Hello (and goodnight) from Augusta
Posted Saturday, August 05, 2006 @ 11:42 PM
The longer you are away from your own bed, outside the rooms where you've lived your life, the less it feels like your life belongs there. Although I've never felt my life was confined to my house, there is something to be said for "home base," and for navigating hallways safely in the dark—for the soles of your feet knowing the landscape of each floor. For the rooms of your childhood, for knowing the layers of paint beneath those you can see.
I am, once again, away from home, this time in Augusta, Georgia, to help my sister move in to her first house. They will rent for a year before finding a permanent residence here. I am sprawled out on their 1976 sofa—my bed for the evening—in a giant, empty room punctuated by islands of boxes, some of my sister's art supplies, her easel, and some empty shelving units. My parents are in the next room, spending the night before driving on to Greenville, where they have a temporary apartment; Dad goes back to work this week. Mom will pick me up Monday, after I've spent the weekend organizing and unpacking with my sister, and the two of us will head back to Birmingham.
Sometime soon (it can't be soon enough), I hope to have a wisdom tooth yanked. I have only one on the bottom (my upper ones have already grown in where my molars used to be, before they were removed for orthodontia work), which is growing sideways, the top of the tooth facing the inside of my mouth. It's also butted up against the tooth next to it. We had kept our fingers crossed for years that it would never come in, due to its wonkiness and how deep it's set in my jaw. My oral surgeon (who is still a hippie—his office is decorated with dragons and hemp and murals of giant trees and waterfalls) has said again and again that I shouldn't come in to have it removed unless it begins to bother me. Surprise! It's capping, my gum is tender and sore, and the tooth next to it aches since its root is being rubbed.
With all the things that have happened this summer, it doesn't surprise me at all that this tooth should rear its ugly head at the least opportune time (well, okay, at least it waited until after our eating fest in France). As soon as I get home I need to begin packing and running through my long list of errands. It's telling that, despite all this, I'm looking forward to having it removed; it hurts that much. I'm betting most surgeons are booked in the weeks before school begin, but if I don't get it out soon it may begin ritually murdering my other teeth and/or get infected. You'd think natural selection would have taken care of this thing—how many cave men could have survived the ache of wonky wisdom teeth? Wouldn't the pain begin to starve them and lead to death? Geez.
But despite being away from home again and again and again this summer—my final time to spend in the house that has been my home my whole life—I have rarely felt homesick. I wonder, then, if settling into the dorms will be easier than I imagine.
Anyway, I can barely keep my eyes open. We did so much lifting today.
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in regards to the upcoming extraction, i have a tiny favor to ask of you. if all goes well and there is little pain, then please post something to that effect here. if all goes horribly wrong, please post some kind of warning (perhaps similar to a spoiler warning) before describing how and how badly things went wrong.
i ask this because i have two troublesome wisdom teeth and i am afraid to go have them looked at. one has crested halfway out (i won't describe what that means. rest assured it is not pretty though) and seems hung on the tooth in front of it, and the other just will not break the skin and grow upwards. neither gives me much trouble or pain, only the half in/half out tooth and the surrounding area are ever tender, and that only slightly and occasionally. i just worry that one day it will get suddenly worse and i will have to do something about it.
but everytime i hear someone's story about a bad episode at the dentist's office, i get more and more skittish about the whole business. i recently got dental insurance again after a long lapse and i have been putting off making an appointment for this reason. i guess i've just gotten really wussy (my face burns with shame) about this whole issue.
06 Aug 2006, 9:12 PM.
No worries, Jay. Turns out I won't be going to the hippie (drat! I kind of wanted to photograph his office—it cracks me up), but some other guy who's supposed to be very good. I doubt there will be complications, but I promise to warn you if I have any gorey stories, and let you know if everything goes well.
07 Aug 2006, 8:06 PM.