It’s been one of those weeks I wish I could just fast forward through. It wasn’t a bad week – just one of those you knew you had to do, but didn’t really want to. I mean really, it would have been much more fun to sit on a beach in Hawaii and drink Mai Tais – well any rum based drink for that matter.
Monday to Wednesday it was mostly working a lot to try and get ready for being “under the pliers” on Thursday. Most of that work was going around to the various teams I support and say, “I’ll be out all day Thursday,” and then listening to everyone tell their favorite, “I had a tooth pulled once” story. What is it about people who when someone tells of a health problem, we get the irresistible urge to reply with our own story, or to launch into a detailed narrative about when Aunt Mabel had all her teeth pulled and had to eat oatmeal for six months while waiting for her dentures?
I am sorry about your Aunt Mabel, but “I am the guy” that’s about to have a tooth ripped out, thank you very much.
And like most of these things we stress about, the surgery to remove the tooth went just fine. No problems. No complications. The surgeon and his staff were very professional, caring and attentive to all the details. He even called me in the evening to make sure I was doing alright. I’m still undecided if his comment to his assistant was really comforting to me or not. Just after I tasted a little blood in my mouth I heard him say, “Oh yeah, that needed to come out.” I had my eyes closed at the time but suspect he was holding up the root he had just taken out.
Other than the expected pain, discomfort, inconvenience and the two-day liquid diet – everything went fine and I am mostly recovered. Today I was able to eat a cookie and will consider myself fully recovered when I can eat popcorn.
I do want to get to the popcorn eating stage because there are a few good movies out there that I’d like to see and you can’t watch a movie without popcorn. The two that are top of my list right now are “Saving Mr. Banks,” and “The Book Thief”. Well, actually Heather wants to see “The Book Thief” as she’s read the book and I mostly like the movies she likes to watch – except for all those Jane Austin adaptations. At one point I was thinking of going to see “Ender’s Game” as I’ve read that book. I know that Heather wouldn’t like it and I hate going to movies alone so I haven’t seen it. I guess I could have asked a friend to go with me but that thought just occurred to me and it looks like the movie isn’t playing locally anymore. Good thing I have Netflix and Heather has committee meetings some evenings. I’ll catch it sooner or later.
Actually this hasn’t been a good week on the entertainment front. I heard about this production of “The Nutcracker” that was playing here in town. It was kind of an experimental thing with acrobats instead of ballet dancers. We went last night.
It’s the first time I’ve walked out of a live theatrical production in about 20 years. We endured the first half but at the intermission we saw the row to the left completely empty and the exit door open. Making our escape on foot, we made it undetected to our car, got safely to the freeway and then sped away into the night. Frankly, I’d rather not recount more of the experience than that – somethings are best left forgotten. I am just hoping that some of the ticket money I paid will go to unemployment insurance for the performers because they will all be looking for work soon.
Then just when I thought the week wouldn’t totally suck, I left the house this morning all dressed up in my Sunday best and ready to head out for church. It’s not often that I actually wear a sports coat and a clean shirt to church, but it’s almost Christmas and the coat has lots of pockets. I love pockets. What I don’t love are flat tires, which is what my car had.
Well that threw a wrench into the works. So instead we squeezed into Heather’s car and set out bravely into the world. After church and lunch with my family, we came home and I proved that I am still man enough to change a flat tire.
I did think about calling the auto club to change the tire on the theory that a person who just had tooth pulled shouldn’t be doing heavy lifting.
But then, I couldn’t see myself saying that with a straight face to a tow truck driver.
Till next week,
Andrew
