Check it out — seems an intern discovered them at the bottom of a closet in the office, and now they’re being published, 40 years later. God bless interns.
February, 2006 Monthly archive
I’ve been under house arrest all weekend and then some, due to the insipid bird flu or whatnot. Since I’m convinced this stupid ailment doesn’t really exist, it’s started existing less and less, especially today, but I’m still holed up, relying on DD’s generocity to cook me Italian dinners and special soup and bring me coffee and Thai food. I have a theory which I’ll always hold to: when sick, don’t change ANYTHING about your normal diet. Food has no impact on health; it’s all psychological. That said, I’ve happily continued to indulge in N.’s Godiva dark chocolate truffles, chocolate brioches, dark roast decaf, cookies, ice cream, wild mushroom ravioli, etc., etc.
It’s freezing outside, they tell me, and I can feel it through the walls. I’m leaving the country for a big trip in five days and I’m not at all fully prepared, but I suppose one never is. Any advice for the shopping list? So far I’ve got bug repellent, water purification powder, mosquito netting, duct tape, sunglasses, power bars…it’s all very daunting. I want to pack the smallest bag possible and just go, take lots of moving photos, stay healthy-minded, etc. But suggestions are always helpful. Danke.
The moving train of my orthodontal adventure continues to tunnel through winter with its engine in flames.
“My bite is all messed up,” I told the doc, when he asked me to bite down. “I know. Your bite is terrible,” he said. “But that’s normal. The teeth are moving all the time.”
So, he did things to realign me again, though I don’t know what. He popped off two brackets, then had his new assistant [Gael's replacement] recement new ones to my teeth via a horrible mouth-stretching plastic contraption, causing me to swallow acetone since they didn’t use the spit-sucker the entire time, ending with my throat burning for a while. When all was said and done, I had new brackets and new wires (he wanted to put on metal wires but I refused, citing the fact that I already look 12) and now, two days, three muffins, two bowls of overcooked noodles and many hours of achey mouth later, everything looks great. Except, needless to say, for the gaping hole in the front of my mouth waiting to be filled by my now infamous impacted canine, which is *still* hanging out just above the gumline, inching down ever so slowly. The only uplifting thing is that I don’t have to yank it down with clear rubber bands anymore in the front of my mouth; they’ve attached invisible rubber bands from my molar to the impacted canine, pulling it down in a much more subtle fashion.
In other news, I got my passport renewed today. Can’t believe it’s been almost 10 years since I got the last one. Looking at my old passport, I noticed my teeth in the photo. How messed up they were at eighteen! How straight they are now! I like when I see fast returns on investments. It keeps the blood boiling and the gratitude high.
September, Doc says. This will all be over by September.
Dude I posted my first video blog. It’s just me in Ry’s van, driving around Vermont this past weekend, but I think it’s kind of cool.
This is so incredibly funny. (Watch the video)
Yeah, that’s right, I’m going to Indonesia and Thailand in two weeks. For human rights work stuff. We fly in east both times, which means going halfway around the world to get there, then the other half to get back. We’ll be doing follow-up tsunami reconstruction reporting, focusing largely on Burmese refugees doing forced work in Thailand. I take photos and write about it, eat curry, try not to get malaria, etc. Very exciting, no?
In other world news, let’s have a moment of silence for the 1500+ people in the Phillipines who died in the mudslide this morning. I think we’ve had enough of natural disasters for one lifetime.
she’s moving slowly toward nowhere good, the car is in neutral
with the brake at a right
angle to the floor. everyone can see them through the windows,
and the burnt light falls
evenly on their intensity but this infidelity
can’t last too much longer. it’s like the train
she’s supposed to be on; it’s like
the overcast sky, the sheen of her new shoes, the table he’ll soon fill
with flowers and deceit; a good freeze kills,
but lies burn faster through the body and this is the
hot red truth they’re both avoiding, hungry, inspecting
one another in the backseat like two starved dark birds
competing for the kill.