Well, enough of that. Now, I have a dentist appointment (here, I could do a rift on Why I Am Not A Masochist), and then at 7pm I have therapy. I think in the time in between, I'm going to go up to the Whitney. And, I'll need to stop by Kinko's and fax my Hellfire Associate's application to Does Mean Well. I'm a' gonna just trust the process. If I get in, I get in. If I don't, I don't. I've been over-thinkking this way too much, letting it have too much power over me. If the gods of leather want me to be in this brotherhood, than it will happen. If not, well, there's not too much I can do about that.

I'm actually more concerned about the dentist appointment right now. Here's the deal. I used to never get cavities. And then, in my twenties, they hhit. Every time I went to the dentist, there was something for him to drill and fill. I forget the number of root canals I had. My eternal lament was, "Why? I brush, I floss, I don't eat much in the way of sweets." Most dentists just sort of shook their heads. One of the reasons I've been loyal to my current dentist is that he offered an explanation. He asked about my job and my sleeping and eating habits. He said that he had recently attendede a symposium at Harvard where someone put forward an idea (I forget the latin name) of a syndrome called 'Yuppie Mouth.' Basically, people in their 30's and 40's with lots of dental problems. These people worked a lot, ate on the fly, and didn't get enough sleep. The mouth is essentially an organ of the body. When you don't take care of yourself, your immune system is weakened, and you're less able to fend off disease and infection. Cavities are just a breaching of your bodies defenses by infection.

So now, not only am I living better, but, when I started shaving my head I bought a Braun electic razor. In the same box came a surprise gift of a Braun electric toothbrush. Now, my ideas about electric toothbrushes sort of gelled when I saw the movie Private Benjamine with Goldie Hawn. At one point, she approaches her DI in bootcamp and says, "Excuse me, Ma'am, I can't find any place to plug in my electric toothbrush." Well, actually, no. It's amazing how clean this thing gets my teeth. In between cleanings, I used to have plaque building up, like barnacles creeping up a pier. No mo'! So I'm actually hoping that after my teeth get cleaned, my dentist will give me a smile and a handshake and say "I'll see you in six months." Probably not, but I can dream, can't I?

I used to comfort myself by saying "Everyone in my family has great teeth and bad hair. I got great hair and bad teeth." Well, then The Spot started taking up more and more real estate on my scalp, so I shaved it all off rather than opt for the tonsured look. And now, I have no hair and bad teeth. Alas.

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