Restraint

Monday I lay in bed, tossing and turning, trying to fall asleep despite the radiating pain in my wrists, especially my right one. The next day I awoke and packed to head down to Jake’s house. At 8 AM I called the dentist to try to reschedule the cleaning I was supposed to have on Wednesday. I managed to get a cancellation time for 11 AM that day.

As I left my house I realized it was raining. Not quite a torrential downpour, but a fair amount. I wasn’t too happy about that. Not that I’m scared of driving in the rain, but I hate the enormous amount of brainpower it uses.

I arrived at the dentist’s at 10:50 and got myself checked in. I sat and read Time magazines that creeped me out a fair bit since they were all from before judgment day the election. At 11:35 I was ushered into the office. The hygenist took some x-rays and then the dentist himself came to check out my mouth. Since the lady was behind, he was checking me before she cleaned it.

He took a gander at the x-rays that were projected up on the TV screen in the corner. I was thinking to myself ‘dang I have a nice looking mouth’ when he turned to me and said ‘Looks pretty nice. A little gingevitis here and there, but that’s normal.’ I gawked at him like he had just said I was growing my vampire fangs quite nicely.

I honestly couldn’t tell if he was joking or not. I can’t imagine he’d joke about it, but he had sounded so joke-y. I decided to myself that I’d take his comment seriously.

I refrained from shoving the hygenist away from me as she mauled examined my mouth. ‘You drink a lot of coffee,’ she said dryly.

‘Yeth,’ I responded as calmly as I could given that her finger was still in my mouth.

‘You should use a whitening toothpaste. I’ll give you a few samples.’ I only retorted ‘I do use a whitening toothpaste‘ in my head.

As she explained for the third time how to floss, I refrained from screaming ‘I know how to f%&*ing floss! I can still remember the demonstration we had in the music room when I was in elementary school! Since admitting I know how to floss, but don’t, would be even worse.

I was out the door at 12:12 PM with two mini tubes of the exact toothpaste I currently use, a snazzy new soft-bristled toothbrush, some awfully thick looking floss, and the fear of my teeth falling out of my head in me.

I refrained from sobbing/screaming all the way to Jakes house (in the rain). You should be proud of me my dudes. Why? I didn’t knit at all that day. Not in the waiting room, not during the examination, not once I got to Jake’s. I didn’t knit for almsot 48 hours, the most I haven’t knitted in probably years.

Why would I torture myself in such a manner? My damn wrists. I didn’t want a repetative stress injury. I did it, though, my wrists feel much better, and I’ve been flossing every evening.

(You should be proud of that too.)