Yuck Mouth

You know what's great about coming home?

You get to do all the stuff you should have been doing while you were gone - except that you have one week to do them all. So now all the expectations are really high that you will accomplish all the most important tasks while you are at your sleepiest.

So here's something fun.

After almost 20 years as a freelancer paying my own insurance - which is usually a lot of money for little benefits - I am now considered an employee.

Can't you tell from the footprints on my back?

But as an employee you get benefits. Like Medical. And optical. And life. Retirement.

And Dental.

My benefits started in March. But since March - I have been in China.

So I have yet to use any of them.

As a kid - I hated the dentist. I don't really remember anything crazy - like a guy chasing me around with a drill and no Novocaine or anything like that. I just never liked it. Probably due to the drill. And shots. And the fact that I always had cavities...

Yeah. Maybe the last one.

So as I got older and had to pay for the dentist myself - I simply chose not to go. Not very much anyways. I did have my wisdom teeth pulled. And I would usually do the once every three years whether I needed it or not type of thing.

But when we broke away from Discovery and went on "Sabbatical" to do the movie - I was slowly going broke. We sent the kids to the dentist- but I never went.

A year and a half ago - I broke a tooth. Snapped off a corner. But I didn't go to the dentist. For a year and a half.

So I finally went. And it really wasn't so bad. But I had to come back two more times. One to fix the broken tooth. One to fill two cavities.

So today was Day One.

But this is a really cool dentist. He gives me drugs. I got to take Valium.

I really didn't care what he did to me.

I was up all night last night working - and worrying. But at 8:30 AM I took a little yellow pill - and put on a goofy smile. Shawn had lent me his Bose Quiet Comfort 3 headphones to test out - and I brought those with me and plugged them into my ipod.

While I did have to crank the volume up pretty high - I could barely hear the drill.

I was in and out in about 25 minutes. I came home - laid down - and slept for 7 hours straight. UNHEARD OF!

Tomorrow I go back.

And I have another yellow pill....

Maybe it pays to be a yuck mouth... :)