When vetting dentists, tell them that upfront. I have serious gag issues. Of all the dentists in the practice, they picked the one with the smallest hands and her aides know so as not to trigger it, know I need a bite bumper, know to use the kiddie xray bites on me, etc. Plus, my regular hygenist knows I have gag issues, lets me control the suck machine. Good practices know how to make this shit easier.

And yes, I avoided a dentist for a decade because I didn't know this and was afeared.

Seriously, girlie, do I need to kidnap you down to the sabre club for a lesson? Because I would totally do that for NO ULTERIOR MOTIVE WHATSOEVER.

Ha! I'm sure I'm going to throw an elbow here and there in the pack. I'm sort of a hack still. I need to concentrate on getting off the line quicker and recycling into the pack after a block.

My friend managed to get $450 for my twitter alias!

Wow, good for you!

I'm not counting the money just yet. But if it goes through that's a nice chunk of change!

le nubian - thanks for the link (and you can call me Frank - my board name came about in an odd, evolving fashion).

Also, sarameg - thank you so much for the advice. I really have to look into getting one. I'm grateful I haven't had some kind of dental necessity in all this time, but I'm getting worried it's just been WAY too long.

I just got eight summer shirts, a pair of shoes, and some underwear for $85. Other than some jeans I'll buy as I get down to those sizes, my wardrobe is all set for the summer! Then for the fall/winter, I'm set for pants for a few months (got a bunch of size 20 pants/jeans and one pair of size 18 jeans from Mom that used to belong to my sister pre-her-surgery). I will have to buy all new shirts and fall/winter coats come September, though.

Frank,

You might have to remind me of that, I am really terrible about remembering nicknames and what not, so I use board names because that's what is on my screen!

I glanced at the list and was amused to see this:

Hum. You might find that it's difficult to gag and hum at the same time.

Wonder if this is how the hummer came to exist.

I imagine the gag reflex thing would help with any need for it. And I'm fascinated by that link. And TOTALLY agree with the dentist-mould think causing gagging. GAH.

Yay Kat swimming! Y'all and your swimming make me want to do it, and then I remember I'm awful at (a) managing to breathe while swimming and (b) I hate getting water in my eyes, nose, and ears. Minor details.

Does anyone else find the smell of aveda products awful? I was dancing with a woman tonight who was flirting with me, and owns an aveda salon, and all I could think was "but I could never date you, you smell bad" just because she was wearing their stuff.

I really like some of it (when it smells like wet desert) and loathe some others. But there's a wet sage-y note in some of their stuff that I love.

Smells are fairly divisive though. I can't stand the smell of baby powder scented deodorants, for instance. Thankfully, I rarely notice it on other people though because it's one popular scent.