Erf....

Don't mind me; just enjoying the aftershocks of the latest in a long line of dental hijinks.  For those of you who don't know, I had a root canal a while back.  Other than the length of time you have to keep your mouth open for one of those, though, it wasn't anywhere near as bad as they're reputed to be.  The fun part came later.  I went back to my dentist to get a temporary crown, while they sent away to this dental supply group (or whoever it is that makes permanent crowns) to get the real thing made.  Apparently, it's real precise work to get the bite to line up and all.  So, I had that temporary for about two weeks, I think it was, and then I came in to get the permanent.  The permanent looks like a real tooth, color and everything, because it's coated with porceline (sp?).  That should have been it, but as it turns out, there must've been some flaw in the crown, because less than a week later, it broke into several pieces.  Sure, that could be blamed on me, I suppose, except that a) it's supposed to be as durable as a normal tooth, and b) it broke on chewing gum.  So I got a brief emergency appointment to get the rough surfaces sanded down so they'd stop irritating my tongue, and later came back in to have the broken crown removed and a new temporary put on it while they sent away for the second permanent.

As you can probably tell from calling it the "second" one, that one didn't do any better.  To fit it onto my tooth, the dentist lines it up and puts it on a little ways, and then gives me a piece of gauze to bite on, to push the crown on the rest of the way to test the fit.  Well, I guess #2 didn't fit, because when I bit down on the gauze, it shattered.  (I should probably mention that the first one breaking that quickly was already pretty weird.  This is just unreal with number two, or so I'm told.)  So the old temporary was replaced, and I had to wait for another two weeks.  Meanwhile, I'm supposed to be getting my wisdom teeth removed, and I'm due for a cleaning/check-up, all of which is waiting on this crown.

Crown #3: Now we're not messing around anymore.  This crown only has the white finish on the part facing my cheek; the rest is just metal.  (Considering it's a molar in the back, I wasn't all that concerned with what it looked like to begin with.)  My dentist fit it on and gave me the gauze to bite down on again.  "Are you sure?" I joked, but she said to go ahead and bite down, since last time was just a freak accident.  I guess I'm good at causing freak accidents.  Right after I bit down and felt it slide on, her assistant walked in and asked how it looked.  My dentist just sat there in disbelief and said "It looks like I wanna cry."  The crown didn't outright shatter this time, but the proceline (sp) part did fracture when it went on, and a fracture would lead to it breaking if I chewed on anything even remotely hard.  So, the "permanent" came back off and the "temporary" went back on.  (I should point out that this so-called "temporary" has lasted me, without problem, since the first crown broke.)  I got my new appointment for two weeks later, to be combined with a filling (since they did the cleaning and crown in one shot this time).

Crown #4: Hooray!  It stayed!  And at the risk of jinxing it, it is still here now, several weeks later, with no sign of breaking.  Of course, that only means that now I could move on to getting teeth ripped out of my head.

All four of my wisdom teeth had to be taken out, and I've already had two of them removed on Monday the 2nd.  Oddly enough, that procedure was kinda like the root canal, in that it wasn't nearly as bad as I'd expected it to be.  On the other hand, that could have something to do with the multiple shots of novacaine....  Now that those are gone, the empty sockets where the teeth once were have been healing nicely, and haven't really bothered me much at all (nevermind how annoying the post-procedure care instructions were).  My jaw, on the other hand, has been so friggin' stiff and painful that I still can't open it very wide.  That doesn't seem to impede talking at all (I guess you don't have to open wide for that), but it's making eating a real chore, and heaven help me if I yawn.  So far, I know I can't manage hamburgers or even really sandwiches without cutting them up into tiny pieces.  *sigh*

Ah well, that's all the update I have for now.

Yeah, so I haven't updated in a while.  So sue me.

Anyway, I drove out to Purdue Calumet today to register for one (maybe two) classes for the summer semester, so I could finally get back to that whole college thing, and perhaps even graduate sometime before I'm thirty.  As it turns out, though, PC isn't terribly interested in helping me there.  At least, not unless I waste about $430 or so first.  Apparently, starting last semester, it became university policy that any student on academic probation would be required to register for a class called "Learning Strategies" before being allowed to register for any other classes.  This class costs $431.25, is stuck between two semesters, and is only offered at one time, in the morning (because of course one would expect the majority of people on academic probation to not be slackers, and thus have no problems with mornings, right?)  This class is being applied with the shotgun approach, required for all students on academic probation, regardless of the circumstances that got them there.  So, I suppose this class will not only teach me how to study (cuz that hasn't been tried before), but it will also teach me how to not be depressed, and perhaps how to not be affected by any other circumstance or situation that may affect my academic standing or ability to apply myself to the classes at hand.  I was half expecting to hear that the class cures baldness, too.

