I know it has been a while since I last posted, but I plan to post some photos and words soon about our recent anniversary trip to the San Juan Islands in Washington. Stay tuned...

No delay for decay

After a tense night of clenching my jaw and trying to sleep fitfully, I finally made myself get out of bed and ready to go to the dentist. I have dental anxiety these days, and for good reason I believe. I absolutely detest when my dentist probes my teeth with that awful metal instrument to gauge the depth of my gums. My gums are receding so my dentist seems to want to be EXTRA thorough in this procedure; 5 stabs around each tooth. Ugh. It makes me cringe. I despise...well, I guess all I really hate about the dentist is the probing. Usually everything else is fine. I even enjoy having my teeth cleaned by Francois because we converse in French. But today the spot on my tooth that was detected at my last visit has become a problem and will need work. Bottom line is this - I have a cavity. This may not be as distressing as you might think, but it's my first cavity my mouth has seen since it's previous inhabitants. I did have a small cavity in a baby tooth, but that ended up falling out (why they decided to fill it I'll never know), and I have taken extra special care of my teeth ever since; mainly to avoid having to experience having another cavity. I almost feel that the novocaine shot that they give you is more painful than the actual drilling and filling. Anyhow, this bad news aside, my dentist didn't even probe my teeth today. So all that late night worrying was for naught. Though now I'll have my next visit to worry about, and on a potentially greater level... I blame the Northwest. For all the benefits to having relatively clean, chemical free drinking water, I think it's the lack of Fluoride that has caused my tooth to decay. Bah. I'll just have to suck it up, and remind myself of all the other benefits of living here that far outweigh tooth decay.

15 Weeks

My sister is 15 weeks pregnant, living on a 32' schooner in St. Croix, planning to work as a pirate for a tourist treasure hunt kids show, and she couldn't be happier. She had her first ultrasound this week and she wrote to me about seeing the baby in baby form with a spine and tiny feet, etc. I'm going to be an aunt!

I do solemnly swear...that this is a great day in history

I read this article that I really enjoyed and wanted to share: Writers on Barack. There is a link to read his speech on there as well, which I highly recommend. I keep thinking of a quote I read once (I can't remember where), but it goes "be the change that you want to see in your life". President Obama is all about that.

The (Experi)Mentalist

My Mom and Brian saw the Experimentalist last weekend, and he totally blew them away. Brian described how a known sceptic in the audience was asked to think of a word, and then the Experimentalist guessed what it was ("newspaper"). I asked him "on the first try?!?" and he said "yeah!...well, no, actually he asked questions like 'does the word start with the letter N', etc.". Immediately I thought of psychology and the power of visual cues and other means of subliminal influence. When I went to his website, the thing that caught my eye in his About section was that he had "an advanced degree in Psychology". Now, I have no explanation for the physical supernatural acts that he demonstrated, such as suspending a glass in mid-air and flipping my Mom's key card over in her hand without touching it or even being near it, but as far as the mind-magic, I think he is probably a master of deception of the psychological kind, and I would love to see his show!

Work to live, live to work

Taking breaks at work reminds me that I am human and not just a small machine attached loosely by my fingertips and wired-in to the larger machine that is my company. I spend 8 waking hours a day at work, plus ~1.5 hours roundtrip getting to and from work, half an hour getting ready for work, and 1 hour of lunch where I am still tethered to my workplace. I spend more time during the week with my co-workers than I do with my loved ones. What kind of life have we created for ourselves? As a Danish company, I wish we had adopted the 35 hour work week. I'm glad that I like where I work and what I do, but at the same time I would much rather be vacationing and travelling the world. I suppose there are jobs out there that would encompass that desire (i.e. travel journalist), but that is not feasable when married and with house. I would want Alex to join me at work in that case. As it is, we have to squeeze our vacations and fun-time into the neverending timeline that is our year(s) at work. Also, I noticed recently that I do a LOT of writing. My function at work is to write, and then I come home and correspond (usually via email), and then I write in my journal, and now on this blog. I suppose that is why I have labelled myself the typing type. Work is life, life is work. Just thinking that is exhausting!

Back on the bike

With a bit of inspiration from my good friend Holly, I've gotten back on my bike and am again riding to and from work. Hopefully I can keep this up through the remainder of this chill-you-to-the-bone Oregon winter. Alex prepped my bike last night AND made dinner! I love that man. Though we've been arguing about where to put our new cabinet/bookshelf, I still think that we are madly in love and happy to be together. Skiing last weekend was so much fun, mainly because we so often fell on our asses and then laughed them off. We've got so much to look forward to this year, and even though the changing years are acually just a matter of time progressing normally and moving from one day to the next, that "New Year" label just makes everything feel fresh. I hope this will be an amazing year. XOXO