Sorry I haven't posted anything for 2 weeks. I feel terrible about that. My goal is 1 post per week and ideally I try to put them out every Sunday. I'd done such a good job of sticking to that self-imposed deadline for the first three months of this blog's existence. I don't really know why I'm even publicly apologizing for this. I doubt many of you were even aware that I hadn't posted something last week. When Monday rolled around and there was nothing new on here you probably just went about your day as if nothing was horribly wrong. But, despite having complete confidence that my lack of a post disappointed precisely no one, I have still managed to feel serious guilt for falling behind schedule. In fact, that guilt was one of the things that contributed to the onslaught of stress that has caused me to officially declare November 30th, 2010 a rough day. Why so rough? Let's start from the beginning.
I caught a nasty cold Sunday evening that I'm still recovering from. So, I woke up this morning immediately feeling a little shittier than usual. I went to brush my teeth and I felt some aggravating pain as my electric toothbrush passes over my gums on the upper left quadrant of my teeth. This isn't the first time I've felt this pain. It started about 2 weeks ago and I've realized it is attributed to the vicious gum recession I've experienced on a particular tooth. Below is a picture I took with my cell phone. Do you see the tooth 2nd from the right? Look at the top of it. The gum is receding so aggressively that the root of the tooth is revealed a bit and it feels like there is an open cut in my gums. I'm not sure what causes this. In recent years my dental hygiene has been better than ever. I've finally made a habit of flossing and I'm using a sonicare electric toothbrush, which is supposed to be the best. And this recession is completely absent on my right side. What gives, gums? Why are you receding on the left? I'm planning on seeing a periodontist about this issue over my winter break. My dad just had what's known as a "gum graft" to fix this same issue so I'm guessing this is another genetic short-straw that I've drawn, alongside wetting the bed until I was 13 and a propensity for in-grown toe nails. Thanks, Pop. Anyways, this physical pain was my emotional breakfast and it did not get me off to a strong start.
So, I get dressed and head outside and I am met with the most dismal weather Boone, NC has to offer. Grey skies and drizzle as far as the eye can see. Which is certainly not as far as usual due to the thick cloud cover obscuring the normally gorgeous view from my house. I remembered that I had an umbrella in my car to keep me dry as I walk around campus today between classes. So, I get in my car and drive to the parking lot where I catch the bus. When I got out of my car I checked the floor and the back seats for the umbrella and it wasn't there. So, I just hoped that the weather would get better as the day progressed but it didn't. This rain was so enduring that literally every time I stepped outside of a building today, I was getting soaked. What is normally an easy and even pleasurable part of my day, walking to class, was turned into a stressful event that left me sitting in a classroom listening to a lecture in uncomfortably damp clothes and with wet hair. This would surely aid me in my cold recovery.
I believe I was sitting in my first class of the day under the very moist circumstances that I've just described when I realized that I was developing a cold sore on the corner of my mouth. Wait, no. Not just in the corner of my mouth. I realized there is also a concurrent sore developing in the center of my bottom lip as well. There is a veritable herpes gang-bang on my mouth. Maybe that's why my gums are receding. They're terrified. The neighborhood is really going downhill. I'd get the hell out of there too. This outbreak didn't come as a complete shock though because any illness I get is often accompanied by a cold sore. It's a pesky virus that I acquired at some point back in elementary school and just like the real herps, once you pick it up you can never get rid of it. It will only go dormant until your next automobile breakdown or other stressful life event that causes it to pay you a visit. Cold sores are uncomfortable, unsightly and prevent me from kissing anyone but my enemies. Once again, a cell phone pic.
But the wind really got taken out of my sails at the end of my second class of the day when Professor Bruce Dick returned graded papers that were due on the final day of class before the Thanksgiving holiday. I felt pretty good about the paper I had written and was expecting at least a C. I got a D+. Apparently there had been a 5 page length requirement that I was unaware of. My paper was only 3 and 1/3 pages. He made no notes on the content of the paper, leading me to believe that the content is fine but it just needs to be longer. The worst part is that he said I can resubmit the paper by Monday. That may seem like a wonderful opportunity for redemption to some of you, but I'd rather just take the D+ and be done with it. So, now I have to find a way to pump some bullshit into this document and fluff it up to 5 pages. I've already written this paper once. I've already gone through the cycle of stress and procrastination that large projects incur for me. Now I feel like I have to go through it again. It's as if that feeling of accomplishment that propelled me into my Thanksgiving break when I handed the paper in the first time was all a lie. As the stress/procrastination cycle began to re-initiate I could feel Jack and Lorenzo feeding off of it and becoming ever stronger. By this time I had assigned names to the cold sores.
My final lecture for the day was Abnormal Psychology. It was spent discussing suicide. As I sat there cold, wet and defeated, this was almost like being hungry and listening to a lecture about delicious food. It was starting to look appealing and, hell, my gums had already thrown in the towel. My own living tissues were committing suicide without my consent. Maybe I should just go with the flow? I made it through that last lecture and I was ready to go home, put on some dry clothes, cook a nice hot meal and try to recover some kind of positive outlook. I looked outside and it was raining harder than it had been all day. It was at that very moment that I remembered I was supposed to mail something important today. I took off into the rain towards the campus post office and when I got there I found out they closed at 4:00 pm. It was 4:50 pm. Terrific. So at this point I'm completely saturated with rain water. I seriously wondered if there'd been water damage to the cell phone in my pocket. I trudged to the bus stop and caught a ride back to my car. I decided to make the extra effort and drive out to the Boone post office on the chance that it was still open. Of course, it wasn't. So, I went home and almost immediately got to work on this blog post as a means of eliminating the stress caused by not having posted anything on here in two weeks and venting to the people who end up reading this. Thank you.
Dave, if you're reading this then know that I'll get that thing in the mail tomorrow. I PROMISE!
As for everyone else, stay tuned. I've got a less rambling and hopefully funnier post planned for next week.
