DNA Appliance

On March 1st, I got fitted with a DNA appliance to increase my palate. This has been a long struggle of wanting the perfect smile. I needed braces, or something, anything, when I was younger, but that was never an option. So, my first attempt was through the Navy when I got to shore duty. I was 26 and they came up with a plan for treatment involving braces, extractions, and surgery. The plan was to pull all 4 bicuspids (they did), wear braces, then break my jaw and set it back. I got to the braces portion, then when I was to get out of the Navy, they yanked them off and gave me a retainer, even though my treatment was not finished. I had asked them about it, because I knew I would probably not be finished by the time I got out or went back to sea duty, and they said I could keep them on and finish my treatment with a civilian. Didn’t really matter, I was happy my teeth were the straightest they had ever been, but I was sad I didn’t get the surgery. I broke the retainer a couple of years after I got out, and was in college with no insurance and no money, so couldn’t afford the replacement.

My teeth shifted and I started getting gaps, especially where they had pulled the bicuspids. My current dentist is so upset that they did that, and I’m learning that is what the not-so-great dentists do, which I think they are getting away from now. I know they were just trying to speed along my treatment, but still, pulling 4 perfectly good teeth seems so unnecessary.

Anyway, the current dentist, now that I am 39, gave me a few options, but after looking at my xrays and scans, decided since my teeth roots were shallow, probably from moving my teeth as an adult, they didn’t want to move the teeth much. So, he offered the DNA appliance to expand the palate. I’m not sure how this doesn’t move the teeth, because from what I’ve read they will move where they need to be, perhaps he was speaking of forceful moving. I had my impressions done the first week of February, and my appliance was ready by the 1st of March. I was told they start with the upper, and the bottom teeth will move where they need to go more than likely, if not, they will add in the bottom when needed.

I am so excited to start this treatment and see where it can go. I don’t have sleeping problems that I know of, but this device is being touted as something to help sleep apnea, open the airway, and other health benefits besides the teeth and jaw. I might develop cheek bones! But mainly, even though my teeth are mostly straight, they aren’t quite where they should be, and I am so tired of having a closed-mouth smile. I want to show them pearly whites and be proud!

I had to wear the appliance for a week to get used to it, before I started making adjustments. I wear it 10-12 hours a night, usually I get home from work, eat dinner, brush the toof, and put it in for the evening. I made the first adjustment tonight, and I can’t really feel a difference, but I’m not sure I made as big as an adjustment as I was supposed to. I’ll talk to the Dentist when I see him in a few weeks, but he said slower is better, because he wants to grow bone, not scar tissue, which could result if it moves too fast.

Hopefully I didn’t inherit the asshole gene!

My dad is an ass. Perhaps not meaning to be, but he is. His parents, my lovely grandparents, are my favorite people on earth. Peepaw is 92 and Meemaw is 88. She doesn’t have a lot of excitement in her life, so she talks about what she knows – what she had for lunch and what so and so from church is doing. Neither of which I care to hear about, but I recognize when I call her EVERY single night that she doesn’t have anything exciting to talk about, but wants to spend time talking, so I “uh huh” at appropriate times and act like I am interested in so and so and try to keep my eye roll to a minimum when she recites the same recipe for the lunch she makes every week. I remind myself that I am SO fortunate that I still have the option to call and talk to her every day. I know it is short-lived and I savor the time. Nevermind that Meemaw can’t hear to save her life, and she will ask a question but make up your answer because she didn’t hear you correctly. I love her just the same. 🙂

Anyway, back to dad. Mom left last week to go visit my sister and her family in Europe. Dad is home alone and Meemaw and Peepaw have been calling like crazy because they think he is alone and miserable. They told me today that they think he is “depressed”. Immediately I knew what was going on, so I tried calling him tonight. No answer, but answering machine didn’t pick up, so I figured he was on the phone with my uncle (his brother). He called me a while later and said he, “was done and disconnecting”. I wasn’t sure what he meant, but then he started to talk about when mom was coming home. I told him in a week or so, and he said he was unplugging all the phones and would plug it back in Sunday night so I could call him and let him know what is going on. He said he was sick of hearing the recipe to every dish and about so and so that he doesn’t know. I told him I am sick of it too, but I have an understanding of what she is doing. I also explained that they thought he was lonely and are just trying to include him and look out for their son. He said he didn’t care, he is too old to listen to all that. I gave up and asked him what I would do if there was an emergency and he said he would plug the phone in on Saturday just in case. What a douche!

