$1,000 Day....

I had to go to the dentist this morning. Not my favorite place, but I was six months overdue. I had an appointment in January, but my rotten sister had to go and have a baby that day ;0). LOL.

So I spent three hours at the dentist today. We started going to a new office, so all the preliminary paperwork and checkup had to be done. I also had a treatment for periodontal disease. Apparently, 80% of the American population has this, but I still feel a little weird about it. I'm glad it was caught before I got pregnant so I can be treated appropriately, because periodontal disease can cause low birth weight and premature birth. So that was very positive.

I also had to have two fillings. I swear, I take pretty good care of my teeth, but I obviously need to be more careful. So they shot me up with Novocain, and I warned them ahead of time that last time I had a filling the Novocain didn't work, so they used the extra strength stuff on me. It didn't work. So I had another shot. Still didn't work. So I had another, and then they started drilling, at which point I realized I still wasn't completely numb. So I had another and finally it worked. Good Lord. My jaw is killing me now, and my cheek is still kind of numb. I haven't had lunch (it's 3:15) because I'm afraid I'm going to bite my cheek and not realize it. Ah, the joys of going to the dentist.

Oh, and for all of this we had to pay $485 out of pocket. Yikes. Our insurance covered a good portion of it, though, which I'm so grateful for. It would have been over $1,000 had we not had dental.

I got all that done, and then had to go pick up my car from my uncle Gary. He's a fantastic mechanic, and the only one allowed to touch my car. He was doing a tuneup for us. My car is eight years old, but it's a Honda, and if you maintain them appropriately, they run for a bagillion years or something. My uncle is a Honda mechanic, so that works out perfectly. He fixed my car, changed the oil, rotated the tires and replaced some of the guts (belts, heat shield, etc), and my car is now running beautifully. Yay!

Oh, but that cost another $450. It would have been over $1,000 had I take it to the dealership where I got my car, though. If anyone needs a fantastic mechanic with reasonable prices in the Quad Cities, let me know, because he is seriously awesome. He knows his stuff, and is not one of those guys who will screw you over. In fact, he used to work at a dealership and got so tired of their sleazy tactics and overcharging that he opened his own shop. He said he couldn't stand to screw people over like that. I asked him once if he was giving me such good prices just because I'm his niece, because everything seemed so cheap, and he said no, he's charging me labor and making money, but there was no reason to charge people out the nose for vehicle repairs just because you can.

Okay, I'm rambling. I just really love my uncle Gary, and I appreciate his working on my car so much.

So today was the $1,000 day. Brian and I will be living on Ramen for a while. I'm really glad all of this was taken care of, though. It's a relief to know my car will continue to run reliably, and my teeth are taken care of, especially in light of the fact that there's a good chance I'm pregnant!

In other news: I sent in my cover letter, resume, and application for an officialship position at the Clinton County Courthouse today. I'm conflicted about it, but also excited. I think part of the confliction comes from my severe resistence to change in general. Hopefully, I get a call tomorrow.

Tonight I'm going to sit down and write on my steno machine with the news to practice, and then send a rough ASCII (read unedited file) and resume to a captioning company called VITAC. I've been e-mailing with a girl in Cedar Rapids who is a friend of a friend, and she works for them and spoke to her boss about me, and he wants to see what I can do. THIS I'm really excited about. The job is perfect for my lifestyle, especially if we have kids. I'll elaborate more when and if I know more. Keep your fingers crossed for me!