Hooray for you, Mari Sasano.

Going to the dentist is important. You can’t be happy if your teeth are in bad shape.

I have been going to the same dentist for over 20 years. In fact, aside from my family, he’s the person that I have known longest in Edmonton who I see on any regular basis. Every time I go, it’s the same Garfield poster on the ceiling (“9 out to 10 dentists who recommend candy to their patients prefer chocolate!”), dentally inspirational wall plaques (“Only floss the teeth you want to keep!”). It’s homey and familiar. I don’t know what I’ll do when he retires!

In any case, the visit only took half an hour. It’s only when a dental hygienist scrapes at the plaque on your teeth that you really know how well you’ve been taking care of them. She noticed, so I seem to be doing something right! I try to floss every day (but sometimes forget for weeks at a time), and have been using an electric toothbrush.

I used to think that electric toothbrushes were gimmicky and wasteful. But it seems like it’s been keeping my teeth cleaner, mostly because it’s got a timer and forces me to brush for a full two minutes. I recommend one, plus the daily flossing. Do it!

It’s the Sam Shepard play with Lorne Cardinal, the guy from Corner Gas. And it was pretty good, but I wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be funny or not. Some parts, yes (guy trying to throw bread into the freezer) and some not (choking his brother to death–why doesn’t someone try and stop him? Mom?!?) There’s fire and lots of fake beer and Jeff Page in a pair of wonderful white shoes.

Yet, something about eating several pounds of Greek food in about 10 minutes made my mind wander a bit. Kind of nauseated sort of wandering. And when the toast started burning, I got quite concerned. So after the show was done, I needed to go outside for some air RIGHT AWAY. And what’s there? Clouds of cigarette smoke.

Stop smoking, people! Especially women. It destroys your bones, increases risk of blood clot and stroke, and…well, like a lot of other things, it hits the ladies especially hard over time. We don’t show symptoms for things like heart attack and stroke in “normal” ways, so yeah, it can sneak up on you one day.

Ugh. Another fun thing to do when you’re young that makes you pay when you’re old. But at least not exercising doesn’t stink so bad.

If you, like me, have spent a little too many nights at loud rock n roll shows, then you’re probably experiencing some hearing loss.

It’s been so bad lately that I’m doing that “Eh?” thing that you see old people do, craning my neck during conversation. So I decided to go get tested. The results? Normal. My right ear is a little worse than the left in terms of eardrum function, I hear high pitches better than lower, but my overall hearing is OK.

So what’s the deal? One explanation from the audiologist is that my hearing has deteriorated a little, say 10 decibels, so I perceive that as hearing loss. The other theory, which my doctor says is quite common, is that as we get older it’s harder to distinguish important things (speech, for example) from background noise. Basically, I just need to pay better attention, or get louder friends.

Liz, Clinton and I all suffer from this condition. It’s aging hipster, ennui-caused hearing loss.