theology&geometry

My dentist’s office has the best waiting room ever. It’s … cozy.

My checkup went pretty well, except for the scolding I got for my lack of flossing. God, I hate flossing.

The hygienist said that my teeth were like Chiclets, meaning small but I also suspect full of sugar.

[Project 365]

We’re having a little too much fun with compromised immune systems here at Chez Theogeo. Did I say “fun”? Oh, lolz. I surely did not mean fun, unless you consider head-rattling coughing, ear-splitting headaches, bone-grinding joint pain, squishy fluid-filled ears, and snotty snot snot fun. This has been an interesting bout of sickness for me; I can usually be relied upon to have one whizbang of a sinus infection every winter/spring, which will start in my head and then spread to my chest to culminate in two weeks of meaty coughs. But this thing started as a tingle in my chest on Saturday and developed into a cough and just spread from there. The worst part is the lower-back pain. I can’t tell if it’s joint pain or if there are some kidney shenanigans happening.

It’s odd. I guess this is what the grannies of the world would call a chest cold. I’ve been downing expectorant and tea like clockwork in the hopes of pulling this shit out of me, but it’s stubborn. Wonder who it gets that from?

[Project 365]

Couple of coughing, aching sad sacks in this house. The worst thing is all the dry coughing. I can handle coughing as long as I can tell I’m getting rid of the badness. The dry coughing, though, just gives you a headache and a sore throat and makes your chest muscles seize up.

[Project 365]

Routine checkup. Shocked to learn that after a year of stability (eyes not getting weaker), I jumped up significantly (from -7.50 both eyes to -7.75 in the right and -8.50 in the left). I don’t know what this means, other than my eye doctor was totally lying to 12-year-old me when he told me that my eyes would get worse until I turned 15 and then start getting better. No, no. Since then it’s been steadily downhill, my eyes getting more and more useless as the time passed.

Looks like last year’s lack of movement was just a fluke. I’ve more than made up for the lost time.

The good news is that my vision isn’t quite shitty enough that corrective lenses can’t make me 20/20. Small miracles, I guess. Hope my luck holds out.

[Project 365]

Programming Note: This week I’m challenging myself to shoot only with my fixed 50mm lens, since I rarely ever use it. Let’s see how long that lasts!

March is racing past us at a clip I’m uncomfortable with, and 2009 so far has kicked my ass in ways both good and bad. Last year was complete and all-encompassing madness from March until June, and it seems like that’s going to be the case again this year. I’ve been spending money like I’ve got it to spend (I don’t) and wasting time like I’ve got it to waste (I don’t), ignoring tooth aches and wonky ankles and sore backs, eating crap food, drinking like a fish that drinks, and thinking agonizing thinking GOD the thinking that never stops. I’m a whiny 10-year-old in checker-pattern spandex bike shorts, trying to get five kites into the air at once. Projects — for work, for myself, for other people, for no one — and things that feel like homework are stacked and teetering. It’s fine. It keeps me alive. I’m best when I’m busy. It’s just that I still haven’t done my taxes and I’m not sure I’ll ever really be in the mood.

Mom told me a couple of days ago that my dad found out at his heart-doctor checkup that he has apparently had a heart attack sometime in the recent past. Guhh? That’s at least what they suspect. Obviously my dad is such a hardcore badass that he didn’t feel said heart attack and probably just went on about his business, banging away at a post-hole digger or whatever it is he does all day busting his ass on that farm. He’s got to go back for an echocardiogram and a bunch of other tests to see if that’s actually what happened, and how badly his heart muscles may have been damaged. The doc put the whole household on a low-fat, heart-healthy diet, which is great and all, but will probably be impossible for my family to ever actually stick with long-term. You have seen my family. We are a hearty people with a hearty aversion to vegetables that haven’t been either fried or coated in butter. We do not generally eat meals that don’t include artery-clogging amounts of meat and/or cheese. To suddenly wake up to a world of steamed broccoli instead of broccoli-flecked Shells and Cheese is going to be a major adjustment for my dad. But he has to do it. He has to.

Last week my youngest nephew turned 12. The mind boggles, it really does. It happened on the day of the layoffs at work, so I was so distracted that I completely forgot to call him. Totally blew it. I called him the next day and he didn’t seem to care too much that I’d forgotten, especially when I’d told him I had something for him. I have nephews that are 12 and 13-soon-to-be-14. WHAT. THE. HELL. This crazy fucking globe just keeps slingshotting around the sun over and over again and with every trip I make to the mirror I notice the toll the journey is taking on me. It’s not all bad. It’s just actually happening and I’m powerless and hanging on and hoping for the best. And every now and again I have to check in and say that aloud or write it because it helps me convince myself that I’m okay with it.

I’m okay with it.

[Project 365]