Let’s face it, it’s much easier running errands during the week when the rest of the world is at work or school. This is especially true during this time of year. I needed to make a MAJOR Target run and you cannot pay me enough money to go into a Target store on a weekend between Black Friday and Christmas. That’s like walking directly into the depths of hell.

I came down with a cold early Monday morning too, so these two days have really helped me to rest and take care of it so it goes away soon. It moved from a scratchy, sore throat to now mostly some congestion and a runny nose. I’m hoping this afternoon’s three hour nap kicked this cold to the curb.

I still need to get my flu shot. Can you get it if you have a cold? I think I might get it after work on Friday so I have the weekend to rest in case I come down with anything else. I’ve only ever gotten sick from the flu shot once, but you never know.

I really disconnect from the internet when I’m off. This is fine on weekends when most everyone else does the same thing. I mean, I’ll be on Twitter all day even when I’m not at work, but I rarely check email or Facebook and I don’t read any blogs. I am so out of the loop.

I am apparently just writing random thoughts as they come into my head and making them a post. See, I figured I should write something, this being the last day of November. And even though I failed NaBloPoMo, I still wrote a lot this month and figured I should write the first day of the month and the last, at the very least.

In all honesty, I’m waiting for my Megavideo account to reset so that I can keep watching Six Feet Under. Have you all seen this show? Of course you have. Its 10 years old. IT IS AWESOME! I’m really, really enjoying it. I’m still having a hard time with gay Dexter, but he’s growing on me. I have to stop thinking of him as a serial killer. Hard to do when he’s a FUNERAL DIRECTOR. It’s almost the same! Anyway, this show is awesome, and if you haven’t watched it, you should. Trust me on this.

(My Netflix DVD was broken and wouldn’t play (probably since it is 10 years old) and since I’m impatient and have cleared out most of my DVR, I needed to watch the episodes online rightthissecond. I seriously couldn’t imagine waiting 2 days for the replacement DVD.)

And now I’m off to see if I can keep watching.

See, I went to my mom’s for Thanksgiving. And since I started the new tradition of mimosas on Thanksgiving, I brought the champagne and orange juice. And since my mom needed help, I got there before noon and started drinking then. No one else arrived until close to three. So I drank a lot by myself. (We went through four bottles easily, so everyone enjoyed them!)

Then there was dinner and wine with dinner and more wine and then some beer and then I just passed out on the couch at my mom’s, without posting anything. (I actually tried the WordPress app, but it wouldn’t work. And at that point it wouldn’t have been more than jibberish after all that hooch.)

I just gave up then. There wasn’t any reason to post on Friday or Saturday then, since no one reads on the weekends.

I’m disappointed, but I had a lot of fun on Turkey Day, so I am not too sad. I posted every day for 23 days, and that’s nothing to shake a stick at. And I think I’m back in the habit of posting regularly, so mission accomplished.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

Tomorrow I’ll tell you all about how after just posting THIS, my dentist called me a wuss! GAH!

But I figured I would take some time and remind myself what this holiday is about and what I am thankful for this year. In no particular order:

• My family
• My amazing friends who check up on me after I have oral surgery and are there for me whenever I need them, and I for them
• My cats and their unconditional love
• An awesome job that I love
• A job with health and dental insurance so I can take care of myself and go through oral surgery, you know, for fun
• A roof above my head that I bought, all by myself
• Thanksgiving mimosas
• My TV and DVR
• More pain killers from the dentist (I went today and boy oh boy, do I have a good blog post about it)
• All of you reading this site right now!

I just looked through my archives and I’m sure I’ve posted something very similar to this the past few years. But it doesn’t mean it isn’t true. And sometimes, it takes holidays like this to remind us how lucky we all are. It’s nice to sit and think about all the good things we have, instead of focusing on the bad, and remember that life is good.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving (or Thursday outside the US)!

I’ve always been tough. I didn’t have the easiest upbringing and I kind of figured out at an early age that it is just easier to do shit yourself than depend on other people.

I also have a high threshold for pain, so it is very easy to seem tough because a few Advil will solve most any problem. This is who I am. I am tough and strong. Rawr.

So when I get a chink in my armor, it is very upsetting to me. Like I have some fatal flaw. It’s just not allowed.

This oral surgery has kicked my ass. I have had oral surgery one other time in my life, back when I was 22 and had my wisdom teeth out. It was the only time I’ve gone under general anesthesia and it was relatively easy. I was back eating solid foods like two days later.

