* This is the first time (Thursday night then Friday night) I've been able to wear the nightguard two nights in a row since I got it.
The reason getting an appointment for a fix was fairly challenging was that it turns out the person who does this is only in once a week. (It was the same woman I saw before, and I realize now this is her specialty). I explained the problem to her, she looked at the sore spot in my mouth, and said, "Yeah, that shouldn't be. It's probably too high right there" and proceeded to grind some of the plastic off the guard.
When she handed it back to me, it was far, far easier to put in than it had been before. (I confess: one of the reasons I didn't wear it much was that it hurt to put it in - snapping it in place kind of vibrated my teeth, and it would hit the inside of the gum there and make it hurt a little. But I had thought that was how it was supposed to be, so it didn't get too loose).
She also said that there might be some other problem that arises elsewhere, because the fit has been changed, but I don't think that's going to happen. I DO think I sleep better with it in and I don't worry about "slamming" my back teeth together (which sometimes has happened just as I'm falling asleep and then I jump awake because "You'll break one of the crowns!")
I am now wondering if the two broken teeth over the past few years were the result of my grinding my teeth over the years. (Granted, both of them had older fillings in them - one had quite a large filling that had been replaced once)
* No idea WHY I grind my teeth. I suppose stress could be a contributor but who knows, maybe one of the meds I'm on causes it. I know there are some medications that can cause some involuntary muscular movements (though none of the ones I'm on list that as a side effect). I suppose it could be a screwed-up jaw or tooth weirdness - maybe having had braces as a kid makes some kind of weird long-term changes in stuff. (A few of my teeth have shifted a bit over the years, back to being more like their bad old places. Not bad enough to want to try those "invisalign" things but it's not the perfect tooth alignment that braces seemed to promise)
But it's probably stress. That a lot of these problems (like the high blood pressure) showed up the fall after I had the horrible, demanding student who almost broke me (and about whom I would get calls from his pet administrator, asking me to do things I really shouldn't have had to do) could be telling.
* The Weather Channel showed a video like this one (this one is from a different perspective and also it was taken a couple years ago) to illustrate the wind in Chicago:
Their version showed the bikes flapping in a more synchronized way, and it made me think of this bit from "No Time for Sergeants":
And I also remember now that I bought the dvd of that a while back after seeing the whole movie on TCM or somewhere. I should watch it some time. It's the kind of silly comedy I really like and that is rewatchable to me. (This is probably the most memorable scene but there are other funny scenes in it)
* Both Harper Lee and Umberto Eco have died. There's....something....about 2016. A lot of well-known, and in some cases, well-loved people have gone already in the first two months of the year.
I have read "To Kill a Mockingbird" many times. It would probably be on my list of 20 favorite novels. Have not read "Go Set a Watchman" and based on what I've read about it, and based on my "feels" about the events surrounding its publication, I probably won't. And I acknowledge those "feels" may or may not be correct given what really happened (and we will never actually know, short of being inside Ms. Lee's brain, or her sister's.
I haven't read any Eco. I have "Name of the Rose" on the shelf somewhere but I confess I had heard Eco was "challenging" to read, and often my reading is done late at night when I'm tired and these days, British Golden Era mysteries are more my speed. (I haven't even finished Moby-Dick yet, though I should go back to it.)
* I also confess to twitching slightly because I take things as more symbolic than they should. I decided to watch one episode of "Untold Stories from the ER" last night. (I know, I know: but we all deserve SOME "guilty pleasures" we don't have to explain). It was the "back from death" episode, but more tellingly, two of the most serious patients (both heart issues) were BOTH 47 when their hearts failed.
I....turn 47 in a week.
Here's hoping that my heart remains strong and healthy through this year. (I have no reason to suspect it will not; I exercise and eat (mostly) healthfully and so far every checkup I have ever had has not given me cause to be concerned.)
(I might not have been so susceptible to seeing that kind of thing, except EARLIER in the evening, when I had been doing some research reading, I put on the "Chamber Music" channel that comes with my cable package. And they played a Bruch (I think it was?) setting of the Kol Nidre - the opening prayer on the Day of Atonement. And what had the Sunday School lesson I had prepared an hour earlier been about but the Day of Atonement*? That "coincidence" I'd be more willing to believe in - I remember someone once saying that sometimes things that look like a coincidence is God winking at you. What is the message I am to take from it? Maybe, I hope, that I'm doing a good job with these things and to continue?)
In fact, yes it is Bruch, this is the very version because I remember it saying Jacqueline du Pre was playing it:
I don't think I'd ever heard that before but it's a lovely piece.
(*We use a Sunday School lesson book put out by, I think, the Presbyterian Churches of the USA. It doesn't tend to follow the Lectionary, as far as I can tell)
* I pulled the quilt out and worked a bit more on it last night. I have started doing the cross-lines on the top (I decided, finally, to do a grid rather than just lines).
I also want to make time to get back to piecing; it's been a long time.
But today I need to go in and work on research and maybe start writing my exam for next week.
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