It seems like every time I think I'm going to get on track with getting work done, something happens to prevent it. First Barbara came to visit (and though it may sound like I'm complaining about this, I'm really not). Then there was September 11. Then my computer got the Nimda virus (which I've noticed has cleared by record of visited websites, so all links turned the unvisited color and I wasn't pre-logged in to Blogger). And now I've got an infected wisdom tooth.
Last night I went to the Woods Tea Co. concert, feeling fine tooth-wise, though I was very tired from only getting two hours of sleep the previous night. The concert was great. They really seemed to appreciate being able to play at Colgate -- we're one of their favorite audiences, and they really needed the boost after the last couple weeks. They played nearly all their best songs -- "Alberta Bound," "Jenny Glenn," "The Scotsman's Kilt," "Gin Ye Marry Me," "The Old Dun Cow," "Finnegan's Wake," etc. They took a vote about playing "There Were Roses," in light of the recent tragedy, and it was unanimous in favor. And for once I never felt distracted at all thinking about what other songs they ought to play. I could just focus on the music, and admire Howard's bass (it's an upright, but it's missing that big violin-shaped resonating chamber, so it's just a stick with strings and a microphone), and watch Amanda bopping excessively in front of me.
Around intermission I could feel pain in my back right jaw. At the time, it felt like a cold sore, so I didn't think much of it.I sat through the whole show and 3 encores. They didn't play "Aaarrgh," the song they wrote especially for Colgate, but that's not such a big deal. "Aarrgh" isn't the same without Tom MacKenzie and his hammer dulcimer. By the end of the show, I had progressed to a full-blown toothache. At that point I wasn't in any mood to deal with it, as all I could think about was catching up on sleep before the football game today.
But I discovered I couldn't sleep. It took me three or four trips down to the kitchen for ice before I finally fell asleep. Marty and Dave were worried, because I was so angry and tired that I ignored everyone I saw on my trips downstairs. A few hours later, I woke up for the game.
By this morning the stabbing pain had changed to an ache in my entire right jaw. I went to practice and marched, but didn't play. I came home after practice and slept instead of eating lunch or going to tailgate. Then I went to the football game, where I managed to play about half the songs in the stands and all of the field show. It turned out that playing produced some sort of soothing vibration to counteract how much it ought to have hurt with my tooth like it was.
After the game, I met up with my parents (who were up for Parents' Weekend) and went over to the hospital. They took an hour and a half to determine that I needed a dentist, which I would have to go to Utica to find. So we headed off to St. Luke's Hospital in Utica. Eventually their emergency room dentist showed up. I had an infection around one of my wisdom teeth that was filling my cheek with pus. So she cut it open and squeezed the pus out. By the time she was done, I was shivering from stress and not having eaten in 12 hours. So we went to Friendly's and I tried to eat soup and grilled cheese with gauze in my mouth. We made a wrong turn going to get back on 12B, but it landed us at a drugstore that was 10 minutes from closing (when we hadn't thought we'd ever find a pharmacy taht was still open. There were a number of lucky breaks in this whole process, most notably my parents being here, with the car, on just the right day. Maybe God wanted to make sure I'd be able to go to the deacons' ordination tomorrow morning at church. Of course, though Nan seems to think that the ordination is a huge deal, I look at it as just a formality. I didn't serve any differently this past month due to being not ordained yet.
Anyway, I now have bottles of Ibuprofen and antibiotics on my desk, and I need to make an appointment to get my wisdom tooth out (in Utica again) in the next few weeks.
Last night I went to the Woods Tea Co. concert, feeling fine tooth-wise, though I was very tired from only getting two hours of sleep the previous night. The concert was great. They really seemed to appreciate being able to play at Colgate -- we're one of their favorite audiences, and they really needed the boost after the last couple weeks. They played nearly all their best songs -- "Alberta Bound," "Jenny Glenn," "The Scotsman's Kilt," "Gin Ye Marry Me," "The Old Dun Cow," "Finnegan's Wake," etc. They took a vote about playing "There Were Roses," in light of the recent tragedy, and it was unanimous in favor. And for once I never felt distracted at all thinking about what other songs they ought to play. I could just focus on the music, and admire Howard's bass (it's an upright, but it's missing that big violin-shaped resonating chamber, so it's just a stick with strings and a microphone), and watch Amanda bopping excessively in front of me.
Around intermission I could feel pain in my back right jaw. At the time, it felt like a cold sore, so I didn't think much of it.I sat through the whole show and 3 encores. They didn't play "Aaarrgh," the song they wrote especially for Colgate, but that's not such a big deal. "Aarrgh" isn't the same without Tom MacKenzie and his hammer dulcimer. By the end of the show, I had progressed to a full-blown toothache. At that point I wasn't in any mood to deal with it, as all I could think about was catching up on sleep before the football game today.
But I discovered I couldn't sleep. It took me three or four trips down to the kitchen for ice before I finally fell asleep. Marty and Dave were worried, because I was so angry and tired that I ignored everyone I saw on my trips downstairs. A few hours later, I woke up for the game.
By this morning the stabbing pain had changed to an ache in my entire right jaw. I went to practice and marched, but didn't play. I came home after practice and slept instead of eating lunch or going to tailgate. Then I went to the football game, where I managed to play about half the songs in the stands and all of the field show. It turned out that playing produced some sort of soothing vibration to counteract how much it ought to have hurt with my tooth like it was.
After the game, I met up with my parents (who were up for Parents' Weekend) and went over to the hospital. They took an hour and a half to determine that I needed a dentist, which I would have to go to Utica to find. So we headed off to St. Luke's Hospital in Utica. Eventually their emergency room dentist showed up. I had an infection around one of my wisdom teeth that was filling my cheek with pus. So she cut it open and squeezed the pus out. By the time she was done, I was shivering from stress and not having eaten in 12 hours. So we went to Friendly's and I tried to eat soup and grilled cheese with gauze in my mouth. We made a wrong turn going to get back on 12B, but it landed us at a drugstore that was 10 minutes from closing (when we hadn't thought we'd ever find a pharmacy taht was still open. There were a number of lucky breaks in this whole process, most notably my parents being here, with the car, on just the right day. Maybe God wanted to make sure I'd be able to go to the deacons' ordination tomorrow morning at church. Of course, though Nan seems to think that the ordination is a huge deal, I look at it as just a formality. I didn't serve any differently this past month due to being not ordained yet.
Anyway, I now have bottles of Ibuprofen and antibiotics on my desk, and I need to make an appointment to get my wisdom tooth out (in Utica again) in the next few weeks.
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