sisters, teeth and here are all the people

 Here is a bad photo of the food court under the Westfield downtown mall where I had lunch yesterday after visiting the dentist. It was packed, mostly with young people and the good sound of chatter and laughter. I will return. When I got home (after a 12,000 step day) I had a text from Sister Jane who had also been to the dentist and we re-connected on our dislike of dental stuff and she had a bad day with a tooth removal, but is OK this morning. Whooosh. So some sister serendipity yesterday. I had the rare "all clear" from my dentist and that was pretty amazing and not always the case. Luv to my sis!

Cookie

 This adorable little creature "works" in my dentist's office where I visit waaaaay too often. My friend Barb suggested that perhaps I could just go in, pet Cookie, and get the hell out of there. If only...

my smile zone

 What a long and tedious process this has been. ONE tooth and way too much time and money. But yesterday the new tooth was finally implanted. It's been a year but I guess I was lucky because I could hide behind a mask the whole time. Talk about luck. Hahahahaha. 

old dog keeps learning

Yes, we have a huge Cuisinart® and a decades-old blender, but they
take up a lot of space and are a pain to wash. So I splurged on this
little 3.5 cup size Kitchenaid and it arrived from Amazon just in time
for me to mash up my morning fruit and yogurt in order to protect the
space where the tooth used to be. My first smoothie and so very delicious
and see, even a woman under house arrest can find happiness. This is
so small that it sits proudly on the counter and is a snap to wash. Hooray!

pesky tooth removal

Powell and Sutter

Comfort soup on the TV tray

I finally had the fractured tooth extracted yesterday. Downtown is just
too depressing in all its emptiness. The Blogmaid's potato soup was a
life saver last night and I am just fine, but a bit tired due to restless
sleep last night. I have no plans for today, oddly enough.

many endings in 2018

Yesterday I received a snail mail letter from Right Wing Wong. our
dentist from forever. He is joining a dental group and moving further
away in Oakland so I made the wise (I think) decision to find a
dentist here in SF. That BART-under-the-Bay gets long and difficult
and I remember traveling with Husbando after a tooth extraction. No
fun on so many levels. I have a new dentist in downtown SF thanks
to Frances who sings his praises. But still, Dr. Wong knew us both
so well and he helped us often. Change/change/change keeps happening.

finally

For the first time in what seems like FOREVER I had a good dental
visit last week and I'm still celebrating with extra flossing. Right Wing
Wong might be difficult, but he would never kill 400 year old research
lions - at least to my knowledge. Now see me smile.

Josie joins me...

...we both had more tooth work yesterday.  But Josie (the Blogmaid's
3-legged cat) got some powerful medicine as you can tell by her eyes.
So far my dental bills are a bit higher, but Josie is rapidly catching up.
I didn't get any meds yesterday, but yes, I could have used whatever
this grey feline had.  We stay positive, when we aren't bitching that is.
(Or we try to, I should add.) Thanks for the photo, Blogmaid!

million dollar view

for my million dollar mouth

from my dear friend Joe - to cheer me

Yes, it was 4 hours of awful, but really no pain because the novacaine drugs
are so much faster (and stronger) than they used to be. And I love that the
body and mind recover so quickly from these assaults. I'd rather have weak
teeth than a fuzzy mind, so we accept these things that we cannot change.
(But not always gracefully.) Oh, and I love clutching the iPhone and texting
Husbando and the Blogmaid during the ordeal - thanks for that!

RR and Sabine

A girl and her dog - one could write a poem or a piece of prose and
still not quite capture this happiness and joy.

