Sticky, Sweet, & A Little Overdressed

Hey, !

I'm thinking you'll find this exchange as amusing as I do.

Did my first run in over four weeks this morning. I trotted along slowly for about a mile, with some walking and stretching interspersed throughout. Then I hopped off the treadmill and did 10 minutes or so on the elliptical, then got back on the treadmill and ran without walking for another mile.

I felt sure I’d have some achiness today, but it’s not too bad. A little twinge-iness in my knee and hip, but nothing nearly as bad as it’s been over the past few weeks even without having run.

Check this out, though: my jaw locked up at lunch today. I was having a lunch meeting and I’d just finished my sandwich when my jaw felt like it came unhinged on the right side. I wiggled it around trying to pop it back into place, but the longer it stayed out of whack, the worse it hurt until I was finally crying and my colleagues were asking if I needed to go to the emergency room. Finally the pain started to subside and my jaw gradually felt like it was mostly back in place, but even now, 9 hours later, it’s still kind of achey.

I had no idea running could hurt my jaw.

Did my first run in over four weeks this morning. I trotted along slowly for about a mile, with some walking and stretching interspersed throughout. Then I hopped off the treadmill and did 10 minutes or so on the elliptical, then got back on the treadmill and ran without walking for another mile.

I felt sure I’d have some achiness today, but it’s not too bad. A little twinge-iness in my knee and hip, but nothing nearly as bad as it’s been over the past few weeks even without having run.

Check this out, though: my jaw locked up at lunch today. I was having a lunch meeting and I’d just finished my sandwich when my jaw felt like it came unhinged on the right side. I wiggled it around trying to pop it back into place, but the longer it stayed out of whack, the worse it hurt until I was finally crying and my colleagues were asking if I needed to go to the emergency room. Finally the pain started to subside and my jaw gradually felt like it was mostly back in place, but even now, 9 hours later, it’s still kind of achey.

I had no idea running could hurt my jaw.

Now that the debt's definitely going to be paid off by the end of the year (yay!), and we should have an adequate downpayment saved by the end of next year (yay!), we're budgeting in some nice-to-haves. One of the things we both want is whiter teeth. Has anyone here done any teeth-whitening procedures? Can anyone make recommendations?

I gather that the laser process is expensive, effective, but possibly too drastic and sudden a change to be very subtle about. I don't think I like the idea of walking into work one day and having everyone immediately know I had my teeth whitened all in one shot. But the trays sound like a good option — cheap and more gradual. Are they as effective? Can anyone speak from experience?

I wrote the following as a comment in 's journal entry about content filters:

I've started experimenting with them, as you know, and I don't think I much care for them either. At first I set them up because it seemed like all I ever talked about was running, and I thought I might be boring some people. But hey! It's my journal, I can bore whoever's dumb enough to read.

It was also a half-thought-out attempt at setting up some topics that I might write about, like if I were keeping a real blog of a topical nature. Sort of like a running column on different areas of interest. But I've found that it isn't an effective way to get me writing about those things anyway.

So I think I'm going to do away with them.

Thanks to everyone who filled in my content filter poll anyway. It was nice to know so many of you are interested in what I have to say on anything, let alone those particular topics.

For a long time, I’ve been making notes for a songwriting book I hope to write someday after I’ve achieved enough success to be credible as an authority. I certainly don’t want to show my hand in any kind of public way, but I think it’s a focused enough topic that it hasn’t been written about yet and probably won’t have been written by the time I get my chance. And if it has, maybe I can still get it published.

Anyway, I’ve been working a little on it this morning, and I made some good progress. I put together practically one whole chapter and a portion of another one.

It’s really helpful to me, of course — that’s the beauty of the whole thing. The topic I’m writing about is one of my biggest weaknesses as a songwriter, so I’m forcing myself to articulate all the really useful things I’ve ever learned about this process. And in compiling examples to illustrate points, I’m having a few “aha!” moments myself.

I’m hoping it kicks my butt into actually internalizing some of this stuff and making it come more naturally.

Stolen from teal7:

Comment anonymously on this entry with three clues about your identity. I will try to guess who you are. With more than 100 people on my friends list, I will guess horribly wrong. Each time I do so, please give me one more anonymous clue.

(Oh, and if you can make the clues things I might plausibly actually know about you, that’d no doubt help a fair bit. )

I had a funny dream last night.

I went out to a writers' night at a non-existent bar and as I was making my way over to greet some friends, I noticed that one of them was talking with Keith Urban. Being the opportunist I am, even in dreams, I butted in anyway.

In the dream, I mentioned to Keith U. that I have a colleague who has a very similar-sounding name (I can hear laughing already) and that I have a funny story about him. (This story is true.) We have a bunch of interns at work now, and my colleague was setting one of them up with publishing access to our intranet. She thanked him and added, “You know you have a very similar name to Keith Urban!”

My colleague, of course, who has never heard that one before (pardon the heavy sarcasm), came back with “Yeah but I'm better looking.” (Go ahead, , I know you want to bust out laughing.)

The intern replied, “Shyah! I don't think so! He's, like, Australian!”

In my dream, when I'm telling this story to Keith Urban, I'm doing a very exaggerated Valley-girl-type delivery, and it gets a big laugh from my friend (on whose conversation I intruded, remember) and from Keith U. himself.

And then I woke up. Very amused.

Maybe it's a sign that I should go out somewhere tonight. Maybe I'll meet someone exciting. After all, I've lived in Nashvegas for more than 16 months now and still have only seen one celebrity (I saw John Hiatt picking up his own luggage at the airport). I'm overdue to meet some country stars!