Social Butterfly

Lately, as far as my writing has been concerned, I’ve been feeling very much like the dog, Dug, from the movie UP. You know, that highly distractible pup with the attention span of a gnat – squirrel! – uh, what was I talking about? Oh, yes, my writing.

I think what I would describe this writing phase as ‘creative nonfiction’. It’s been so long since I actually sat down and concentrated on any of my WIPs – and there are many irons in the fire. I just can’t seem to concentrate on any of them because blogging has become my newest passion, that and scrapbooking and my grandson and spending time with friends and family.

This (blogging) is the creative nonfiction I’m talking about – writing about what’s been going on in MY life instead of one of my fictional characters. It’s been fun, too, writing what I hope are interesting blog posts and READING so many wonderful blogs. It’s kind of taking over my life that when I do get distracted by life, like Dug, and return to my computer I find another batch of posts I want to read, but I want to read those from the day before or, like today, from several days back. At the moment, I am looking at 74 emails, all blog posts from my favourite bloggers that I want to read but, alas, I have Tai Chi in a couple of hours and then I will be taking three lovely ladies from class to a fun day put on by the Independent Living Resource Centre. After that, there’s a ‘Bud, Spud and Steak’ event to raise money for the families of the security guards in Calgary who were killed in a recent robbery. It is going to be one very busy day!

Actually, it has been a very busy week, spending two days in the country crafting cards with my sister-in-law, popping into Scrapbook Cottage in Steinbach to pick up more supplies and a side trip to the thrift store. Then, there was the dentist on Wednesday which I thought was going to be a quick replacement of a temporary crown with a permanent one and ended up spending an hour and a half in the dentist chair while she poked, prodded, drilled, cut away gum tissue and ground down the filling put in by the guy who did my root canal. My jaw still hurts and I still can’t bite down on that side. On top of all that, I have over 2 dozen cards to make by August 1st and each one takes at least an hour to finish, sometimes up to two hours, if they are really elaborate (or I make a mistake and have to figure out how to cover it up!)

Other plans for this summer entail painting and putting up new fence boards to replace the broken section in our back yard, clean out the storage room so I can maybe expand my crafting space, read all the books on my TBR list, visit with out-of-town guests and finishing my research so I can work on the sequel to Spirit Quest. I don’t think it’s all going to happen in the next 6 weeks.

So, that’s what my writing life has been like, lately! Whew!

How are the rest of you coping with your distractions from writing? I really need to know!

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WHEW!

I really hate having dental work done, as some of you may already know from an earlier post, Numb, when I had a broken tooth repaired. Today, I went to an endodontist to get a root canal done on the same tooth after almost 2 months of waiting and expecting the worst. My hubby’s first root canal hurt like the dickens (not exactly his words! lol) because the freezing didn’t take. He said his second one was much better.

From ‘SodaHead’ (click on picture for the link)

The endodontist was someone I hadn’t met before and after Hubby’s first experience, I was worried that the same thing might happen to me. When he first shot the freezing stuff into my cheek & jaw, it didn’t feel quite as complete as when my dentist did it. It didn’t hurt quite as much either, so I was worried that he hadn’t used enough freezing. I mentioned this to him and he gave me a little more.

Well, considering he worked on the tooth for over an hour, it wasn’t all that bad. I was impressed by his manners with his assistant, saying please & thank-you whenever she passed him an instrument. He explained to me what he was about to do and kept asking if anything hurt. I was very impressed. He warned me there might be some pain for a few days, but an analgesic like Tylenol or Advil should do the trick. I can live with that!

So, here I am, back at home. The right side of my mouth is still a little numb, but I haven’t had any trouble talking – not like last time. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how I feel once all the freezing wears off. I think the worst will be a sore jaw. I have a tendency to be close-mouthed, clamping my teeth together. It’s so bad that I need a night guard, which I actually bit through and a piece broke off! Having my mouth open for such a long time will certainly cause a bit of aching for awhile. All-in-all, though, I am very happy with the way things went! 🙂

Have YOU ever had a bad experience at the dentist?

Numb

Thorry I have a lithp, today. I jutht got back from the dentitht and have no feeling down half my fathe, including my tongue! lol

My dentist is a lovely lady, friendly, sympathetic, but what she has to do to her patients in the name of dentistry is downright criminal! I suppose its partly my fault for not getting the crown on my back molar, sooner. I waited too long and the cracked tooth finally broke apart, forcing me to sit in that torture chair for almost 2 hours – and the dentist hoped the work she did would prolong the need for a root canal. If what I sat through was just a temporary measure, I hate to think what the actual root canal surgery will entail. I think I might ask to be anesthetized!

Dentistry has come a long way from the ‘olden days’, when they would just yank out a rotten tooth with only whiskey as anesthesia. Nowadays, there are drills, tiny sanding wheels, tubes that blow air, suck air and squirt water. They have quick-set gel that doesn’t drip down the back of your throat when making moulds of your teeth instead of the horribly goopy plaster stuff they used to use. They even use lasers, now. The dentist told me that some of the decay was below the gum-line, so she needed to use a laser to cut away part of the gum so she could get at it. I am NOT looking forward to when the freezing comes out!

And that’s another thing – the analgesic gel she used on the gums before sticking in the needle to freeze everything DOESN’T WORK! I thought she was jamming that darn needle all the way through my jawbone!

Well, enough complaining. Sorry for the rant. So, how was YOUR day?