I love my friend, Erika. She laughs at everything I say like I am the funniest person on Earth. I love her so much! I say that because my funny story that I am going to share comes from me racking my brain for funny stories to share with her. Chris and I have ALOT of funny stories. You know the kind. Those experiences that felt like HELL the moment you are living them, but time heals and changes your perspective a bit.
Here it goes...
I spent alot of time on our farm growing up. I LOVED going to the farm. I frequently begged my Dad to take me along, which meant waking up at the crack of dawn. He hated waiting for us to get ready in the morning as he wanted/needed to get to the farm as early as possible. Solution--sleep in our clothes. Yep, my sisters and I would sleep in our clothes that we'd wear the next day. Perfect answer. And it worked.
My Grandparents lived on the farm. I loved them so. My Grandma always had all the time in the world for us. She'd color for hours, help us line up dominoes, make cracker and cheese sandwiches for snacks, drive us into town to pick out a little treat, and take us out to the barn to find the cats/dogs and feed the cows. She was one of a kind. My Grandpa too. He worked with my Dad and Uncles on the farm though, so we saw him mostly at lunch time and when we went and bugged them in the quonset. He always managed to sneak
My Aunt and Uncle also lived on the farm (in a different house). They had 4 children, one whom was very close in age to me. He was like 6 months older than me or something, but kind of a jerk. He had the gawl to tell me that I should "respect my elders" (aka, him). WTH. I should have known then what a jerk he was/is. He has only gotten worse with age from what I hear. Anywho...he and I did all sorts of stupid stuff and each and everytime, I ended up with some type of injury. The most memorable for me was this one when I was ten years old....
He had a go cart that seated one. Obviously, there were two of us, so he had the brilliant idea of hooking this chair on wheels up to the go cart with a rope. I would drive the go cart, he'd steer the chair. All was going well until I turned around to make sure he was okay and hit a tree. Only it wasn't that simple. I wasn't going fast, but I turned my face around just as I hit the tree, knocking out 3/4 of my permanent front tooth. Yep. It wasn't good. After a trip to the dentist, my tooth was bonded--not great, but bonded none-the-less. My Mom was less than thrilled. She has a thing with beautiful teeth.
Years went by. I had the front tooth bonded and rebonded a few times-each time it looked better than the last. Flash forward to two summers ago. I go to the dentist each summer when I go back home. I hate military dentists and never trust any random local dentist will be good, so I just go with what I know. This time was no different. I went to my dentist. We talked about bonding vs. putting a cap on it. Each time I go to the dentist, I hear my Mom inside my head telling me that "crowned teeth look terrible after a short while." The gum starts to recede, which shows the line between the tooth and the crown. Consequently, I've held out and insisted to only rebond much to the dentist's dismay. Anyway, he was pushing hard this time. I have dental insurance, but a crown still costs a small fortune. I agreed to run an estimate and I'd think about it. I made the appointment for the rebond. The day arrived. I went in, he went to work. About twenty minutes in and a whole lot of sanding later, he took a brief break. I couldn't quite figure out what was taking so long. I started to manuever my tongue around the huge apparatus that was holding back my lips/cheeks, then moved it forward to my tooth. Tears immediately began to flow. At that point it felt like time was standing still and I was having an out of body experience! I remember sitting there, looking at that freakin light shining in my eyes and saying "OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD. MY TOOTH!" Of course, it probably sounded more like "WAH WAH WHA WHA HWA" due to that huge thing in my mouth. He didn't quite know what to say. I think he was shocked. I was too. I was freaking out and crying. At the dentist. At the age of 32. I thought those tear filled days at the dentist were long over. (That's a whole other story. I've had my share of dental trauma. Who'd have guessed a dentist was capable of long term trauma.) This nonsense went on for what felt like 10 minutes though it was likely only two. There wasn't much that could be done. My tooth was sanded down to a nub. It had to have a crown. No option. He handled it well, pretty much keeping his cool though I am fairly certain he was dying on the inside. I probably could have sued him as it seems comparable to cutting off an arm during surgery, when the patient came in for a bone set. I could be wrong. Anyway, my tooth was crowned with a top of the line crown. He did it for FREE, saving me $350. Now I have a beautiful smile with a funny story to share.