So, as much as I'd prefer to go back to Purdue and get my act together, they seem deadset on forcing me to go elsewhere, and unless something happens to convince me that the wasted time and money are worth it, it looks like I may have to get a fresh start over at IUN.  (Nothing against IUN, of course; I'd just prefer to finish where I started.)  Ah, well, that's enough of a rant for now.  Maybe I'll add to that later tonight.  Or maybe tomorrow.  Or next week.

Maybe it won't be for months.  Who knows?

Happy New Year!

Okay, so it's a little late, but gimme a break; I haven't updated in a while.  I'm not really going to right now, either, but it's on my to-do list, I promise.

Just to keep you all entertained, though, here's a great quote to start off the new year with, courtesy of an exceptionally drunk Denise. :P

"Eileen, I love you.  You're so hot.  If I were a lesbian, I would so eat you out."

Hope everyone's New Year's celebration was happy and safe, and with any luck I'll update this thing again sometime this month.

Well, it's been a while (again), so I suppose I owe an update of some kind.  Let's see....

November sucked, plain and simple.  It stuck with the pattern of "every day is worse than the one before it" that I had going, to the point that I went just about the entire month without going to work, even.  I spent most of the time asleep, or as good as asleep on the couch.  I'm using the word "sleep" loosely, though, because sleep implies getting rested, and that certainly never happened.

Somewhere toward the end of November, though, after Thanksgiving, something changed.  I have no idea what or when, exactly, but something is obviously different.  Maybe it's just the Christmas season.  Whatever it may be, though, I'm more awake now.  That's relative to before, of course, so I still feel tired pretty much all the time, but at least it's the kind of tired that can be grudgingly worked through now, instead of the "I may as well be in a coma" kind.

So far this month, I've been able to make it in to work pretty much every other day, which I suppose is better than never making it in at all.  I'd prefer not having to sleep all day in between, though.  Of course, for that matter, I'd prefer to not be tired all the time, and I'd prefer to just be a functional human being like everyone else...maybe not all the time, but 9-5, Monday through Friday at least would be nice.

Anyway, though, at least I have income again.  It won't mean much for a while, though, because I've got all my backlogged bills to pay up before I can even pretend to have any money yet, and on top of that, Christmas is only a couple of weeks away yet, and I've got to come up with the money to buy my family some Christmas presents, too.  Where I'm gonna get the money for that, I'm really not sure, but 'tis the season for miracles, so I won't sign off on that until it's passed.

Speaking of bills, Fifth Third Bank has resumed its harassment of my family.  Their autodialer calls our house roughly ten times daily, starting at around 8:00 AM (weekends included).  Even better, though, is that these are hang-up calls now.  They've been told on numerous occasions that I can't be reached at that number, so their idea of removing the number from their records is leaving the number on the dialer, but not even bothering to play a message when someone answers.  Meanwhile, they have my cell phone number, and they know that I can be reached at that number, but it's been months since the last (and I think only) time Fifth Third could be bothered to try that number.

I can't stress this enough: Fifth Third Bank is nothing more than a bully and a crook in corporate form.  They provide no services (although they certainly claim they do), they misrepresent billing information (when they bother to represent it at all), outright lie to their customers about what the law does and doesn't require of them, and have their lawyers standing by to destroy the lives of any who don't want to pay Fifth Third for the great humanitarian service of existing and taking up space.  Do not ever open any accounts with Fifth Third.  Don't get credit cards through Fifth Third.  If you are in any way associated with Fifth Third, you should be looking for a new bank.  You'd be safer with Bubba's Hows o' Moneyz than with the festering financial sore of Fifth Third.  (You'd think my life was difficult enough without someone actively making it worse; thank God I have Fifth Third to show me how much worse things can be.)

Well, I have to give Bush some credit: His presidency is controversial enough to pull even the most apathetic, jaded Americans from their homes to the polling places, either to support the "great crusader", or to get rid of the "[expletives deleted]".  Even I voted, believe it or not.

I wish there was a candidate I actually wanted to vote for, but sadly, I couldn't find one.  I won't say who I actually voted for, but I will say that it turned my stomach to do so.  At the risk of alienating myself from some friends, I felt it was my patriotic duty to cast a vote against Bush, whether or not I liked the other options.  As bad as my choices were, I still felt they were better than the incumbant.  I could go on, but I have nothing to say that hasn't already been said, and this argument is worse than arguing religion or abortion.  I hope everyone voted as they believed, and may the best (or, in my jaded opinion, the least detrimental) man win.

Happy Election Day.