But that was an easy surgery. My teeth weren’t impacted. All four of the teeth were actually in, so it wasn’t that bad of a surgery. I probably could have done it under local, but was not offered the option.

This surgery was not easy. My tooth had rotted and there wasn’t anything left above the gum line. And because he was doing a bone graft and later an implant, he had to make sure he was careful in removing the tooth (all of it) and preserve as much of my jaw bone as possible. This all sounds easy until the whole thing got started.

There was sawing the tooth in parts to remove. There was banging, BANGING, with what sounded like a hammer, to MOVE MY JAW BONE OUT OF THE WAY. Like STRETCH it, so there was room for him to like cut the gum and get the tooth out and I just passed out thinking about all of this again.

I expected this recovery to be like the last time. I expected to be fine by Sunday and had even planned a trip to Target. (HAHAHAHA!) I didn’t expect such debilitating pain. And I didn’t expect to be out of my pain meds before Monday. I didn’t expect this much pain AT ALL.

But I forgot the fact that I’m 12 years older. I forgot that this is a whole different, more intensive surgery. I forgot that I grind my teeth at night, which is giving my jaw not as much time to heal, since I’m constantly putting pressure on it throughout the night.

I went back to work on Monday. I was feeling OK. I wasn’t taking my Norco during work hours, so I had to rely on Advil alone. And Advil wasn’t doing much. Add to that the fact that I hadn’t been awake for more than four hours at a time and you can see why come 2 PM on Monday, I was not feeling good.

I told myself to tough it out. I’m tough! It was just a tooth extraction! I have had three days to recover! SUCK IT UP, PUSSY!

But I couldn’t. I caved. I left early yesterday and went home and slept. And iced my jaw and slept some more. And it was exactly what I needed. I tried to do too much, too soon. And it came back to bite me in the ass and my body told me it had enough.

I may have had to turn in my Tough Girl Card. But at least I was smart enough to go home. Because sometimes tough = stupid.

I’m not sure when it happened. I mean, I grew up recycling, for the most part. We always separated trash and recycling, for as long as I can remember. I am thankful I had a mom who made us do it, or otherwise I probably never would have.

But my adult years have taken this to a new level. I recycle. I conserve. I take public transit. I use natural cleansers. I worry about my carbon footprint. I am green!

I came to this realization while my sister was living with me. See, for a 22 year old, she is not green. I realized this when I noticed many things in the trash that were recyclable. So I would then go through the trash and pull out anything that was recyclable. (Oh, yes. Yes I did.) (I mean, the girl uses more toilet paper than I’ve ever seen! That’s a lot of empty cardboard rolls!)

I had no shame in picking out empty rolls of toilet paper or empty plastic bottles of the trash and putting them in the recycling bin. My trash and recyclables are all in the same place anyway, so it isn’t like it’s more effort.

And then on Monday I went to the grocery store after work. And I didn’t have any of my reusable grocery bags in the car. I figured it wouldn’t be that big of a deal to use plastic this one time. It won’t kill the Earth. I re-use those bags to empty the catbox.

But as I approached the check out, I was overcome with this guilt about using plastic. It irritated me! Especially since I know that there were plenty of bags in my house!

So what did I do? I bought 2 new reusable bags at the checkout. And that was enough for my groceries, to show you just how little I bought.

I began to think of other things:

I use one of these at work and it hurts every time I have to buy a bottle of water. (I used to get hives when I went to visit Ali in Atlanta and there were so many bottles and they didn’t recycle!)

This is my lunch bag. Before I bought this, it was a reusable grocery bag.

I used to bring my lunch in Tupperware containers instead of plastic baggies.

Now I have reusable plastic baggies that I use for lunch.

I’ve tried to switch to mostly natural cleansers.

I feel like such a grown up! I know for a fact, 23 year old me did not care this much about conserving the planet. She just drank beer from the bottle and only worried about where the next beer was coming from, not how she was going to recycle said bottle. (In all honesty, I still probably think this way when I’m drinking.)

Do you notice any of these kinds of things that you do now that your younger self wouldn’t even think twice about?

Because that is not a woman, right? That is a young boy. RIGHT?

I had to rewind it a few times and I still and not entirely convinced that it is a woman.

And that just makes it even creepier. Like is he going to go all Misery on that kid? And take him to a cabin and make him drink his own pee?