Today I was talking to a man I didn’t know at a lunch they had for Father’s Day.  We were talking about our last names.  He knew some people with my last name.  I told him I didn’t know many people with my last name, that part of my family was not close.  I said the first person I met with my same last name outside of family was a girl in boot camp.  I also knew a guy on the ship, a big black guy and we would call each other siblings.  We continued conversing on the subject and this gentleman I was talking to explained that sometimes the freed slaves took their master’s name.  I thought that was ironic, considering they would probably not want anything to do with their masters.  Then this guy said something along the lines of who knows if slaves were actually treated bad!  I think my jaw just fell open and I started to reply anyone that owned a slave and did not have enough respect for another human being to enslave or keep them enslaved, probably had no regard for slaves and very doubtful they treated them well!  But, I looked at this guy and knew there was no persuading, so I let it go. 

This grated on me all afternoon.  I really hate living in such a racists state.  They also think women are inferior here (for the most part).  I just watched Django Unchained and that movie made me feel much better.  🙂

Losses

My heart just breaks today for my cousin’s previous step-daughter and her family.  She lost one of her fraternal twins to pretty common causes.  Her baby had just turned one this past week, while she was in the hospital.  I only met her children once, at a wedding, but I see on Facebook how good a mother she is and how much she loves those girls.  

I cannot even imagine how she feels right now, especially not having children of my own.  I would imagine she is numb.  I also imagine every post regarding what you had for dinner tonight, bitching about the earthquakes, shock about the Olympics, etc., feels just so unfair.  Unfair that everyone else gets to go on with their lives and deal with petty little day to day issues, while her world has stopped.  

Amazingly, she has been posting on Facebook and answering everyone.  I imagine this is helping her cope.  One thing that bothers me is when people tell a grieving parent that her child is in a better place, etc.  To the parent, I cannot even imagine that helps comfort you.  That baby should be with her for now and get to live her life.  One sympathizer had the gall to say at least she is not hurting right now.  I was thinking, the child didn’t have a terminal illness, she had an infection!  STFU!  I realize they are just trying to find the words to comfort her, but sometimes, just saying you will pray for her, or sorry for her loss, are enough.

Her other daughter, who is obviously the same age, will not understand, probably wonder where her constant companion is, and grow up with a void in her life.  It’s just not fair.  Too young.

I should have been an entomologist

I effing love spiders, and ants, and grasshoppers, praying mantids, well, I love a lot of insects.  Perhaps not chiggers, and definitely not mosquitoes, flies and ticks, but pretty much everything else I find fascinating.  Especially spiders.  I also think snakes are pretty awesome, so I suppose I fall in the outside range of normal.  Perhaps way outside. 

Anyway, I can remember as a girl being fascinated with the webs of the big mama spiders.  The pretty large and fat spiders that have webs around the house (usually on the OUTside).  I would catch moths and grasshoppers and whatever I could catch and toss them gently in their webs so I could watch them wrap them so quickly.  I realize it was unfair to the insect I tossed, but in all fairness, if they wiggled out of the web, I figured they deserved to live and caught a new one. 

Now, when we pull honor vaults at the parks, there are always those super cool jumping spiders crawling out to see what’s going on.  It hurts me to see the guys all freak out and stomp them into oblivion.  You see, me and the jumping spiders at my house have a special bond.  They catch flies for me, I help them out of the sink and point to where they need to go.  So, when the guys start going ape$h!t cause there’s a spider near them, I calmly walk over, let the little guy jump on my hand, and take it outside.  But, that’s if I can catch it before they stomp it to death. 

