Today turned out to be a shitty day. First, though, Mike said I could spill the beans at the end of the week on something I was doing here. I was one of the ones testing out the points for offers thing they’re starting up. I was awarded most of my points instantly and it was really cool to see my points just jump up in an instant. A few have yet to award me, but they said it can take up to a few weeks. As I told Mike, I hope to see more free offers soon for those of us that are broke. Once we have a little extra money I’m definitely going to sign up for eMusic! Maybe even Netflix, too. It’s something I’ll be looking forward to and will check out regularly.

Ok, so on with my shitty day. Vision problems, ear problems, cavities, gingivitis – what’s next? Cancer? Heart problems? Diabetes?

My gums were actually a little better when I got up. About a week or two ago I noticed a funny feeling in my mouth. It was an overall kind of feeling, like how your mouth feels when you first get up. Tom noticed I had bad breath, though he wrote it off as whatever I was eating. Then I started getting this burning feeling, sort of like you do when you have a cut, all along my lower I-teeth. So like I said yesterday, I started using his mouthwash on top of my own cuz it kills bacteria and germs that mine, which is a fluoride treatment, doesn’t really do. It’s gotten a little better, though, I’m not able to eat as much. Yeah, it makes a great diet. You ought to try it sometime. rolls eyes My gums have clearly receded and I have a nasty case of gingivitis.

I’ve finally decided enough is enough! Yeah, I’d have preferred to wait till he got a job with insurance and then see a dentist, but even if he got a job with insurance today, I’d have to wait 3-6 months for it to kick in and I’m simply out of time. I’m pissed at God for allowing this to happen to me and for ignoring my many, many prayers to just wait and let it hold out till I could get to a dentist. But now I have to go to some scummy free clinic with a bunch of just-as-scummy druggies, welfare bums, and who knows what else, and wait all day with a bunch of wild, screaming kids. I’ll have the iPod, but it still really sucks. It really does. Tom’s going to call there Monday and see what needs to be done to get in. Hopefully, it won’t take months! I swear I’m going to end up pulling them myself if they tell us they’re booked up for months! I don’t know that they necessarily do appointments, though. I would’ve thought they’d do walk-ins. Tom just assured me I won’t have to wait for months. Good, I don’t have months! These teeth have GOT to go and I need dentures. That’s another thing I worry about with free clinics. Do they just pull bad teeth and expect people not to have any teeth to eat with? A liquid diet would get the rest of my weight off nicely, but I’d rather work it off the hard way, thank you. Yet Tom says that free clinics do take care of the needs of those without insurance. I always thought those were for those on welfare or disability, but Tom said it’s for anyone who’s low-income (and two people living on $300 a week is certainly low-income) and who’s uninsured.

Again, I’m pissed at the timing, and so I’m hoping it’ll actually save us money in the long run. All those co-payments would’ve really added up, had I had insurance. It’s just that the doctors would’ve been better and I wouldn’t have had to wait all day long. The dentists I used to see in Arizona got me in practically as soon as I walked in the door.

As anxious as I am to get this shit dealt with once and for all since it’s been a problem now for 5 years and is quickly getting worse, I worry that it will be replaced with something new. I swear it always works that way for me. Taking care of one problem means going right into another one.

In the meantime, the check wasn’t at the mail place today, and once again, I know it’s not unusual for it to be a day late, but until the rent’s paid and the refrigerator’s full, I won’t rest easy.

Let’s see, what else went wrong today? Well, I had some email nightmares I had to deal with, but Tom helped get me out of that jam. I regularly change passwords on all accounts that I use regularly. When I went to change my Yahoo account PW, it kept telling me it was invalid. I sent a message to customer service. This was yesterday. When I got up today I couldn’t log in no matter what I tried. When Tom finally got me in there was a message there from Yahoo saying that others had experienced the same problem and that they had reset my PW. I was like, you reset my PW and then you magically expected me to get into my box to get the new PW??? Damn fools! Isn’t that a lot like locking your keys in your car?

I’m not done yet. I got a free sample of Cream of Wheat. I poured it into a bowl, poured hot water into it from the dispenser, grabbed a spoon, and then there was the spider in the middle of it all! Yuck! It was apparently on the spoon that I grabbed from the dish rack. So no Cream of Wheat for me today.

The dog whistle also came today, but it’s too soon to say whether or not it will work. It’ll probably take a couple of weeks to work like the automatic one we want to get when we have more money says it takes. It’s not something that keeps dogs from barking altogether, but something that stops them from barking excessively. Also, Jesse definitely worked today and I’m pretty sure he did end up working yesterday, too. And we more than likely slept through the worst of it since we both got up between 7:30 and 9:00 the last two days, which is fine with me cuz they’re definitely way worse in the early mornings.

Today it was quiet until he went to get the mail around 11:00. When they went off I stepped outside and ordered them to settle down. They did. Then they went off in the early afternoon. Tom used the whistle, but because it was the first time, it took a while for them to settle down. Then they went off again shortly afterward while I was listening to music. Tom said it was another dog that stirred them up that time. He said they ignored it for a while and then decided to join in with the barking. I don’t know how long it took to settle them down that time because I didn’t come out from under the headphones till the end of that fit. Then they started up right before 6:00, which I would think would be close to when Jesse gets in, and I stopped them fairly fast. I matched the length of their barks. So if they barked several times, I blew steadily on the whistle. If they gave a quick bark, I gave a quick blow. By 6:00 we didn’t need to “blow them off” anymore.

It’s funny to think that his dogs are in training, in a sense, and he doesn’t even know it, even if it sucks that the responsibility has to fall on us since he doesn’t give a shit.