WHY WOULD THIS MAKE ME WANT TO BUY DIAMONDS, ZALES? This makes me want to buy MACE.

#creepy

I’ve been sleeping a majority of today, waking up just enough to have some sparkling water and take my medicine.

Hopefully by tomorrow I’ll look less like I have mumps and the swelling will go down.

Wheeeee!

So the surgery went well today and I’m currently sans one tooth. It took a bit longer than they expected because as is the norm with every single dental procedure I’ve ever had, it was anything but routine. But, my surgeon was awesome and he got it all done and said we are in good shape. I go back a week from Monday for a check-up and then in about six months, he’ll put the implant in.

The surgery was really fine. Nitrous is amazing. It’s like being drunk, but without the hangover. When it first started he was all “do you want some more?” And I’m all “HELL YEAH!” Actually it was more like “muah huh” because I had nine million things in my mouth. I’m sure he regretted that later when I was so relaxed and couldn’t keep my mouth open.

The problem is that there were so many opportunities for “that’s what she said” jokes that I couldn’t actually say because of the nine million things in my mouth. (That’s what she said.) In fact, after they were done, I tried to make one and I think it came out as “dwas zut eeee erd”. Because there was no laughing. Except for my own.

I was fully recovered by the time Daisy came to pick me up, which was sad for her and the entire internet. I should have made her come home with me until the pain meds kicked in to get some good material. But then again, that’s what Twitter is for.

(Shout out to her for being so sweet and not only picking me up on a work day, but she also picked me up a smoothie from Jamba Juice and made sure it was extra blended and had no seeds. I’m lucky to have friends like her!)

And seriously, thank God for Twitter. When one has this kind of procedure or is sick or suffering, it is tough when you’re single. The cats don’t help and you just want your mommy and want people to listen to you whine and just make you feel better. So really, thank you all. And I’m sorry for all the excessive tweeting.

Now I’m going to lie down and watch oodles of TV. And maybe do a few cartwheels. Because right now, I can do anything! DAMN these pills are magic!

WHEEEEEEE!!

Because of this, my main goal in life is usually to find things that save me time in the morning when I’m getting ready for work so I can sleep more. Even a precious seven minutes I get when I slap the shit out of the snooze button.

I’ve learned to make my lunch ahead of time, only wash my hair every other day, get my work bag all set out and ready, etc. I also get my clothes out the night before. This saves OODLES of time when you aren’t staring into your closet hemming and hawing over what to wear.

I even get my clothes out and hung the night before. See, because I learned this magic trick that if you spray the clothes with water, smooth them out and let them hang to dry, you will never have to iron again. You don’t need that Downy Wrinkle Reducer people. That is just fresh smelling water. Just water. There are no wrinkle-reducing chemicals in there. I just saved you hundreds of dollars! YOU’RE WELCOME!

I hang them like this:

When I was contemplating doing NaBloPoMo, I was trying to think of ideas for posts and she mentioned doing an outfit recap like she does on her blog. My problem with that is a) I never have time to take a photo in the morning (see above re: slapping the snooze button) and b) I leave my house in work clothes and tennis shoes. My work shoes are in my bag and I don’t put them on until work.

So maybe, instead, I’ll show you my clothes as they hang on my hallway closet doors and post a weekly outfit review. What say you?

:::::

Also, wish me luck! I’m having my oral surgery tomorrow!

So I will tie it into that because fruit does not belong with savory things. Pork chops and applesauce? Together? Touching on a plate? Not in my house!

This is stems from my daily perusal of food blogs. See, we’re almost a week out from Thanksgiving. That means all the blogs I read are talking all things Thanksgiving. I don’t really mind, since who doesn’t love Thanksgiving food? But the thing I’ve noticed is that all these fancy recipes for stuffing have fruit in them.

Why would you put fruit in stuffing? DO YOU HATE AMERICA?

I will eat fruit in only two things – banana bread and apple pie. Any other mixing of fruit in things is a NO. Sweet and savory at the same time? EVEN GROSSER. Fruit does not belong with meat, in salads, in layers between cake, drizzled on cheesecake or on pizza. People. No. Just no.

I used to think I was the only one like this. Years and years of being at parties and gatherings with perfectly good cake ruined by a layer of fruit in the middle and I was the only one turning it down. Who are all you people that think this is good?

But then Twitter came around and I no longer feel so alone.

And now Megan’s tweet will be my new life mantra. Fruit: The solitary food.