Spring is an especially tough time for me, besides having to dodge all the frogs on the highway, who someone always manage to jump under my wheel, I try to dodge the grasshoppers too.  I know it’s silly, and there are bazillion more for the ones I squish, but I really hate killing anything.  I’ve pulled a scorpion off a glue trap because I believe a glue trap is an evil, evil thing.  If you must kill something, do it quick.  Even if you don’t believe insects suffer, it has to suck being stuck and unable to move until you finally dehydrate or die of starvation.  I feel absolutely sick when the guy who sprays the office comes.  Not as much because I feel sorry for the insects, which I do, and I also believe it’s a waste of time and money, but because I fear the chemicals more than any insect.  Anything that kills something, plant, animal, insect, cannot be good for you, I’m sorry, especially if you have children.  A coworker has a child with blood issues and the doctors cannot figure out what’s wrong, but in my head I believe it’s all the chemicals he is constantly spraying to “protect” his son.  Sorry, just my thoughts for today. 

Freedom isn’t free. It costs a buck o nine.

This post will probably be a little controversial.  As most people who know me know, I served in the Navy for almost 10 years.  I deeply appreciate how much people love and appreciate veterans today.  I feel unworthy of most of the love I get.  Now don’t get me wrong, on those free food for veterans day, I’ll be standing in line, but one thing I have heard a lot, and bothers me the most is when people say, “Thank you for fighting for/defending/protecting our freedoms”.  The reason I feel bad when people say that is because I never felt like I was doing anything to fight for/defend/protect our freedoms.  Honestly, pretty much since the Revolutionary War, and some freedoms in the Civil War, I don’t feel like today’s military fights for freedom except for other countries.  Good for them, and I’m happy we can do it, but it does bother me when other countries really don’t want us there in the first place, and meanwhile our country is going broke fighting other countries wars.  I’ve never understood why America elected itself watchdog of the planet.  But, it is what it is and that’s another blog. 

Since many people live in constand fear of having some of their freedoms taken away, especially those 2nd amendment lovers, and with the whole Phil Robertson blow up lately, perhaps mistakenly fear for their freedom of speech, it made me think something kind of cynical.  If, one day POTUS did go ape$h!t and decide to take away any or all of our freedom, who do these same people who thank me constantly for their freedom, think POTUS would direct to take away those freedoms?  Or guns, in most people’s minds?  Wouldn’t it be his military, who he is Commander-in-Chief over?

I’m no expert, for sure, but I tend to think people get a little paranoid, in no part due to the NRA.  Before you go all crazy on me, let me say I used to be a member, my father is a lifetime member, but I got a little sick of people constantly asking for more money when I gave them a little, plus telling me how to vote, stirring mass paranoia, making there a shortage of bullets because you’re telling everyone to stockpile, etc.  Perhaps these people know more than me, but I’ve seen this same paranoia every single time a Democrat gets elected and no one has ever tried to take my gun away.  If that day does come, I have no doubt that martial law would be declared and the miliarty would be the party directed to carry it out.  That same military that we all love and appreciate.  That’s when those well-armed militias and doomsdayers will rise up and even though I don’t much care one way or another for these groups, we veterans may be thanking them for protecting our freedoms instead. 

Fair winds and following seas, my friend…

Today my heart hurts.  It began with seeing a post from one of my old shipmates.  He mentioned wishing for the safe return of one of our former chiefs, the last one I had in my time in the Navy.  I asked him what had happened, but could not wait for his response, so I Googled it.  I was shocked to see that he was missing from a helo crash off the coast of Virginia.  Apparently the other 4 crew members had been recovered, 2 alive, but he had not yet.  They had called off the search for him, but several ships were in the area still looking.  

I remember him as being one of about 3 people in my entire life that I was so utterly impressed with, I had to tell him how much I respected him and just how amazing a person and boss he was when I left my last command.  If you know me, you know that is a big deal.  He was very gracious and returned my compliments with some of his own.  I always cherished his kind words to me.

I recall when I worked with him, which has been over 10 years ago now, that he had applied to be a pilot and was nervous if he could see colors well enough to be accepted.  He got accepted just before I got out, and we were so proud for him.  