Here it goes...
I spent alot of time on our farm growing up. I LOVED going to the farm. I frequently begged my Dad to take me along, which meant waking up at the crack of dawn. He hated waiting for us to get ready in the morning as he wanted/needed to get to the farm as early as possible. Solution--sleep in our clothes. Yep, my sisters and I would sleep in our clothes that we'd wear the next day. Perfect answer. And it worked.
My Grandparents lived on the farm. I loved them so. My Grandma always had all the time in the world for us. She'd color for hours, help us line up dominoes, make cracker and cheese sandwiches for snacks, drive us into town to pick out a little treat, and take us out to the barn to find the cats/dogs and feed the cows. She was one of a kind. My Grandpa too. He worked with my Dad and Uncles on the farm though, so we saw him mostly at lunch time and when we went and bugged them in the quonset. He always managed to sneak
My Aunt and Uncle also lived on the farm (in a different house). They had 4 children, one whom was very close in age to me. He was like 6 months older than me or something, but kind of a jerk. He had the gawl to tell me that I should "respect my elders" (aka, him). WTH. I should have known then what a jerk he was/is. He has only gotten worse with age from what I hear. Anywho...he and I did all sorts of stupid stuff and each and everytime, I ended up with some type of injury. The most memorable for me was this one when I was ten years old....
He had a go cart that seated one. Obviously, there were two of us, so he had the brilliant idea of hooking this chair on wheels up to the go cart with a rope. I would drive the go cart, he'd steer the chair. All was going well until I turned around to make sure he was okay and hit a tree. Only it wasn't that simple. I wasn't going fast, but I turned my face around just as I hit the tree, knocking out 3/4 of my permanent front tooth. Yep. It wasn't good. After a trip to the dentist, my tooth was bonded--not great, but bonded none-the-less. My Mom was less than thrilled. She has a thing with beautiful teeth.
Years went by. I had the front tooth bonded and rebonded a few times-each time it looked better than the last. Flash forward to two summers ago. I go to the dentist each summer when I go back home. I hate military dentists and never trust any random local dentist will be good, so I just go with what I know. This time was no different. I went to my dentist. We talked about bonding vs. putting a cap on it. Each time I go to the dentist, I hear my Mom inside my head telling me that "crowned teeth look terrible after a short while." The gum starts to recede, which shows the line between the tooth and the crown. Consequently, I've held out and insisted to only rebond much to the dentist's dismay. Anyway, he was pushing hard this time. I have dental insurance, but a crown still costs a small fortune. I agreed to run an estimate and I'd think about it. I made the appointment for the rebond. The day arrived. I went in, he went to work. About twenty minutes in and a whole lot of sanding later, he took a brief break. I couldn't quite figure out what was taking so long. I started to manuever my tongue around the huge apparatus that was holding back my lips/cheeks, then moved it forward to my tooth. Tears immediately began to flow. At that point it felt like time was standing still and I was having an out of body experience! I remember sitting there, looking at that freakin light shining in my eyes and saying "OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD. MY TOOTH!" Of course, it probably sounded more like "WAH WAH WHA WHA HWA" due to that huge thing in my mouth. He didn't quite know what to say. I think he was shocked. I was too. I was freaking out and crying. At the dentist. At the age of 32. I thought those tear filled days at the dentist were long over. (That's a whole other story. I've had my share of dental trauma. Who'd have guessed a dentist was capable of long term trauma.) This nonsense went on for what felt like 10 minutes though it was likely only two. There wasn't much that could be done. My tooth was sanded down to a nub. It had to have a crown. No option. He handled it well, pretty much keeping his cool though I am fairly certain he was dying on the inside. I probably could have sued him as it seems comparable to cutting off an arm during surgery, when the patient came in for a bone set. I could be wrong. Anyway, my tooth was crowned with a top of the line crown. He did it for FREE, saving me $350. Now I have a beautiful smile with a funny story to share.
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