Nov 6 2019

Gums & Stuff: A Stream-of-Thought Blog Post B/C My Mind Is Mush

Category: Uncategorized

It’s definitely that point in autumn where winter is thrusting its pelvis on the horizon, because all I want to do is come home from work, put my cozy clothes on, and watch TV.

I had the day off on Monday which wasn’t that awesome because I also had my consultation with the periodontist and if you are a regular reader or like, talk to me in real life, you know that this is the reason I had been struggling to get my most recent X-ray from my former dentist which never happened even though they called me at work on Friday (the audacity!) and basically said it kept bouncing back with a tone that insinuated they felt this was my current dentist’s problem? Like, bro, maybe send a smaller file?

Whatever. I couldn’t stand the back-and-forth anymore so I just gave up and went to my appointment Xray-less.

My appointment wasn’t until 11:30 so I had all morning to pace around my house, wash dishes while staring out the window into a flashback sequence of my days skipping through meadows and splashing in babbling brooks while having healthy gums, wailing at the cats about how I’m dying of gum disease…you know, the usual things that people do before leaving for whatever appointments.

When I arrived, I immediately felt OK with the receptionist. She was normal and didn’t talk down to me like the broad at Former Dentist. I was taken back almost immediately (another thing that never happened at Former Dentist – I used to sit there for over 30 minutes, reading shit magazines) and within minutes of sitting down in the exam chair, the periodontist came in, asked me how I was doing (“Well, I’m here, so….not great” I answered while wringing my hands and he laughed), told me to call him Bob, did an exam and assured me that I was not dying and that he was going to get me all fixed up with another deep cleaning that will be done right this time. He promised me that the condition of my gums isn’t as bad as I thought so I immediately relaxed and WOW was I carrying a lot of tension over this in my shoulders!

Oh! And he took a brand new Xray, free of charge, and told me that he’s had problems in the past getting Xrays from FORMER DENTIST and I thought this was interesting because she rudely recommended other periodontists when she found out I was going to him. THERE IS SOME OF KIND OF DENTAL DRAMA GOING ON THERE.

So that part of my day off ended up being OK but now I have to wait for them to talk to my insurance or whatever behind-the-scenes bullshit happens before I can get anything scheduled so now I’m back to panicking again and dreading what’s to come because I’ve had one deep-cleaning already and it was AWFUL. However, it was a hygienist that did it and not to knock her because she was actually the only good thing about visits to Former Dentist, but I feel like having an actual gum specialist doing it this time has got to be better right? RIGHT?

Anyway, back at home, I was now doubled over in pain with cramps which I hardly ever get but that’s how you can tell that I was genuinely super-stressed out that day because wow, did it exacerbate it. So I laid on the couch and started watching last season of the Walking Dead, because I stopped at the first episode last year because my cable is dumb and was like, “Sorry, you have to pay to watch these episodes On Demand even though AMC is included in your cable package” but now the whole season is on Netflix so fuck off, Comcast.

Goddamn, I’m really glad that I didn’t fully give up TWD like I kept threatening because I fucking love Season 9! I’m almost done with it (how you know I’m ready to hibernate – I start binge-watching things) and now Henry is craning his neck and trying to see what’s going on while he’s sitting at his work bench (a/k/a the dining room table) making greeting cards, which is hilarious because he stopped watching this show way back in season 4, I think. But now it’s all, “Who’s that, where’s Rick, look out.”

I had been craving a viewing of Bram Stoker’s Dracula ever since we were at Cedar Point in September and that score was playing at one point during their Halloween event and I felt SO NOSTALGIC. I kept telling Chooch that he should watch it, that he love it, it’s so good, Winona Ryder’s in it, etc etc. He made it approximately 30-45 minutes into it because declaring, “This is boring” and peacing out. I was so offended, like I was Francis Ford Coppola himself. Or Bram Stoker.

When this movie came out, I was the same age as Chooch and I loved IT SO MUCH. I still have the soundtrack! Annie Lennox’s “Love Song For a Vampire” still gets me all choked up! I know this because I made Henry keep the movie on for the duration of the ending credits so I could hear it and see if it still made me cry. YEP. YEP IT DOES.

I thought Gary Oldman was THE GODDAMN SHIT because of that movie.

What else.

Oh! Super M collaborated with Korean Air and made a new safety video for them and now I am desperate to go back to Korea because we used Korean Air both times and loved it but now it’s clearly even better!!

That plane!! Ugh I miss Korea. I really hope I get the opportunity to go back again. ON THAT PRETTY BOY PLANE.

I’m also still kind of tired from the weekend, what with the time change, and also because we drove like 7 hours to go to Lake Compounce in Connecticut and then Dorney Park on the way home on Sunday, and this is how I can tell I’m no spring chicken anymore, because I was all whip-lashed and after that and still feel drowsy just thinking about it.

It’s fun doing these road trips with Henry and Chooch though. Henry actually slipped the other day and said that he likes going places with us so I quickly started firing off suggestions for other places we can do and he was like THAT WAS NOT AN INVITATION TO PLAN MORE TRIPS.

Don’t worry – I haven’t stopped fighting for Silver Dollar City. I am determined to get there during Thanksgiving!

I made popcorn earlier and burnt it so bad that giant tufts of smoke came billowing out of the microwave when I opened the door, and Henry started bitching about the stench as soon as he walked through the front door when returning from The Store.

(Honestly, how often do housewives go to The Store? Because this motherfucker goes like every other day! Shouldn’t he just spend the week clipping coupons and then getting everything in one fell swoop during one trip?! How does it work?! I have no idea! I used to get my groceries at the gas station down the street before Henry moved in with me!)

Nothing that exciting has happened this week aside from the news that my teeth aren’t going to fall out. Work has been quiet. The trolley commute has been uneventful. Today on my lunch break walk, I briefly thought a baby tree was a dead lumberjack being held up by a stick and I screamed a little while on the phone with Henry and he was like, “…………???????????????” so I sent him a picture of the tree and then he was like, “??????????????????????????????????????????????????

Look, my eyes are very strange, OK.

When I came home today, I happened to glance at Instagram and saw that one of the girls from KpopX – Rachel – passed away and I am really sad about it even though I didn’t know her personally. She was in all the old KpopX workouts back from 2015/2016 when I first started following their YouTube channel, and she was my favorite instructor. She was so pretty and seemed like she had a great personality. A few years ago, the leader of KpopX posted on Facebook that Rachel had leukemia, and she stopped showing up in new videos. I’m really sad but I am glad she isn’t suffering anymore. :(

This was one of my favorite routines that she’s in. She’s the one with long hair and bangs (in the video’s thumbnail, she’s the one in the middle):

 

And now it’s after 11PM and I wish to go to bed, so goodbye.

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1 Comment so far

  1. Alyson November 24th, 2020 2:47 pm

    I too watched that version of Dracula endlessly when it came out, and The Bros played the soundtrack in our room just as endlessly. Gary Oldman with long hair. Westley from The Princess Bride proposing. Anthony Hopkins. All that blood. Tom fucking Waits. How can Riley think that’s BORING OMG.

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