King Me! Oh, wait, Crown Me!

Okay, so a while back (like 2 years ago, sadly), I lost the filling from my front tooth.  Hating dentists, I took my sweet time going in to get it fixed.

Unfortunately, after the dentist saw the condition of my mouth, there were other things that needed to be taken care of first. He worked up a Treatment Plan that was... hold your breath... $9,000. As in 30 times the cost of my AMC car back in the day. As in 15 times the cost of my monthly mortgage payment. 

Because it wasn't too expensive, I had four broken teeth pulled (which sadly, leaves me with only 27 adult teeth. So redneck). But the rest was expensive. I needed crowns. Lots of them. Possibly root canals.  I put my head right back in the sand and pretended I had no problem.

Gross, right? Get thee to a dentist!

But I did, because, eventually, another front tooth (though, a different tooth) chipped, and I was beginning to look a bit methed out. I put on my grown-up hat, pulled up my big girl panties and scheduled an appointment to get my front teeth crowned.

When I booked the appointment, I was told that it would take 1-2 hours, so I booked it for early in the morning, to give me time to get back to work.

I showed up around 8:30 for my x-rays and got a cool panoramic shot taken.

In case I'm ever murdered, here's some dental records to identify me by

I was brought in to the room and told to sit - there are no doors on any of the dental rooms. It's kind of weird. 

Goodbye, hideous meth smile!

At least there's a somewhat nice view. I've seen other dental offices that have TVs mounted to the ceiling. I get bushes.

Usually I can see birds and squirrels too

After Dr. S reviewed my x-rays, the assistant got ready to go. 

I decided to show you the crown stuff, not the drilling/picking stuff - no nightmares!

I also got ready to go. I learned this trick from my dentist when I was a kid - distraction is your friend!  I put on my sunglasses because the overhead lights are bright, and I put in my earbuds so I could crank up music and try to drown out the sound of the drill. It doesn't drown everything out, but it's better than nothing.

If I can't see it or hear it, it's not happening

I told Dr. S why I was doing what I was doing and said that if he needed me to do something, to tap me on the shoulder.

They got down to business, and while both of them were wonderful, this took FOREVER. I guess it was because they were doing three teeth instead of just one?

I was still there FOUR hours later.

Ugh, I'm so hungry, I'm about to pass out, too

But, all the grinding was done. Finally.

Check it out - I'm BatBoy!

He gave me a break to relax my jaw before it was time to make the impression for the temporary crowns.   To make the temps, he puts some sort of blue goo on a spatula and tells me to bite down on it. Yummy.

Bite down!

It was cool to see it when he took it out, though.

Finished dental impression of my top teeth

While I sat and chilled out, the assistant created the temporary crowns sitting next to me. Really kind of weird.

Headphones back in - she had to use the drill to shape the teeth

Once made, she would put them in my mouth to test the fit, then take them out to make adjustments.

She got a kick out of me asking if I could take a picture of them, so she hand-modeled them for me before calling Dr. S back in for the final fitting.

(They were really bad fake teeth)

Once he was happy with the fit, I finally had a temporary crown for the three front teeth and I was able to go back to work. I'll return in three weeks to get my permanent teeth!

And to think, it only took 7 hours to do this, and cost $1000 for all this torture!

Hulk Smash! Sam Strong 5k Race Report

September in Florida can either be the death spawn of Satan, or it can be the beautiful beginning of fall. Generally, it’s the spawn of Satan.  Today was no different.

The drive to Newberry was quiet and quick, and I got to Newberry High School a little later than last year, which meant that I had to park across the street, near the football field. It still gave me plenty of time to go pick up my packet, walk around the little “expo”, hit the potty and return to my car, though.

I love that Campus USA Credit Union gives out these little bags for runners. They have muscle gel (like BioFreeze), WetOnes wipes, some bandages, moleskin and pain reliever. There’s other stuff in there, but I never get a good photo of what’s in there!

Zip-top bags of runner goodies!

