
Of course, the weather service is saying “No, really – that snow is still coming…just after midnight TONIGHT, not LAST night. I guess we were off by a day. Ha ha. It could happen to anyone.” I guess we’ll see what tomorrow holds. Although I suppose that the districts, not wanting to fall for it again, will wait for near white-out conditions before even considering a “one hour late start”.
p.s. If you’ve read this far into this post that has no real point – congratulations! As your reward, please go check out this post by Defective Yeti – a man far more humorous than I. Of course, if you’re under 30, his post will make no sense at all.
I always cry at some point on Election Day. It’s often on my way to work, as I witness people on opposing sides of the issues standing on the opposing sides of one street, each freely able to express their views without fear. Sometimes it’s after dropping my ballot in the box. Tonight, it was during John McCain’s concession speech.
I admire much about John McCain. In 2000, he was my favorite candidate in the primaries. Had he pulled a “Lieberman” and gone Independent in 2004, I would have strongly considered voting for him. I didn’t like the 2008 McCain, probably because in order to gather the Republican support, he had to take stands on many issues that I don’t believe in. I am an unabashed liberal, but I admired his original willingness to take a stand and speak his mind.
Clearly in this election, I was pulling for Obama. I put my time and my money and my voice behind him. I am very glad he won, but this night I was moved the most by John McCain.
McCain invoked everything that is beautiful about America: hope, unity, belief in cooperation and valuing each other’s differences. He spoke eloquently about our America, this country that we ALL love. He hushed his supporters when they tried to boo, and made them listen as he praised Obama’s sacrifice, tenacity, and strength and purity of character. He encouraged his supporters to help Obama and to come together. “Whatever our differences, we are fellow Americans,” McCain said. He walked us through the historic moment that this election is to us. He reminded us that just a short while ago, Blacks in this country were treated so unfairly that an invitation for an African American to dine in the White House was seen as scandalous. Now a Black person will be living in the White House and that is truly historic indeed.
McCain emphasized that he ran for President for the same reason that Obama did: because they are both so committed to this great nation and love America so much they would do anything to further her cause. McCain also showed his class by stating that running for President was his proudest acheivement. “Today, I was a candidate for the highest office in the country I love so much, and tonight, I remain her servant,
