When There Are No Words...

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On Saturday, two friends of mine lost their father.

I cannot even begin to pretend to imagine what their family is going through, but I can, and will, continue to keep them in my thoughts and send my love in their direction. Please do the same.

IT'S FIXED!!!!

That's right folks! That there vehicle isn't an apparition, a figment of my imagination, or some other poor soul's car.

IT'S MINE!

And it's all better.... that is, until the next squirrel decides to chew on another hose.

Good thing we have one or two squirrel worthy guns in this house and my brother's about to come home from college. [insert evil cackling laugh here]

Happy Momma's Day!

Every blade of grass may have one angel, but I have so many more...
Thank you Momma, Grammy, Grandmommy, and my aunts for being my angels. 

I love you all ♥

Ailey = Amazing.

On Monday evening about 20 girls from my ballet school and I, along with a few parent chaperone/drivers, and our teachers, trapised (well drove actually) down to Lexington to see Ailey II perform at Washington and Lee University.

Needless to say it was beyond amazing. Here are a few highlights from what we saw.

Revelations is probably one of the most iconic pieces from the Alvin Ailey repertory.

This is a video from the Ailey website with highlights from Revelations.

Another cool piece we saw was one called Takademe.

This is another highlight video from that.

Lessons Learned

Well, losing my wisdom teeth didn't make me dumber after all!

In fact, I think it made me smarter... here are just a few of the things I've learned about myself and the outside world in the past week.

Health Related Pearls of Wisdom (Teeth)   HA!

1. I'm allergic to penicillin. While this discovery is a good one, I didn't figure out that the penicillin was what was making me super nauseous and dizzy until four days after I started taking it.
2. While anorexia is a disease that I'm not advocating in any way, shape, or form... not eating (read: not being able to keep anything down, liquid or solid) for four days, thanks to the aforementioned penicillin allergy, did have it's benefits... I lost 7 pounds. It was almost as good a weight loss regimen as when I had the stomach flu before Christmas.
3. I'm finally glad I never had braces. It was painful enough when my teeth were readjusting to the new space in my mouth and moving around on their own... I can't even imagine how uncomfortable it would be to have metal bands constantly adjusting where your teeth are positioned in your mouth.
4. I swear that the loss of my wisdom teeth wrecked havoc with my sinuses. My doctor said I was crazy, but I found that taking pseudoephedrine along with my Advil helped to keep the slow aching pain in my lower left jaw and the feeling that my chin was separating from the rest of my face at bay.
5. Tights filled with ice bags and reheat-able hot/cold packs are a godsend. I kept two bags of ice tied to my face all day Thursday in my super useful Incredibles tights (see embarrassing picture, above, taken by my mother). Then for the next 5 or 6 days I kept my hot pack clamped firmly to my lower jaw to melt away the aches and pains.

Car Related Pearls

1. Squirrels are not cute. They eat cars. I no longer have a problem with my brother's crazy desires to shoot and cook them.
2. When you are having car trouble and are taking your car to the shop, DO NOT FILL THE GAS TANK BEFORE YOU DROP IT OFF. I made that silly mistake only to find out that the problem with my car could only be solved by replacing the gas tank. Losing less than 2 gallons of gas would have been a whole lot less upsetting than 12.
3. Toyota's are awesome cars... except for the fact that most of their parts are made in Japan. Thanks to the recent environmental disasters in that country, Toyota car part manufacturing there is at a virtual standstill... not a huge deal unless you NEED A NEW GAS TANK. (The parts lady said that she couldn't even fathom when my tank would be in... Awesome.)
4. It's really depressing to continue paying off a loan on a car you can't drive.
5. Good thing I still have the Buick.

Just Kidding.

My car really was sick.

The remedy... a new gas tank.

Yay.

I'm Going Under The Knife

Don't worry... I'm not getting plastic surgery or liposuction or a boob job or some other silly "body bettering" thing.

I'm parting ways with my wisdom teeth. All four of them.

Awesome.

That's right... at 8:30 tomorrow morning I'll be getting my drug induced laugh on for one final moment of painless bliss and then my gums are gonna be cut open and my slightly impacted wisdom teeth (which I swear have spent the past week trying to come out on their own) are going to be ripped from my jaws. 

Then afterwards, (from what everyone's been telling me) I'll spend a few pleasant days feeling nauseous, in tons of pain, and drooling all over myself... with cheeks that will make me look like a chipmunk that is preparing for the apocalypse to boot.

But it's cool. I'm prepared. I've been drinking water like it's my job (although not after midnight tonight) so that I'll be somewhat hydrated still when it comes time for them to stick me tomorrow morning. The doctor told me that being super hydrated would help quicken my recovery... hope he's right!

I have a monster sized bottle of ibuprofen which I plan to triple overdose on if the drugs they give me (Vicodin anyone?) make me sick. Which they probably will. 

I put two ice packs in the freezer, which my ballet teacher told me to put into the legs of a pair of tights and then tie around my face to keep them in place. Pretty sure I'll look like the coolest kid in the world. I may even start a trend.

I also am preparing a smorgasbord of chew-less food so that I won't shrivel away to nothingness when chewing causes me life ending pain. I'm saying yes please to chocolate pudding, Jello, Jello cake!, ICE CREAM, and for a little protein... yogurt.

I've also got movies and television up the wazoo to entertain myself while I'm couchbound. 

Now all I have to do is make sure that I'm better by Sunday so that I can enjoy the Pentz family Easter party. I think I would die if I missed all that yummy food... especially the apricot cookies and bread.

Wish me luck!