Journey's End

Am back. Had a great time. Do not want to return to the real world.

Adventures In Time And Space

In a couple of hours, I am heading off to Gallifrey! Well, the Gallifrey One Doctor Who convention, that is, not actual Gallifrey. That's kind of inaccessible these days.

I am taking with me a large dental syringe and a small jar of salt, for my salt-water dental rinses of food-dislodgement. Any bets on whether I get stopped by airport security and accused of having drug paraphernalia?

I'm Sick Of Playing Hide And Seek With Pieces Of Food.

OK, this thing of having giant gaping holes in my gums is getting really old really fast. Can't we just stick some spackle in there or something?

The Treadmill Saga: The Final Chapter?

So, the repair guy showed up today, fiddled with the treadmill, said it looked to him like a whole bunch of different things were broken, none of which we had the parts for, and put a call into Horizon, whom he couldn't get to answer their phones either, even though he had an actual direct extension.

Then, while he was waiting to see if they'd call him back -- which they didn't -- he decided that, well, he'd try replacing this one thing they had sent him the part for, even though he didn't think that was it... And lo and behold, it worked! I now have a functional treadmill! And it only took six full weeks!

He did point out that the plastic tray thingy that sits underneath the motor is cracked, apparently due to the incompetent shipping company dropping it at some point. But that isn't affecting its functioning at all. (They might replace it at some point anyway. I think they should. The damned thing is still under warranty and ought to be in perfect shape. But for the moment, I'm not too concerned about it.)

Whew! Now I just need to get up the energy and the motivation to actually use the thing.

Toothless

I seem to be healing up very nicely! Enough so that my mother, having ascertained that I was unlikely to have any major medical emergencies at this point and was now largely capable of fending for myself, packed up and went back home this morning. I'm really glad to have had her here, though, and not just because she cooked me lots of Malt-o-Meal. Thanks, Mom!

I'm still taking large quantities of ibuprofen, but I don't think I'll be needing the Vicodan any more. Strictly speaking, I'm not sure if I needed it after the first day, but I'm a giant baby when it comes to pain. Also, it was very relaxing. I don't know how Dr. House manages to stay snarky when he's on that stuff.

I can also now eat pretty much anything that's not sharp'n'pokey and that doesn't require too much chewing, although it can still be a mildly awkward and uncomfortable process. The really annoying thing, though, is that I have to rinse my mouth out thoroughly with saltwater multiple times per day, and I have to do it every time I eat something. That's getting old fast.

Still, this whole experience could have been a thousand times worse, which I was sort of expecting it to be, so it's all quite a relief. Psychologically, though... Well, I still miss my useless extra teeth. My mouth feels empty without them. *observes a moment of silence for fallen teeth*

The Moment of Tooth

Well, I now have fewer teeth than I did yesterday. Or rather, I guess I have the same number, except four of them are now located in a Dixie cup.

The procedure went astonishingly well. In fact, despite all my worry, from my perspective there was nothing to it at all. The needle prick of the IV was not pleasant, but not watching helped, and it only hurt for a moment. Then the sedation drugs started making me feel very nicely calm... and then the only thing I seem to remember, until they told me I was all done, was a brief flash of people moving around me, talking among themselves in some cheerful, highly reassuring fashion about how good everything was going. Possibly that was right before I started to come out of it.

Now my jaw is starting to ache, which is not much fun, but I have Vicodin, so I can pretend that I'm Dr. House. I also had a very, very large milkshake, which was nice. I'm far less woozy than I expected to be, too, and I suspect to the extent that I am, a fair proprotion of it is due to the fact that I have had no coffee today.

I Still Didn't Get Enough Sleep, Though.

Huh. Apparently, contrary to what I said in a previous post, you can turn off the ringer on my phone. I discovered this yesterday when, during an attempt to see if hiding the handset under the sofa cushions would muffle the ring sufficiently, I accidentally mashed down a button that had an undocumented-in-the-manual "adjust headset ringer volume" feature.

I guess sometimes randomly pressing buttons does work.

The Only Post I Will Make About The Olympics

My mother asked me to record stuff from the Winter Olympics this weekend so she can watch it while she's here. Which I am quite happy to do, but, doggone it, now my TiVo is going to think I give a shit about ice skating. It still thinks I have an obsession with The Weather Channel from the time my dad came to visit.

I'm Tired And I Wanna Go To Bed...

Yesterday I was reading a discussion about shift work that said that being awake for 20 hours is equivalent to a blood alcohol level of at least .10, in terms of impairment. All I can say is, I'm glad I'm not going to be driving home in the morning.

Also, I really need to get a "do not disturb" sign for my front door.

Two Minute Movie Review

Today's DVD-watching: Moon, which I just got from Netflix. It's well-written, well-acted, nicely put together, and serves as a lovely illustration of the fact that science fiction movies do not have to have explosions in them to be worth watching, which is something I wish were more generally recognized. Alas, it also left me wishing, rather wistfully, that I were less intimately familiar with science fiction, so that anything that happens in it might have had a chance at taking me by surprise. It's to the film's credit, though, that it left me feeling pretty positive about the whole experience, regardless.

Productive And Toothful

I have now crossed off everything on my "things to do before my mother gets here" list. Everything! This is very reasuring, since I am working all weekend, and she's coming in sometime on Sunday.

And then Tuesday, I will become wisdom toothless. I am still not happy about this, you know. They're my teeth! I grew them myself! They belong where they are, doggone it, even if their very existence is a stupid evolutionary anachronism.

