Apparently I don't have one original bone in my body. Someone beat me to my own blog by a couple years. Too bad this admirable spinster vanished into oblivion. I only just found her site and I already miss her. Sniff sniff.
Anyway, if I were a stereotypical feminist, I would be her in about 8 years. But seeing as how I'm of the Catholic-Dr. Laura listening-non male bashing-gender role supporting variety, maybe I'm original after all. Or maybe I'm just a nun without the habit. And without the holiness.
21st Century Spinster
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Dental Woes Continued
Well, I'm not "woeing" quite as much, but still quite worried if a dental implant will be the best thing for me. I went back to the periodontist for an implant consultation. I must say, kinda have a crush on the man. He's an older guy with quite the bald head, but his pleasant demeanor and exotic accent just make him sexy. Plus, he's the type of man that looks at a woman like a woman, not a piece of meat nor an inanimate object. Anyway, he's better than my dentist, that's for damn sure.
So anyway, he brought me his laptop to show me examples of the work he's done with implants. His temporaries look a lot better than any of my permanent crowns. Looks like his lab does decent work as well.
I'll think it over some more, but I think this may be the route to take. It'll be a GRIP, $3500 out of pocket, but thank God I'm taking out about that much for my healthcare reimbursement account.
So now, off to the movies I go!
So anyway, he brought me his laptop to show me examples of the work he's done with implants. His temporaries look a lot better than any of my permanent crowns. Looks like his lab does decent work as well.
I'll think it over some more, but I think this may be the route to take. It'll be a GRIP, $3500 out of pocket, but thank God I'm taking out about that much for my healthcare reimbursement account.
So now, off to the movies I go!
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Boredom
It's been a while since my last post. The only exciting thing to have happened was that I went to see Jaguares at the Pantages last week with my friend Carmen. It was awesome! Our seats were in the orchestra pit in the second row of chairs, so Saul was practically sweating on us. It was better than being at the House of Blues because we were able to sit and it was nice and cool in there. After the concert, Carmen and I signed up for Amnesty International and got free tshirts with the Jaguares logo and a message about stopping the violence against women in Juarez.
Saturday is a Groupie outing day for Luz and Wacky. And next week are my mom's and sister's bdays. I need to go shopping!!
Saturday is a Groupie outing day for Luz and Wacky. And next week are my mom's and sister's bdays. I need to go shopping!!
Thursday, September 08, 2005
Dental Woes
(Excerpt from a Foxy Croppers post, therefore redundant to the Foxies)
So clumsy me fell straight onto my face when I was 10 years old and ruined one of my front teeth. I've obviously never had the best of dental care, and no one seemed to notice that my tooth was all effed up until 6 years ago when I started going back regularly. When it came to fixing my damaged front tooth, the dentist and I had a little misunderstanding and he ended up filing my tooth down and putting a series of hideous crowns on it.
So fastforward to this year, the fake tooth is loose and needs to be replaced. I've spent the whole summer going from one dentist to a specialist (and back again )who don't seem to communicate with each other and certainly not with me. After being told by the specialist that my tooth and gum were fine, all I needed was a new better quality crown without plastics in it because of my latex allergy (supposedly that's what was causing my gum to be so irritated), I went back to my regular dentist today to put a temporary crown. Well now apparently the tooth is in terrible shape. Mind you, this is THE FIRST TIME the dentist has looked me in the eye and actually spoken to me. Usually he's in such a rush that he comes to do his business and goes onto the next pt without ever asking me how I'm doing.
Anyway, today I guess he finally noticed how nervous I was and teary eyed, so he took the time to tell me that my tooth is basically shot to hell and explained my options.
1. Proceed with a crown lenghthening in an attempt to save my tooth (which the dentist seems to feel might be a waste of money and energy)
2. Get a bridge where they'd have to crown the adjacent teeth (I'm not liking the thought of MORE crowns after all the crappy ones I've had so far)
3. Pull the tooth out and get an implant
I wonder if it's possible to get an implant and the get veneers on the adjacent teeth instead of crowns?
I won't be smiling much for the next few weeks. This temporary crown is the worst I've ever had! The others were way too big, this one is sooo small! It feels like a nub. Yuck.
I should have tried out for The Swan. The free dental work would have been worth the humiliation of sobbing my fool head off about my poor self-esteem. Actually, I've been hearing this a lot as of late, and I must say, I do struggle with certain issues, but as a whole I have pretty darn good self-esteem. I may be self-conscious about certain things (my snaggly toof), but I think I'm alright.
So back to being thankful, that always helps me when I throw myself a pity party. I should be happy that I have any teeth at all. I once had a pt, bike vs pole and the pole won. This kid knocked all this front teeth out, not just a couple, HIS ENTIRE SMILE WAS GONE! How miserable would that be?
Almost feeling better. Of course it helps that I've decided to sequester myself in my apartment. I don't want any contact with anyone and am seriously considering using my plethora of sick time next week. I'm helping out a fellow Foxy Cropper Ginger at the Memories Expo tomorrow. Darn! I forgot 3 of my coworkers are going. Shite. The jig is up. I have to go to work next week.
