Remember when...?

Remember when you used to stay up late at night just because? It felt so cool to be awake when everyone else was asleep--like having your own little private anti-sleep rebellion. Slumber parties were even more intense. People who fell asleep early were punished by having their bras frozen (trust me--it happened to me).

So when did staying up late become such a drag?

I'll tell you when--last night. I stayed up late; I got up early. I studied and studied until I couldn't cram anymore in my little brain. Staying up late has lost its forbidden delicious flavor. Unless...I did well on my test...

Also, remember when your Christmas list looked like this...

1. A puppy
2. A baby brother
3. Candy
4. Teddy bear
5. Cabbage patch doll
6. Barbies
7. Pancakes
8. Red Rider BB Gun

I made my Christmas list the other day and realized that I am officially an adult. About half of the items can be found at William Sonoma, and the rest are completely practical (curling iron, personalized stationery, tennis shoes). I'm boring now, and it's sad.

In happy stories, though, I read today on AOL that a little boy was digging in his backyard and found two gold wedding bands. He gave them to his mom who somehow tracked down the owner. The woman cried when she received the rings and explained that she had lost them 8 years ago while gardening in what used to be her backyard (the new family had moved in shortly after). She got her wedding rings back just in time for her 50th anniversary.

All's well that ends well.

Cyrus vs. Cinderella

Do you remember my cute little flower girl?This is Jenae. She is one of my precious little friends, and she was also the flower girl in our wedding.

Yesterday while I was wandering the world of Facebook, I came across this quote from Jenae that her mom had posted:

"Mommy, why do I like princesses, but all the other girls in my class like Hannah Montana?"

Just for the record, Jenae--Cinderella will always be my favorite...I love her more than Hannah Montana, too.

Criminals and Costumes

I read the news fairly regularly on aol.com. Aol.com fairly regularly posts ridiculous "news stories" (I have to put this in quotes because I don't really know if they count as news). Yesterday, among all my favorite stories about Jon and Kate + 8 + Hate - Jon + lawyers = 4X +2, I found this gem:

"Michael Jackson's 'This is it' heals the world"

I could not bring myself to click on the link to this story. Allow me first to apologize to all of you MJ lovers out there--I'm sorry. Now that I've apologized, let me say that this headline is ridiculous. His documentary healed the world? Was the world terminally ill with need-a-crotch-grab-itis? Was the world in need of one sparkly glove that Michael gave up and wore the other? I think not.

Today AOL published a much more interesting article about 2 women/thieves in Pennsylvania to whom the judge had handed down a public humiliation sentence. The women, who are mother and daughter, stole a gift card from a 9 year-old girl on her birthday at Walmart. When they were caught, the judge offered them jail time for petty theft or standing for several hours in front of the courthouse with signs describing their crime. They chose the latter.
I love the fact that the punishment fits the crime, but it's a little Scarlet Letter-ish don't you think, Mom?

Also, for your viewing pleasure, here are a few pictures of Jeffrey and me in our Halloween costumes from this year. I went as Barbie and Jeffrey went as "God's gift to women," a costume idea we stole from a college friend.
My friend Carly went as Elle Woods from Legally Blonde, but without her little stuffed dog, she could also have been Barbie. We tried to take a picture of ourselves giving a "Barbie hug," you know, the kind you give without separating your fingers or moving your wrists or bending anywhere but the torso. Carly's brother asked us if we were robot barbies.
I told him that we were, and that all our accessories are sold separately.

As it turns out, Jeffrey may not be God's gift to women, but he is certainly God's gift to me. I emailed him today after we got to school because I realized that I had forgotten to pack a lunch. I asked him if he thought I should buy something from our overpriced school places or try and fight the traffic to go home and come back. He replied, "It's no big deal, just buy something at school--it won't throw off the budget that much. If you do buy something, buy something semi-healthy--if you eat sour skittles and pop tarts for lunch, I'm going to be mad at you."
How did he know?!?!?

Re-compromised

Remember a few days ago when I told you that our secret test ID numbers had been compromised?

Well, we've been re-compromised.

A different teacher just posted our final grades in his class using our new test ID numbers, but rather than arranging them in number order, he arranged them in alphabetical order. So, if you want to know someone's grade, you just have to look at the alphabetical list of our class and match it up with that list.

It's tough to keep a secret around here.

Lip Service

Today I had a rotation at school where I was supposed to go into the dental clinic and assist a 3rd or 4th year student while he or she worked on a patient. Most of the time on these rotations our entire afternoon of "assisting" consists of holding the suction in the patient's mouth, but this time was different. Since I am no longer a lowly 1st year student but rather a slightly more knowledgeable 2nd year student, the professors encourage us to help with more procedures on these rotations. Today that meant that I got to do some injections.

The first two injections went fairly well, except that the patient jumped while the needle was about 2 inches into her gums. Not cool. Then she started to complain that she could feel the warmth from the injection going all the way up her scalp.

Just in case you didn't know, we are not supposed to anesthetize the scalp during routine dental procedures.

As it turns out, the patient didn't really have any problem from the injection, and only the parts of the mouth that were supposed to be anesthetized were anesthetized. I don't know what the whole "scalp warming" thing was.

Feeling quite proud of myself for doing the first two injections well, but a little nervous from the scalp warming panic, I went for injection number 3. It was a type of injection I'm not as familiar with, so I was a bit more nervous than usual, but I gave the shot and then the 3rd year student asked me to get an instrument for her from another room, so I left.

When I returned in a few minutes, my heart almost stopped when I saw the patient. Her bottom lip looked like this...
Oh. My. Goodness.

I sat in my assistant's chair, stunned and wondering what I did wrong. I didn't know what I had done or if this Octomom look was going to be permanent for my poor little patient. Then I started to think about all the other job options I have besides dentistry (because obviously they weren't going to let me pass if I was doing unlicensed, unsolicited, and accidental plastic surgery on people's lips).

Then I noticed that while I was gone the 3rd year student had put a big, fat cotton roll in the patient's lower lip. Hence the swelling.

Yay! I can still be a dentist!