Today I am back in the dental chair at 8:30am for a lovely little
root canal. There are many worse things than BAD teeth and that
I will try to remember as I sit there using some half-ass meditation
technique as the dentist pokes and pulls and attempts to reassure me.

and a side of cottage cheese, please

All is well here after we said bye-bye to #14. I was a little shaky and tired
yesterday, so I stayed in bed reading the most wonderful Goldfinch book
and napping on and off. Husbando brought me assorted soups, tea, banana
and cottage. I called in "sick" today because I have lots of hours and it's
a "use if or lose it" policy. And because I just need one more day to recover.
So glad that's over, we all know that grateful post-surgery feeling, don't we?

goodbye #14

Yuck, remind me not to poke around on the web for photos and stories
about tooth extraction. This morning we remove one of my problem teeth,
the one I've invested thousands of dollars and too many hours hanging
upside down in Dr. Wong's chair with. Today Dr. Im is going to yank
the sucker. He said the process will be easier than some of my dental
experiences. I have lots of pills and soup and Husbando will see me
through this less-than-perfect day. (I see a problem sentence up there
with some bad wording, but I need to rush and not do a rewrite. Sorry.)

day of the dentists

So much for Halloween. The above photo is from Dr. Yee's office at 450
Sutter (of course). I also visited Right Wing Wong in Oakland and Dr. Im
in SF. All because of one tooth that has been giving me fits and starts for
too many years. #14 will be removed in the near future and I'm OK with that.
You can see that it was a beautiful day in MY city. Keep flossing...

good to go!

This chirpy tooth should have his fingers crossed, but for now I too
am all smiles because my dental ordeal is over and I can start eating
real food again. But gently. Even though I disagree with my dentist
politically, he is the kind of perfectionist who is just as determined
as I am to hang on to each and every tooth for as long as possible. I
told him I might as well have him co-sign on my 401(k) and he
mentioned "bailouts" and I said "enough" and we parted amiably
and I so don't want to see him again for about 6 months. And yes,
I smiled all the way home...

subdued shamrockin'

I hope everyone had a sane and happy yesterday. I worked out
at the LOH, but I am off today and there is sunshine and some
noodle soup of some kind calls to me. And yes, I need to walk!

We'll celebrate St. Pat's next weekend after this dental nonsense
is over. I need to remember the quote in today's newspaper:

Pain is inevitable, Suffering is optional

walking with Ruby

...and her mom, of course. We are so fortunate with the weather
and it's always wonderful to walk and talk with Tanya. We go
up to Holly Park and then down to Cortland and always stop
for a latte. Ruby is 7 weeks now and already changing every
time I see her.

Mostly yesterday I walked a lot and made sour cream waffles
for dinner. Temp. crown hangs in there and you are soooooooo
right about chocolate pudding, Linda. Thanks everyone for your concern.

back to Wednesday

It was almost a perfect day ~ meeting my three Borders friends
for lunch in North Beach, walking up Grant Avenue to Columbus.
I stopped to shop for scarves here at this great little store that
Nancy, my step dot, discovered on her recent visit. You can
find a huge selection of scarves and most are $4.99 each. I
bought an orange Pashmima for baseball games and a black/brown
jungle print for you know, whatever. As you walk up Grant it's
on the left hand side of the street ~ check it out!

But then during lunch, I broke a tooth and have been dealing with
my dentist a lot lately. This was a cavity from 1987, and the one
last week probably the same vintage. This morning I am making
applesauce because I have to be VERY careful about what I eat
until the new permanent crown is applied in two (drat!) weeks.

Yoga this morning and, as usual, I need it mentally and physically.

shop and bleach

Yesterday I went to Stonestown (an icky SF mall) to buy some work
slacks that are on sale at Nordie's. Success. Then I wandered around
the mall to see what is new and right there, in front of God and the
whole world, was a tooth whitening kiosk. A circle unit with 4 chairs,
each with a TV. Young men in white were helping customers and I
succumbed. I have been tempted to have my teeth whitened over
the years, but could never bring myself to spend $500 or invest in
the time it takes. But what the hey, this cost me $75 and I was out
of there in 1/2 hour, with a coupon for a free follow-up bleach in a
month or so. It's called the Wowsmilexpress.

They make a mold and fill it with bleach and you watch TV for 10
minutes with an infrared (I think) device on your mouth. There was
a tingle afterward, but this morning my teeth and gums feel fine
as I drink my forbidden, problem-causing, delicious coffee.

Do I have the whitest teeth in America? No, but I do think that they
are maybe a shade or two whiter and I'm glad I did this impulsive
thing, which is so unlike me, as you may have deduced through
this blog.