I'm hungry but I don't know what I can eat. I guess I'll subsist purely on bananas and Lucky Charms for a few weeks for fear of dropping this temp crown. Visions of biting into an In n' Out burger and having my tooth get stuck in it...sigh.
So clumsy me fell straight onto my face when I was 10 years old and ruined one of my front teeth. I've obviously never had the best of dental care, and no one seemed to notice that my tooth was all effed up until 6 years ago when I started going back regularly. When it came to fixing my damaged front tooth, the dentist and I had a little misunderstanding and he ended up filing my tooth down and putting a series of hideous crowns on it.
So fastforward to this year, the fake tooth is loose and needs to be replaced. I've spent the whole summer going from one dentist to a specialist (and back again )who don't seem to communicate with each other and certainly not with me. After being told by the specialist that my tooth and gum were fine, all I needed was a new better quality crown without plastics in it because of my latex allergy (supposedly that's what was causing my gum to be so irritated), I went back to my regular dentist today to put a temporary crown. Well now apparently the tooth is in terrible shape. Mind you, this is THE FIRST TIME the dentist has looked me in the eye and actually spoken to me. Usually he's in such a rush that he comes to do his business and goes onto the next pt without ever asking me how I'm doing.
Anyway, today I guess he finally noticed how nervous I was and teary eyed, so he took the time to tell me that my tooth is basically shot to hell and explained my options.
1. Proceed with a crown lenghthening in an attempt to save my tooth (which the dentist seems to feel might be a waste of money and energy)
2. Get a bridge where they'd have to crown the adjacent teeth (I'm not liking the thought of MORE crowns after all the crappy ones I've had so far)
3. Pull the tooth out and get an implant
I wonder if it's possible to get an implant and the get veneers on the adjacent teeth instead of crowns?
I won't be smiling much for the next few weeks. This temporary crown is the worst I've ever had! The others were way too big, this one is sooo small! It feels like a nub. Yuck.
I should have tried out for The Swan. The free dental work would have been worth the humiliation of sobbing my fool head off about my poor self-esteem. Actually, I've been hearing this a lot as of late, and I must say, I do struggle with certain issues, but as a whole I have pretty darn good self-esteem. I may be self-conscious about certain things (my snaggly toof), but I think I'm alright.
So back to being thankful, that always helps me when I throw myself a pity party. I should be happy that I have any teeth at all. I once had a pt, bike vs pole and the pole won. This kid knocked all this front teeth out, not just a couple, HIS ENTIRE SMILE WAS GONE! How miserable would that be?
Almost feeling better. Of course it helps that I've decided to sequester myself in my apartment. I don't want any contact with anyone and am seriously considering using my plethora of sick time next week. I'm helping out a fellow Foxy Cropper Ginger at the Memories Expo tomorrow. Darn! I forgot 3 of my coworkers are going. Shite. The jig is up. I have to go to work next week.
I'm hungry but I don't know what I can eat. I guess I'll subsist purely on bananas and Lucky Charms for a few weeks for fear of dropping this temp crown. Visions of biting into an In n' Out burger and having my tooth get stuck in it...sigh.
Monday, September 05, 2005
Gratitude
I am just numb after seeing so many images of destruction and despair from Louisiana. I can't even begin to imagine the despair the residents of New Orleans must be feeling now.
I thought I'd do an exercise in gratitude by counting my blessings.
- Family: It may not be the typical Mexican family, but it works for us. For so long my family consisted of my mom, my sister, and me. But now I'm fortunate to include my niece, my 2 nephews, my brother-in-law (whom I used to despise but now he's like my own brother), fictive kin (my BIL's friend and his family), my tia (we're still not clear on how we're related, but we are)...and I'm thankful that I was able to get to know extended family in Mexico (again, not sure how we're related anymore) this past December.
- Friends: Of course there's The Groupie...lately I've been very sappy about how much they mean to me. Today I was cleaning up my old computer's files when I ran across a 409 page document comprised of old emails from the Groupie from 1995 to 1999. I need to get those printed out and put in a book. It's too bad I didn't save many emails from 1999 to 2003. It's a good thing our Yahoo site archives all the email since we first started using it 2 years ago. Anyway, I'm blessed with enduring friendships from high school, as well as more recent ones. My friend Maricar and I still keep in contact after working together at CHLA and going through the Internship Program. She left in 2001, but we still KIT. Another friend, Yojana, and I met in 1997 at LACC in a microbio class. She dropped the class and soon moved to Texas, but we've managed to keep in touch (mostly due to her efforts) and I even went to her wedding a couple of years ago.
While I'm on the subject, I might as well mention that there are 3 friendships that meant a lot to me that I've managed to lose. Katie, my freshman year roommate, and I became good friends. I went to her wedding too, but now she's MIA. I really miss her, but I hope whatever she's up to now brings her much happiness. Robert and I met at the USC Catholic Center in 1996. We were good buds and many mistook us for siblings (must have been the nose). I tried to go to his wedding, but lacking an actual invitation and apparently misunderstanding (I hope that's what it was) the time of the ceremony, that friendship fell by the wayside. And then Joe Mama. I don't know how or why, but I offended him in some terrible way that he never spoke to me again. It's a running gag now, whenever I see him at work I ask him if he's still mad at me. He just smiles and laughs it off, but doens't say anything. Maybe one of these days he'll forget he's angry at me and he'll just start shooting the shit.