Most of all, and because we reconnected on Facebook, I recall his love for his wife and family.  I don’t recall ever meeting her, but I could have at a Christmas party or other function.  I just remember how much he loved his wife and kids, which I believe he had 4 or 5! On Facebook he would always go on about how lucky he was to have her, to have his children, you could just tell he was as good of a father as he was a person.  I can only imagine what they are feeling right now.  I know from having to recover bodies myself every summer that the family needs closure, whether or not they saw or know that their loved one has drowned.  That’s what pushes us to stay out all day in 100 + degree weather looking for a body.  I also know, from being on a ship for 5 years, that it’s very difficult to find a body out in the ocean, two pilots we lost while I was on we never did recover.  I just hope the technology has improved enough to find him one way or another.  Most of all though, I hope they would have some miracle and find him alive.  

RIP Lieutenant.  You were one of the good ones and will be sorely missed.   

 

I wonder…

I spend too much time on Facebook.  So, I see a lot of stuff.  Most of it irritates me or just plain pisses me off.  Not sure why I can’t quit Facebook, but whatever, that’s beside the point.  Anyway, just saw a post of a parent publicly shaming their child because he was apparently a bully.  While part of me says, “Yeah!  Great job!”, the other part of me wonders about how that might be affecting (or is it effecting?  I can never keep those two straight, sorry!) their child in the future.  I’ve read a LOT of self-help books, and have always taken an interest in psychology.  So, it seems like what I’ve heard and read is usually a bully is just a lonely child who doesn’t get enough attention at home.  Or are mistreated at home, or – insert any of a variety of problems at home here -.  Part of me thinks perhaps this is not in the child’s best interest to react this way.  I don’t have enough of a psychology background to understand just exactly how this might adversely affect a child’s psyche, but I do know from experience that publicly getting your ass spanked can forever turn you from a classroom Chatty Cathy to a student not willing to talk, or answer questions, etc. during class for the rest of your life.  I also know, from experience, that when a little girl tries to french kiss all the boys at school, cause that’s what she watches on dad’s Playboy channel when he’s up front working in the store, and the teacher gets sick of it and makes her french kiss the wall in front of the whole cafeteria, that the same girl will grow up to never again be able to publicly show affection to boys. 

So, anyway, digressing, I do applaud the parents of these children for putting so much thought in to stopping their child from being a bully, but perhaps they might put a little more thought in to what caused their child to become a bully in the first place.  No judgement here, just some thoughts I had.

2014 – Best year EVER!!!

So, I have this goal in mind that I am really going to have to get on this year.  I want to be in the best shape of my life by 40.  That gives me roughly a year and a half to go from the worst shape of my life to the best.  I would like to think I was in pretty good shape most of the time I was in the military, and definitely after boot camp, so this is going to be a challenge!  I need to get some motivation and get on it!

Double Vision(boards)

I’ve been snowed in for days.  I haven’t left my house since Wednesday.  Stir crazy would be an understatement.  I’ve about worn out my new Verismo machine making non-stop lattes.  So, I’m over-caffeinated and under-stimulated (mentally).  Great combination!  Anyway, I was scrolling through all the channels today and stopped on Oprah’s Channel.  She was playing some of her favorite shows from when her show was on television.  This one happened to be about putting things out to the universe and having them come to fruition.  I had read books by some of the authors on the show, so I stopped and listened.  They talked about vision boards.  This is certainly not the first time I had heard of them, and I’m pretty sure knowing myself I had intended to make one at some point.  But, for some reason this struck me as a great idea!  So, I have decided to get busy making one. 

The thing is, I more than believe in things happening for a reason.  When I graduated college, jobs in my field were very rare, and most of my fellow graduates just went on to do whatever they could find for work.  I listened to an information presentation about working for my current employer, skipped a lab to go to the career fair and hand them my resume a few months before I graduated, and received the call for an interview around the time I graduated.  What a relief!  Anyway, I assumed this is where I am supposed to be.  Things like this seem to fall in place more and more the older I get, or perhaps I just recognize it more.

Has anyone out there made a vision board?  Do you have any advice?  Have they worked for you?