I Don't Enjoy Pain

Ok, so I know a lot of folks are going *snoort, that's funny*, but it's true! We're not talking about bedroom pain here! I'm talking about the sort of pain that's making me want to drive a drill through my mouth.

I went to get wisdom teeth pulled out yesterday. Two of them. I could have had all four removed, but I said "Hey! I've never actually had any tooth removed before, maybe I should go for a half-mouth instead of a full-mouth surgery. You know. See if I like it." I am SO glad I waited. First of all, the initial 30 shots they give you to get you numb were excrutiating. I think he managed to hit 4 nerves in a row. After a while, you feel numb, so you relax ... thinking the last shots he'll give you will go unnoticed. Hah! No, he managed to hit a few more nerves before announcing he was finished. Really? No shit? I can breathe now? Gee, thanks!

The actual extraction was painless, but no less uncomfortable. The sound of a cracking branch is pretty much what you hear when he yanks on the thing, soothingly whispering that he needs to 'rock' the tooth before he can pull it out. Aw, isn't that sweet? 'Rock' the tooth, dentist! Rock it to sleep while I want nothing more than to wring your neck and that of your laughing assistant who probably knows better than see a dentist because she assists one.

So ... fine. The two things were gone. It was over. Nevermind I still had about 3 hours of looking like a drooling idiotic mental patient with a mouth full of cotton. "How do you feel sweetie?" "Mggrgrgggrrlllghhh!"

And then ... what I like to call 'defrosting' occurs, where I feel like a slab of ground beef slowly thawing on the oven top. Little prickles of joy flitters across your face as the numbing properties of the drug dissapate ... and then the PAIN kicks in.

Two tylenols later, and 4 swabs of blood-soaked cotton, I decided to take a nap. When I woke up, I celebrated the disapearance of two wisdom teeth with a bottle of beer, a full supper and a cigarette. I'm pretty sure I disobeyed a few rules, but hey ... I had to have a reward.

I still can't find any records of how wisdom teeth have benifited society.

Atsuka (Second Pass)

And here's Atsuka on the beginning stages of painting.

No, He's Not That Dork We Forgot About

Once and for all:

Marilyn Manson = Brian Warner.
Paul Pfeiffer (of Wonder Years) = Josh Saviano.

No relation. Zilch. Brian Warner grew up to be a twisted freak of nature we all love to love. Josh Saviano played a dorky kid for 5 years and faded into the background and we never spoke of him again.

There are no corrolation people!

Thank you.

What Don't You Like Me, What Don't You Like Yourself?

For fans of Freddie Mercury, check out the song 'Grace Kelly' by newcomer Mika. The first time I heard it, I swore it was a Queen song I had somehow missed. Mika's voice is spot-on.

http://www.mikasounds.com/ (If you go to the website, you'll hear the Grace Kelly song)

Arencia (The Bitch)

Incidentally, this is my lovely Blood Elf I've just started on Burning Crusades. She's now a level 14 paladin (yes, I know, I can hear the cries of outrage, specially by those who know me enough to realize I had a level 60 paladin I hated and never endgamed with). Her name is Arencia and she's an absolute bitch!

Burning Crusades

So ... I have joined the ranks of those who bought the World of Warcraft expansion (Burning Crusades). I was not in line at 8am to get it because I, in my infinite wisdom, decided to pre-order 2 copies (my husband also plays) from Best Buy. Yes, I would have waited a few extra days to play, but this was not a concern. I was above it all. I could wait. Patience is my virtue.

Come the 16th of January, I decided to casually browse my order on Best Buy to see if the copies were shipped. Not that was overly excited or anything -- I just had nothing better to do. Again casually, with the indolence of one who really doesn't want to know the ETA, just to see if it was shipped, I opened the order and discovered two little words that completely unraveled the raving fanatic gamer that I truly was: Back Order. The surface peeled away to reveal the utter destructive power of what happens when you take away an anticipated toy from a child.

I cancelled the order, by the request of Caroline, and trying some measure of composure, I accepted her offer of baby sitting Matthew in order to rush over to EB Games in the dim hope that copies remained in stock.

At 11am, the lines were finished. A few people casually shopped while I hauled ass into the store, trying vainly not to hyperventile as I asked if there were any copies of the games left (and regardless, of course, of that fact that I had called twice before to make sure there WERE some left, I was so certain they were flying off the shelves and none would be left in the 10 mins it took me to get there). Certain that I was some raving lunatic, the guy gave me a pleasant smile and nodded carefully as he took out two copies of the game and dropped them on the counter as though scared to hell I'd infect him if our fingers touched while handing me the boxes.

I paid. I left. I took a moment to laugh and shake my head at the guy who rushed in after me wearing the same pale expression of horror I had just minutes before.

Ah gamers. Sometime, they just need to relax.

* Stay tuned for my adventure in installing the game, and the actual review of it.

A Veggie Day

Didn't do much today but did get sucked into a movie I've seen ages ago: Love! Valor! Compassion!. It's an obscure movie based on a play by Terrence McNally about 8 gay friends who share a vacation at some country estate owned by two of them. It stars Jason Alexander, which I never after watching Seinfeld imagined he could play such a well-rounded and believable gay man. Very lovely movie with very lovely character studies.

I miss my teenage years when I had the time to watch about 3 Showcase independent movies a night. :)

Getting Back Into It

So it's been a while since I picked up the digital pen to draw, but I finally sucked in some inspiration lately and began to produce a series of Elemental Dragons I'll eventually post here (and you can view them actually in my DeviantArt gallery). The subject is rather redundant, but I wasn't looking to create something complex when it's been literally years since I've last completed a painting. The end result isn't quite as bad as I imagined it would be ... but I'm having, after finishing 3 of the 4 paintings, difficulty finding inspiration to complete the last one. I should listen to the inner muse and begin something else that strikes my fancy, but since I'm an innate procrastinator, I actually want the credit for finishing a project I set out to do.

Oh well. We'll see.

It's been, actually, a frustrating couple of days mixed with some revelations I hadn't intended to examine too closely. I see many artists and many of their paintings, and I feel inspiration that steals from envy well up inside. I want to paint that beautifully, I want to make works that are complex and take hours and days and months to do. I just don't have the patience. I want it now. My attention span can't survive for more than 2 hours at a time.

I suppose eventually, I'll find the patience and the attention span needed to finish a project I'll feel excited about. Probably one hasn't come yet and this is why I'm being so irritated. I should just learn to go with the flow, to let the muse dictate, really, what I'm supposed to be doing.