So that last part was random, but I figured if I was talking about friendships I might as well discuss that. Anyway, I can tie it back into the whole gratitude thing by reminding myself of how lucky I was to have had those friendships, limited as they were. They served their purpose at the time I suppose, so for that I should be grateful.
- Work: OK, I may just be getting old and or malnourished, but work has been really tiring lately. The work itself isn't any different, just my reaction to it I suppose. I'm just fatigued. But, I'm VERY lucky to have a job I love and that provides me with the means to do the things I like to do. It's far better to have too much work than none at all. Now if we could just manager to pull off a decent Holiday Party sans bowling alley, that would be sweet.
- Love: Of course I have love in my life, but as the title of my blog insinuates, none of this love is of the Cupid kind. So why should I even bother being grateful for this? Good question. I've realized in the last few months that while the 2 major relationships of my life ended badly, they were quite lovely while they lasted and will always provide me with warm fuzzy memories, downright hysterical moments, and invaluable lessons. My mother still prays that someone will come into my life who will "honor and respect me as a human being and not as paycheck" (exactly how much money does my mom think I make that some schmuck would consider it a privilege to part me from it?!?). My prayers for that are over, but I do thank God I had the chance to have the love of good men for at least a while. Ooh, that last sentence sounds almost hedonistic. I'm running with it, after all, I'm establishing myself as a 21st Century Spinster. I really should trademark that.
So those are just a few of my blessings.
I thought I'd do an exercise in gratitude by counting my blessings.
- Family: It may not be the typical Mexican family, but it works for us. For so long my family consisted of my mom, my sister, and me. But now I'm fortunate to include my niece, my 2 nephews, my brother-in-law (whom I used to despise but now he's like my own brother), fictive kin (my BIL's friend and his family), my tia (we're still not clear on how we're related, but we are)...and I'm thankful that I was able to get to know extended family in Mexico (again, not sure how we're related anymore) this past December.
- Friends: Of course there's The Groupie...lately I've been very sappy about how much they mean to me. Today I was cleaning up my old computer's files when I ran across a 409 page document comprised of old emails from the Groupie from 1995 to 1999. I need to get those printed out and put in a book. It's too bad I didn't save many emails from 1999 to 2003. It's a good thing our Yahoo site archives all the email since we first started using it 2 years ago. Anyway, I'm blessed with enduring friendships from high school, as well as more recent ones. My friend Maricar and I still keep in contact after working together at CHLA and going through the Internship Program. She left in 2001, but we still KIT. Another friend, Yojana, and I met in 1997 at LACC in a microbio class. She dropped the class and soon moved to Texas, but we've managed to keep in touch (mostly due to her efforts) and I even went to her wedding a couple of years ago.
While I'm on the subject, I might as well mention that there are 3 friendships that meant a lot to me that I've managed to lose. Katie, my freshman year roommate, and I became good friends. I went to her wedding too, but now she's MIA. I really miss her, but I hope whatever she's up to now brings her much happiness. Robert and I met at the USC Catholic Center in 1996. We were good buds and many mistook us for siblings (must have been the nose). I tried to go to his wedding, but lacking an actual invitation and apparently misunderstanding (I hope that's what it was) the time of the ceremony, that friendship fell by the wayside. And then Joe Mama. I don't know how or why, but I offended him in some terrible way that he never spoke to me again. It's a running gag now, whenever I see him at work I ask him if he's still mad at me. He just smiles and laughs it off, but doens't say anything. Maybe one of these days he'll forget he's angry at me and he'll just start shooting the shit.
So that last part was random, but I figured if I was talking about friendships I might as well discuss that. Anyway, I can tie it back into the whole gratitude thing by reminding myself of how lucky I was to have had those friendships, limited as they were. They served their purpose at the time I suppose, so for that I should be grateful.
- Work: OK, I may just be getting old and or malnourished, but work has been really tiring lately. The work itself isn't any different, just my reaction to it I suppose. I'm just fatigued. But, I'm VERY lucky to have a job I love and that provides me with the means to do the things I like to do. It's far better to have too much work than none at all. Now if we could just manager to pull off a decent Holiday Party sans bowling alley, that would be sweet.
- Love: Of course I have love in my life, but as the title of my blog insinuates, none of this love is of the Cupid kind. So why should I even bother being grateful for this? Good question. I've realized in the last few months that while the 2 major relationships of my life ended badly, they were quite lovely while they lasted and will always provide me with warm fuzzy memories, downright hysterical moments, and invaluable lessons. My mother still prays that someone will come into my life who will "honor and respect me as a human being and not as paycheck" (exactly how much money does my mom think I make that some schmuck would consider it a privilege to part me from it?!?). My prayers for that are over, but I do thank God I had the chance to have the love of good men for at least a while. Ooh, that last sentence sounds almost hedonistic. I'm running with it, after all, I'm establishing myself as a 21st Century Spinster. I really should trademark that.
So those are just a few of my blessings.
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