Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Mama tried.

As I sat in the chair in the dentist's office this morning watching the strange driving habits of the people at the clinic next door, good ol' Merle Haggard ran through my head.  No, I did not turn 21 in prison doing life without parole, and the impending filling filled me with no fear or worry, though one could say it was the reason for the particular record playing in my mind's jukebox.

Unlike most of my family, I have no wisdom teeth.  No, I do not mean that they were removed, I mean I do not have any, thy never developed.  I've always gloated (just a tad) about this fact.  Until recently that is.  I went 25 years with good but not great brushing habits (I brush, just not religiously like some, and I'm not always a good flosser) and had perfect, healthy, pearly whites.  Then, 5 fillings.  They were inevitable, he told me.  My teeth have such deep, em, ridges?, that it is very hard to get all the food particles out.  Thus, preemptive, in a matter, fillings.  Today's filling was no different, except it was in one of my front teeth (lateral incisor).  No Novocaine, by the way.  (Didn't feel a thing.)

Back to the point...

Recently, I had been giving my parents a hard time.  I went to see the podiatrist to check up on the foot I mashed when I dumped a motorcycle last May and while there I asked why I had such a limited range of motion in my right ankle.  He whipped out my x-ray and slapped it up against the light board...ok he pulled it up on the computer monitor, but he looked at it and informed me that not only do I have an accessory bone in my ankle (which only about 7% of people have), but that is was three times larger than most peoples'.  So, that's why I can't wear heels.  After finding this out I kidded my parents that they thought they'd done pretty good by not giving me wisdom teeth, but it all went to my ankle instead.

They said they "tried", which is where old Merle comes in.

Monday, January 9, 2012

Made it through!

I really don't know why, but I was nervous about class today.  First day of the semester, first class time for a class which is being offered for the first time.  Nah!  Nothing to be nervous about.

It was one of those days where the hopeless (I stress hopeless) romantic in me longed to have that really thoughtful man in my life send me flowers, calla lilies (my favorite), or a very thoughtful email to make me feel very special and like I could handle anything.  Unfortunately, no such man exists...yet.  I really would have settled for a note from anyone.  "Good luck!"  "Knock 'em dead!"  "You'll do great!"  But, I soldiered on.  I grabbed my bag of books and notepad and walked briskly down the hall way.  There was a slight traffic jam and I had to fight my way through the hall, but I broke through and strode into my classroom with a smile.  "Everything is gonna be great, " I smiled to myself.  I proceeded to the podium, logged into the slightly tired computer and we were off....

Things seemed to go pretty well.  A small group (8), perfect for my first class, they appeared to be interested and not bored to death.  I didn't know how much material to plan, but it came out just about perfectly, much to my surprise.  I let them go, just a few minutes early, and cleared away my things from the podium. *sighs in relief*

Whew!  I made it through.  One class down!...only 30 left to go.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Nervous Norvis

Aaaaaaaaah!

What the hell was I thinking?  Ok, so teaching is not completely brand new to me, but this semester (my fourth as an adjunct) I am teaching two classes.  This is my fourth class of Russian History and Culture, but tomorrow is my first Elementary Russian I class.  I just finished my PowerPoint, but I'm not exactly sure how much to plan for two hours.

Deep breathing....deeeeeeep breathing...

It will be fine.  I will be ok. (repeat until calm, or pigs fly, whichever comes first)

Curveball

I've been excitedly awaiting my gastric sleeve surgery and this weekend was a three day weekend. I was planning to get so much done. Boy...