tooth

which reminds me that back in our casco bay books days, bean and boo had an ongoing business/design project that for some reason they called "casco bay tooth." i keep thinking of my molar as the casco bay tooth.

here's what i was afraid of: that i'd go to the dentist and be told that i needed a crown (or worse, a root canal and a crown), which my research tells me can cost in the thousands of dollars. i would then burst into tears in the dentist chair, and my dentist would casually walk out of the room (which is his tendency when i bring up the subject of money). not having thousands of dollars, i'd then go to the low-cost dental clinic, where they'd happily pull my tooth for me, for cheap.*

so the very happy ending to my tooth story is that it was fixable through filling, replacing my hideous old evil mercury filling with a shiny new white-ish one. i was sent off with a bill of only $300 and a warning that many of my other teeth are in danger of crumbling to pieces because of how ferociously i apparently grind my teeth at night, and that i should probably get a custom-made mouth guard thing for a mere $400. before i left, the hygienist told me that i could buy a temporary "dental protector" at the drugstore for like $15, which would be much better than nothing. the hygienists at my dentist are so much more sensitive to the money issue than the dentist himself.


*maine care takes great care of children's teeth, but not so much for adults. they will cover the pulling of teeth, but not root canals or preventative care. i so much prefer to keep my teeth in my mouth.

what we're doing

1. wrapping up the clean-up and closing of cbb, including selling shelves and tables and bringing home the things we can use here. for example, the big school table which originally came from hall elementary school and at which the wifi users liked to park themselves all day will come live in our basement as our brand new gift-wrapping/craft table! once the largest things are out of the store space, we'll clean it like crazy. our landlord has been showing it to prospective tenants, but he has encouraged us to take our time clearing out of there.

2. keeping milo in maine chugging along -- i am finishing an order from little paper planes (what a great site! if you want to buy one of our shirts, consider ordering from there, because we'd like them to keep on placing orders from us).

3. m is actively looking for a job, and i am mentally looking for a job. meaning, i'm trying to figure out what it is i'm looking for, exactly -- part time, full time?

4. part of the reason this is a dilemma is that i'm mulling over what i'll do when i grow up. i am considering going back to school. more on this later!

5. throwing trash in our beloved dumpster. we have gone through stuff in our basement that's been sitting there untouched for eight long years, determining what to keep, throw away, or sell in our hypothetical yard sale. it feels so good to do this. i've found some treasures down there, including summer clothes of mine which i've been unable to locate for the last three summers; and many works of art by bean and boo from when they were really little -- i should scan some of them here. i found a drawing by a lion king-obsessed bean which was titled, "nala hangs some clothes on the clothesline." there's a whole series of lion families doing ordinary, everyday tasks. so cute!

6. getting ready to celebrate boo's eleventh birthday this weekend!

c'mon, get happy

latest plan: buy school bus, paint it mondrian-style (don't forget "nervous mother on board" sign on the back), and hit the road with our family band. david, ellen, and miles will join us. the only question is: who gets to be laurie? it has to be either ellen or bean, of course.








(photos courtesy of sony pictures)

alive

my phone came back to life, just as predicted by my supporters and fellow cellphone-washers. i am extremely pleased to be reunited with it!

in other happy news, i don't live over a sinkhole in guatemala.