It's amazing how much of my life has been determined by a quarter inch piece of plastic

~garden state.

um, I kind of forgot to wear my retainer last night. my retainer that I've only been wearing for two weeks anyway, but it means I don't take a muscle relaxer at night anymore...and now I know why it's extra super important that I not forget to wear it.

because if I don't, my jaw is gonna be all kinds of painful.

like it is right now. guess that little (very expensive) quarter inch of plastic is pretty important, hmm?

I have started to think about my upcoming trips--making sure I have the recipes for the sweet potatoes and the pumpkin pie, wondering if I need to bring a hostess gift for thanksgiving in addition to the eats, thinking about what to get matt for his birthday and christmas, as well as what to get my person for the Fry family secret santa thingie, and what clothes I will need to get for our ski trip. I'm thinking about getting this jacket 'cause it's $30, so if it gets ruined it's going to be okay (unlike my pretty green one, which was way more than that, and which would make me pout if it got ruined). I am trying to decide between black or pink.

You see, I am quite aware of my potential for ruining pretty much anything I wear while going skiing, as I am totally clumsy. And if I don't ruin it falling down I'm likely to ruin it with sunblock--for I learned the hard way that I burn extremely easily on the slopes--far more than you would think, even accounting for the wind and the cold and the sun reflecting and the sweating, etc.

As a matter of fact (ick story about to be told) when I was in high school I went skiing with my youth group. We had a wonderful time. And by the end of the second day, despite wearing 45 sunblock and re-applying every single time we got on the lift, my face was covered with little blisters. I was burned so badly my face looked brown--well, at least in the places my hat and goggles hadn't been. On the third day I skied in true bank-robber fashion, with a red bandanna tied across my face.

It. Was. Hot.

and don't even get me started about the way the blisters popped during our 18 hour drive back to Tulsa, or how long it took for my skin to be okay again. I'll tell you my nickname in a minute.

Oh and. On this trip another person got a nickname too. There were three of us on the lift, and I was in the middle. Somehow, while I managed to ski straight off and stop a reasonable distance from the lift and out of the way, the other two collided and got tangled up together, and the girl on my left ended up hitting her head on the point of the ski belonging to the girl on my right.

And boy, did it leave a mark.

From that day forth, she was known as Bumpy and I as Rudolph. Names coined by the preacher's sons. Yikes.

anyway, that's what I think of when I think of skiing. well, one of 'em anyway. and tonight? tonight I will be wearing my retainer, you can bet money on that one.