Sigh. Maybe they'll give them to me to keep in a jar, and I can take them out from time to time and fondly reminisce about the days when they were still in my mouth.

Treadmill Saga Update

So, the repair guy called me up last Saturday saying that he'd be through town later this week, if I wanted to schedule a time for him to stop by and fix my treadmill. Which would have been great, except for one thing: I still hadn't gotten the parts. Which they told me should arrive in 7-10 days. On Jan. 22nd.

I wasn't too worried at the time, since mail to Socorro can be a bit slow, but when the package still wasn't here today, I called Horizon. Again. Amazingly, this time they didn't make me play phone tag, but instead just put me on hold for half an hour. (It figures. I was planning on only spending a couple of minutes leaving a message, or I wouldn't have called right then.) Anyway, it turns out that the reason I didn't get the parts is because they never sent them. Which, the guy I talked to said, was "kind of a good thing," as one of the parts he thought I might need wasn't included in the order, anyway. Seriously. WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER. Let this be a warning to the universe at large: do not buy anything from these people. Unless everything goes perfectly, you will regret it.

He did at least say he'd fast-track my replacement order, and that I should have it in four days, but that kind of doesn't help all that much, since this week would have been ideal for both the repair guy (who is 80 miles away in Albuquerque) and for me.

SO. MUCH. FAIL. It's almost hard to believe.

What's Current

Current clothes: Pajamas and a bathrobe. I kind of splashed cold water on my clothes earlier when I was rinsing out the garbage can, and since I have no intention of going anywhere tonight I figured that just slipping into some nice, comfy jammies was the thing to do.

Current mood: Sleeeeepy. And here it is only just past 8:00. I've been waking up ridiculously early of late.

Current music: Nothing at the moment. I'm working on getting caught up on podcasts again.

Current annoyance: Oh, man. Do not ask. Seriously. There are way too goddamned many of them. Suffice it to say that 2010 can bite me.

Current thing: I don't think I have a thing at the moment. Waiting for this year to suck less. That's my thing.

Current desktop picture: Still the same Doctor Who picture as last month.

Current book: In This Way I Was Saved by Brian DeLeeuw. I'm about 100 pages in, and I'm still not entirely sure what I think about it.

Current song in head: "Africa" by Toto. This has been in my head for days, and I have no idea why. What's even more annoying is that I don't remember most of the lyrics, so I mostly just have snatches of the chorus stuck in my head.

Current DVD in player: Disc 9 of The Prisoner. I've only got a couple of episodes left now. And, man, this show gets weird towards the end. Well, OK, it starts out weird, but it gets new and different kinds of weird by the end.

Current refreshment: I must have some tea soon.

Current worry: Everything about having my stupid teeth out. Everything.

Current thought: You know what really does tickle me, and continues to tickle me even though it's been true for a long time now? My cats recognize the sound my TiVo makes when I delete a show I've just finished watching, and when they hear it, they immediately get ready to jump down off my lap. I love my cats.

Some Thoughts

1. For the first time, the number of volumes on my book wishlist is consistently higher than that on my unread books list. I can't quite decide whether that's a good sign or a bad sign, as far as the book-buying addiction goes.

2. The oral surgeon gave me an itemized cost list for my wisdom tooth extraction. My lower teeth, which are partially below the gum, each cost $11 more to remove than my upper teeth do. I don't know why, but for some reason that figure amuses me ridiculously.

3. It still feels like these thoughts ought to come in threes.

[ETA: Apparently I read or remembered it wrong. The amount is actually $21, not $11. Which is a pity. Somehow, $11 is a much funnier number.]

Semi-Random Links, With Bonus Stupid Internet Quiz!

Star Wars vs. Star Trek 720p: Cute little nerdy video. Go, Enterprise!

EXCLUSIVE Neil Gaiman Confirms Doctor Who Episode: As the fangirls on the internets say: SQUUUUUUUUUUUUUEEEEEEE!

Previously On Lost 2: Lost In Five Minutes: Kind of hilarious. Ah, there's nothing like an attempt to explain this show to bring home how absolutely freaking insane it all is. I love it. (Oh, and spoiler warning! Obviously.)

And speaking of Lost:


Find out Which Lost Character Are You at LiquidGeneration.com!

God damn it!

(But, huh. The image URL was messed up. It tried to link me to the result for Sawyer, which is not what I got. I figured out what the actual code was and fixed it, although I probably should have left it, because that would be much less embarrassing. Come to think of it, as a reward for my technical competence, I think I should just declare myself to be Sayid.)

Light At The End Of The Tunnel

Despite the fact that I'm still occasionally producing big globs of snot, and my sleeping patterns are kind of messed up, and my throat still sometimes hurts a bit -- seriously, I didn't have a sore throat this long when I had tonsillitis! -- I'm actually feeling a heck of a lot better today, in that surprising, "Hey, I woke up and somehow wasn't particularly sick!" kind of a way.

So hopefully now you should no longer have to listen to me whining and complaining about feeling ooky, and we can move on to other matters. Like the season premiere of Lost, which I've just now finished watching because I was up at stupid o'clock this morning. How cool is it to finally have that show back, huh?

Medical Updates

My throat still hurts. In fact, it hurts worse today, because I've been talking to people. The sinuses still do, too, a little. And I'll spare you the description of the stuff that's coming out of my nose, but at least it's not coming out too often. (Thank you, decongestants!) But I am more-or-less functional today, and was able to make my appointment with the oral surgeon. I now have an appointment to get my wisdom teeth out. Yay.