For all your painful, poopy or bleeding needs!

I joked with the rep that I was gonna take all of the ones on the table, and she told me to feel free to take as many as I wanted. So I ended up with 4 (though, I really would’ve taken them all!).

There was a nice note from the Hersom family in the bag again this year, thanking us for running.  Learn more about Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy here.

Nice letter from the Hersom Family

This year’s theme was the Incredible Hulk. Sam loves superheroes!  We got a cool sticker in our bag, with the logo.

Nice vinyl sticker - mine is on my treadmill corkboard

We also got a really soft tee (not tech, but I’m okay with that) which also had the logo on it. 

It's a nice dark grey heather - and very comfy!

Mani shot!  In honor of the Hulk, my nails were green with an accent of purple, in honor of his purple pants.

Sparkly green, dark purple - C'mon Get Happy Custom SparkleSkirt

I made my way up towards the start line, which was already getting busy, and I saw my run buddy, Betty! I didn’t know she was going to run this. Yay!

Hi Betty!

A fair amount of runners

Shoofie!

Ready to go!

After a nice rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, we took off into the hot Florida September summer.  As always, I quickly fell behind everyone else, and ended up behind this cute Mom/Kiddo duo.

Yes, a 2 year old in diapers is beating me

The Mile Run and the 5k took off at the same time, and at the turnaround for the Mile, there was adequate signage!

Nobody cares if your arms are tired

I made it to Mile 1!

It's blurry, like my vision

Thanks to Dave Chapelle pretending to be Rick James, and some thug who tagged a train car, any time I see a train, I immediately think about Fuck Yo Couch.  Alas, no couch fucking on this train. Moving on.  It’s hard to see the sign, but we’re going right.

Just a boring brown train

<insert tiny voice here> Turn this way

I saw the cutest little rat of a dog running with their owner, and the fact that they had a cute little cape practically forced me to take a photo of it.  When he pranced, the cape fluttered. 

Is that Wishbone?  Ah, I'm old

The Caped Canine and I made it to Mile 2!

Yep, I'm getting beat by a dog with 2 inch long legs

As you can see, Mile 2 was apparently uneventful, because here’s Mile 3!  I’m close to the finish, and I’m so done. Unfortunately, I have to run past the school, then come back in the bus loop from the other way.

It looks really boring over here, but the finish line is to the left, out of shot

But, here’s the finisher chute, let’s finish strong! Hell, let’s just finish. 

Get outta the way, I'm comin' in HOT!

I finished!

Literally the same medal as last year

First stop, sno cone!

Grape sno cone!

Next stop, check my pathetic results.  Yep, that’s pretty bad.  In fact, I broke a record… for SLOWEST 5k ever… 

The chick in the reflection looks a lot happier than I feel

My official time was 52:37. I came in 28^th in my age group (out of 40).  I was #143 out of 165 total runners, so I at least beat 21 people.

I stuck around to watch the final runners come in, also seeing the teenagers dressed up like super heroes again. 

The Incredibly Sweaty Hulk

Thor, the Newberry High School Drumline and Captain America

There was a costume contest again. 

Superfox (?), The Incredibles, someone in a red hoodie, Sparkle Loki, Iron Man Princess, Cap, Superman, Batman

Sam taking a gander at the contestants

Thor won again!

This kid is so awesome

At the awards ceremony, Betty won an age group award!

Yay Betty!

Once the awards were given out, I headed back to the car. I didn’t care too much about the silent auction or other things.  I didn’t even stop anywhere to change. I just headed home. 

Location: Newberry, FL

Host: (Who put on the race) Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy Association

Race Fee: $25

Packet Pickup: Day of race, very easy

Parking: Available at Newberry Elementary School as well as across the street

Support: (on-course) 2 Water Stops

After Party: Snow Cones, Silent Auction, Costume Contest

Story in Alachua Today newspaper

http://www.alachuacountytoday.com/news-featured/latest/3704-sam-strong-annual-5k-is-more-than-a-race