These are the thoughts of a Texas transplant in West Michigan who makes his living as a newspaper reporter by evening, and a struggling novelist by day.

Saturday, June 16, 2007

que fue vato loco

i had a great time tonight at the party. i went with the babbitts to nate's going away to college party in GR.

it was a high. something i might have attended 17 years ago. there was jams, byob, food, chatter, mosquitoes, friends gathered and talking/laughing.

the main difference is i wasn't toasted as i would have been in a party from my past. i shared a few beers with krista and bummed cigs from nate and dennis. dennis was quite surprised i smoked. i raaaaaarely smoke. i'll do it at a party but even then it's rare. it just seemed like the right thing to do tonight. it was ohly three cigs. hardly worth mentioning. though, because i haven't smoked in ages, i got a bit of a buzz upon inhaling.

it's always nice to be with friends outside of the office. whether it's playing a friendly game of poker, a party, dinner, bowling, whatever.

i guess what i'm saying is i enjoy my hanging out with my friends and treasure their friendships. friends are hard to come by, the good ones anyway.

Friday, June 15, 2007

back in the chair

i had my first teeth cleaning in years, i'm ashamed to admit, wednesday.

krista and i are now the dentist twins. since, we've become the wonder twins of cartoon fame. she gives me rides to the dentist since we have the same one and it turned out that our apointments wednesday were only 20 minutes apart. (she only had a few fillings done.)

my work was alittle more extensive. the jygenist scraped here and there, removing "stuff," using the suction thing to remove the stuff, running cool iar and water in my mouth. this latter hurt my gums a lot since i've got receding gums.

as she worked, though, i felt, shall we say, lighter? like a bowel movement. i felt years of gunk washed away and it felt good to run my tongue through my teeth.

then the next stage of the dentist's visit was to get two fillings done. he numbed a small area of my mouth because the molar cavity was a little deep. that felt a bit odd. he filled a small one in my front teeth area.

again, as the procedure went on, it became easier and i calmed down significantly.

i need to go back in about three weeks to get the rest of the filling put in. i have a major cavity in the number 17 tooth area (look that location up). it's in the tooth in front of where i'm getting one removed (which i'm doing in two weeks).

it will be quite eventful. i'm really hoping the tooth extraction won't be too bad. most of it is stuck in the gum, but i'm sure the oral surgeon can get to it. i hope anyway.

Monday, June 11, 2007

the last ones

we found out sunday that dawn's youngest sister from chicago is three months pregnant (due dec. 12). that's great news. it was a long and arduous road for her and her husband. finally, though, it's happened.

we're all very happy for them and word spread from sibling to sibling as she made the calls sunday afternoon. she'd kept it hushed until now, despite conversations about trying to get pregnant.

i'm sure evie's happy. she's been asking/questioning when, when for years now. now, she can stop.

but with this news comes a little, what? i don't know. i don't know what words to use. you see, dawn and i are now the only ones in both families without a child. before i suppose we held on to the fact that dawn and her sister didn't have kids. no one knew if it would happen for either one. and now it has for her.

so we're the last. on my side my brother's got two kids, a boy and a girl and my sister has a little girl. and on dawn's side, her other sister has two kids and two0 adopted kids and her brother has four kids, including twins.

we'd like kids. or at least a kid. i've reached a point in my life where i'm confortable with things and have a house, a job, a good wife, two cats, et cet. it just feels like a child would be the most obvious next step.

i see kids and i, for the most part, enjoy being with them or playing with them. dawn's great with kids. she's got that teacher instinct and kids know it. they take to her like crazy and shr knows how to treat them.

i know we're both ready for parenthood. whether it happens or not, who knows. if it doesn't, i'll still be happy. but if we do, it'll be nice to have junior or Siobhan running in the yardor playing with the cats.

yes, i like the name Siobhan (pronounced che-van). i read a book called "the incidnet of the dog at night" and the name appeared in it. at first i didn't kow how to pronounce it until i heard the name when i listened to the book to tape. since, i've heard the name several times. yes, it is probably strange since it's irish and we're not, but i really don't give a flying flip. i dig the name and that's it.