Saturday, 21 February 2009

• Greetings from....America. Yes. We're still here.

  All I have been able to think, lately is, "Oh my God...I haven't blogged since that inauguration post..." I was so relieved you guys got a chuckle out of that.  I was thinking, "Aw hell, here we go - World War III because someone made a joke...or about 80 of them."  I'm just having fun like everyone had with Bush for the past 8 years.  And why not?  I'm not a very good ass-kisser.

  So...where are we at with the move to Japan?  That's what everyone is asking me these days...The answer is:  I don't know.  We were supposed to have our express shipment picked up last Tuesday (all the stuff we would want there within the first month or two that we arrived).  We had our household goods shipment (our furniture and bigger stuff) also scheduled.  We also had the final date scheduled for our final shipment which is the shipment that goes into storage back here in Cali.  However, all that is on hold or canceled, for now.

  It's our medical screening that is causing the big hold up.  It's not because any of us are desperately unhealthy (although I desperately need to start working out again or I'm going to be heading that way - I have been SO bad about it in the past few months).  In fact, our kids are all in the clear to go.  They have both had their medical screenings, their shots, and we have their medical records.  The dentist cleared them.  Then, there is me...and I'm the one holding us back.  As anyone who has been reading for a while knows, the bane of my existence has been my teeth.   In fact, several people who have read this blog and then met me in person were shocked.  They said I just didn't seem to be the same person.  I was more shy and reserved in person...and that's true.  And you know why?  It's all about my appearance.

  I rarely take photos of me smiling...and haven't for a very long time.  When I DO let someone take a photo of me smiling, it usually has to be in the right lighting, the right angle, from a certain distance, or I have to be crazy drunk.  There have been quite a few pictures taken of me crazy drunk with a big ass grin.  I looked like the wicked witch of the brewery.

  Some people have seen photos of me and said, "You don't have bad teeth!  You're crazy!"  but I think they look different when you see me in person.  I have had photos so drowned out by flash, that they have actually disguised a lot of the flaws in my teeth and I happily post them.  If I smiled straight on, they didn't look so bad.  If I turned to the side and smiled, one side could look passable, however, the other side showed how crooked my teeth really were.  Not to mention I had congenital defects with my teeth where they came in with a ridge across them that had to be filled in with white filling that discolored over the years.  From JUST the right angle, I had nice teeth.

  I never could point it out, exactly, but something about my teeth just made me look like....well, a dork!  I hated seeing photos of me laughing, because that was when I really looked awful.  My dentist pointed out to me that I had a 'reverse smile'.  What that means is that my canines were longer than my front teeth.  People with reverse smiles tend to have that 'dorky' appearance.  This was something I never realized until I came home and Googled 'reverse smile' and started looking at the photos.  The people who had had their teeth fixed looked like totally different people.

  On February 9th, I decided to bite the bullet and have my teeth done.  Finally.  This was after a screening with the military dentist the day before.  They rank you on a scale of one to four, one being the best class to be in.  I was a class three.  The dentist said I had to have four crowns done plus a filling on one of my canines.  I had to take his orders back to my normal dentist who looked them over and told me a few things - If I got a filling on my front canines, it would eventually discolor just like the other ones on my front teeth.  She asked if I was sure I didn't just want to get veneers or crowns on my front six teeth.  I told her I really wanted to, but my husband would want to kick my ass over how much they cost.  However, my husband bought a motorcycle for more than what my teeth will cost that I was not happy about.  He buys crap for himself all the time and I do hard work around this house with the kids....I really had to talk myself into believing that I deserve this.

  I talked to my husband about it and he agreed to let me do it.  Some part of me has always known that if I could have normal-looking teeth, I might be a totally different person.  I can write...and people think I have a personality.  I DO have one.  I'm just afraid to show it off in person because I'm so damned paranoid about my teeth.

  I had no clue what I was in for on the 9th when I went in for the procedure.  I didn't research anything but the cost to make sure I was getting a fair deal.  I didn't want to know how the procedure was done because I knew it had something to do with grinding down teeth...and that scares the shit out of me.

  Yes, we decided to bite the big one, drill into our pockets and give my teeth their crowning glory...Oh God, the dental puns are killing me. They were only $1,000 more in the total if I went with all crowns vs. all veneers and the dentist explained that since I was high risk and the crookedness of my teeth, the crowns were the better option.  They're also the Lava crowns which won't show metal around the gumline if my gums recede.  That was my biggest concern.  I have seen many people who have metal showing around the gumline and I want to curse dentistry for not coming up with better technology sooner.

  Long story short, the procedure was much more painful than I'd anticipated.  Much more painful.  I actually cried when the air hit my teeth.  I'm waiting for the permanent crowns to be made and it could take weeks.  In the meantime, they made some temporary crowns for my teeth.

  My teeth feel weird, but my husband has really complimented the temporary crowns.  I'm not quite ready to smile my head off, but he has been making me smile.  He seems pretty excited.  My dentist was really excited.  She took all kinds of photos of my mouth before and some with the temp crowns on.  It's stuff she can show her future patients...her own personal collection of case studies.  She showed me a few photos of patients before I decided on the procedure.

