pain, pain, go away

PSA: teeth are very useful parts of the body, and you should take very very good care of them. found myself sidelined two weeks ago now with some serious unexplained pain in my jaw, after a dental cleaning. i'd scheduled a needed extraction, figured all was well til then. alas... turns out the tooth that needed to come out was in a hurry, got itself infected and swollen and OUCH to give me a hint. tylenol pm? no dice. maxed out on ibuprofen & topped it with vicodin and still no relief, no sleep, no functional brain. thankfully (sorta), the pain was such that i couldn't wait for my appointment, else i apparently would've ended up in the ER last weekend. hundreds of dollars later (and thru the worst pain i can recall lifelong), i can finally chew again. and, you know, sleep. and think straight. good times. moral of the story? if your tooth hurts, find out why and deal with it IMMEDIATELY. a novocaine needle pushing through infected tissue=excruciating. trying to get back on track... working my ass off, daydreaming about next year's birthday trip. it's shaping up thusly: daytona beach bike week, then a wee tour around florida to catch some spring training games. if i'm somehow loaded with dough, after that i'll repair to the caribbean for some horseback riding; if not, i'll settle for a return trip to orlando to the gun range (and that hottie i didn't have time for in august) and some riding thereabouts instead. in the meantime, i'm itching to gamble, oddly... watching for vegas deals. or maybe i'll just work too much this winter to finance the bday so i won't have to wonder how much of it i can afford. random news: scarlett johansen plans to record an album of tom waits covers. huh?