  I can't tell you how excited I will be when it's all over, when my teeth have adjusted to where they don't feel so "weird" and when I can flash the biggest, cheesiest grin ever for photos.  If all goes well (I'm PRAYING it does), I'm going to be one really happy girl...and maybe I'll even do video blogs without feeling like an ass.

  Other than all that, I've been trying to prepare for this move...but since the dental work is taking longer than we thought because of my sensitivity issues, our move looks like is now going to be extended as long as two months.  We are waiting to hear confirmation on that.  I have been trying to get the house clean and get some stuff done, but I'm so picky about HOW I clean that it's driving my husband nuts.  The kids must be napping or out of the house.  I must have the TV off and music on.  It has to be music I can stop and shake my butt to and sing along every once in a while.  I even have my own dish towel-snapping routine synched to N.E.R.D's 'She Wants to Move'...Okay, not really, but how can you not love a song with a line as bizarre as 'Her ass is a spaceship I want to ride'?  I'm probably the only housewife in history who enjoys cleaning to Combichrist.

  In any case, on the 17th, the mover guys WERE supposed to show up to pack and crate our express shipment - basically anything we will want when we first get there.  Like a microwave...that kind of thing...and sheets, pillows, blankets.  The thing is, I have no idea how we are supposed to live without those things until we leave here.  Me without a microwave is like Paris Hilton without a chihuahua...and you'd better believe I would put that thing in a purse and carry it around if I could.  And dress it in degrading costumes.

  I keep looking around and wondering what kind of stuff we can live without for a few months...but might want immediately when we get over there?  The only thing I can think of is our kids...I really don't want to fly on a plane with a 2 & 3 year old for over 12 hours.  When I flew to Ireland once, I swore I would never get on a plane for that long ever again.  My legs felt like lead and I had the Irish trio behind me - three teenage girls...all of whom snored very loudly...and none of them in sync.  I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing when I had the brief thought that I wanted to turn around and start playing conductor, waving a baton like I was trying to keep the Irish trio in sync.  That was the same flight where I literally fell out of the plane lavatory into the aisle with my pants around my ankles because we hit some evil turbulence while I was trying to take a pee and didn't latch the door as securely as I'd thought.  I'd also had two plastic cups full of wine.  My mother still tells that story to all her friends.  In fact, she's full of "my idiot daughter" stories.

  In any case, that express shipment has been put on hold until we find out exactly WHEN we will be leaving now.

  We sold my beloved Acura that I never got to drive.  It was a '99 Integra with 50K on it.  We also sold my husband's Harley.  Our main vehicle will go into storage.  We just bought the thing several years ago and don't want to be that far upside down selling it.  We do get free indoor vehicle storage, though...and someone is supposed to come start our car for us periodically.

  Enough of all that stuff, though.  It's boring...and all anyone really wants to know right now is where in the world is Devildog's Doll?  Well, the answer is here...for now.

  In other news, we finally bought a REAL video camera...one of those Sony handycams with a hard drive and flash drive...which means I can take some REAL footage of our next cross country trip.  We will be taking another one to go home and visit family which is a good thing.  My other laptop died and took all my photos and videos of that last road trip with it.  I think the only thing I have left of that is the road trip videos I shot and posted on Xanga and a few other sites.  Damn.

  Oh well...the next videos I shoot will be in HD and I'll be able to zoom...so I can promise you a really cool tour of the United States from California to southern Ohio and there is SO much cool stuff to see along the way.  I just hope we don't nearly get caught in a tornado this time, like we almost did last time.  I'm excited...the scenery just looked kind of blah through the lens of a camera that does not zoom and is not really meant to record high quality videos.

  In more news - I've been buried under genealogy research the past week to keep my mind off our orders being extended again....While I was researching today, I came across a site that lets people post their long lost adoption stories so they can seek help or hopefully reunite people with their long lost parents, brothers, sisters, etc.  Today, I saw a woman asking if anyone knew a woman and she gave the woman's name.  She explained that the woman was her long lost sister who had been put up for adoption about 30 years ago.  Since she'd left a full name, I decided, for fun, to see if I could find her.  Well, guess who I found?

  I found her sister on Facebook!  I sent the woman who had posted the ad searching for her sister a message with the link asking if it was her sister.  Here is the e-mail I got back:

  thank you so much thats the best lead i've had since i've started looking your like an angel i greatly appreciate that yes that is her thank you  you have no idea what this means to me and my 7 brothers and sisters thank you

  Isn't that COOL?!  I was so excited...Out of boredom, I helped someone find her long lost sister.  It makes me want to abandon my genealogy research for a while and just dive into these boards and start helping people. Because of doing genealogy research and helping a friend, once, who swore her boyfriend was married...I've helped quite a few people find info on the internet.  I've gotten pretty good at it so why not help other people?  It could be fun.

  I think I cried buckets of tears reading all these adoption stories of split-up twins and families.  For the life of me, I can't understand why anyone would cut ties between themselves and their biological child or disallow their adopted child to  have contact with biological family members.  I feel like I've done my good deed for the day, though...and that makes me happy.  I hope the woman and her sister are able to reunite.  I'm so excited for them! 

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