Jeff’s Journal

…I got married.

Many of you reading this have known me, either through school or work or through LiveJournal, for longer than my wife has known me. You know full well where I’ve made my mistakes, where I’ve done embarrassing things, where I’ve made my life harder than it has to be. With Ann, all of that changed - she’s my rock, she gets me in ways most others have not, she validates my existence in ways I never could have imagined. Marrying her was the easiest and best choice I’ve ever made for myself, and I’m reminded of this fact nearly every day.

31 March 2007 was a really cool day in my life, and I’m glad so many people were able to share in it in their own way. For those who couldn’t be there, I’ve finally gotten video of one of the best parts up, so enjoy the Unity Volcano. Excuse the video quality - it was the best rip from the DVD we could get at the time, but it’s the idea that counts and YouTube isn’t entirely known for high definition anyway.

So yeah, today was a big day for dentistry for me. Odd notes from someone who can’t remember his last cleaning or anything at all.

1) Either I take very well to anaesthesia or things are very good in the dentistry world these days. I was completely prepared for a world of pain, and it turns out that I mistakened the drilling they had to do for my fillings for the actual cleaning. The drilling part I figured would be really bad, and it wasn’t. So, like, sweet on that!

2) The cleaning was…interesting. I was essentially Tartar Man, which is kind of gross and I’m a little ashamed of myself in retrospect, but holy crap did it make a difference visually. I could care less about visual appearance, but egads, seeing what it looks like now as opposed to before is like night and day. Absolutely crazy.

3) I still have some minor cleaning left (again, Tartar Man is my name and my superhero power is taking two cleanings to deal with what a mere mortal requires in one), but seriously? Very little in the way of pain, which was impressive. I was a little numbed up, but nothing crazy, and my gums are in rough shape anyway, so most of the pain was simply to gain later on. The worst part, honestly, was that damn suction thing, because I hate a dry mouth.

So yeah. Uh, not bad at all. Certainly not the way I’d like to spend a Wednesday morning, but whatever. Plus, everyone there seemed to agree that my teeth and stuff are really healthy, and once the inflammation and stuff goes down, I should be a-okay. So that’s nice to hear. I’m a real lucky bastard in a way due to that.

Now excuse me, I’m going to continue moving my tongue along my teeth like I have been all day, since I haven’t felt these parts in years.

EDIT: As I posted this, I’m totally lusting over this. I wish money wasn’t so tight right now, I’d totally do it.

If anyone’s looking for birthday ideas for me, however…

1) Ann & I are fairly excited by the prospect of having finally made some possibly really good friends up here in Manchester. Granted, with her surgery and our schedules, we haven’t had the time to really foster a few relationships with good people we’ve met so far, but I met the children’s librarian from Amherst at the Jeff Kinney event in January, and we finally got together with her and her husband last night for drinks and dinner, which later turned into a three hour affair and an invitation to have an Easter lamb with them today. Another 5 hours with them tonight, and it was just a refreshingly good time. They’re a fun couple, we all have a lot in common, and yeah. It was really great.

We’ve had our share of trouble putting ourselves out there, meeting people is never easy, and Ann will be the first to admit that she doesn’t do well under any sort of social pressure, so this was admittedly a big deal for us, and it worked out really well so far. So hooray!

2) The next few weeks are pretty much a wreck for us. A jolly wreck, but a wreck nonetheless. Thursday of this week, we’re seeing Glen Phillips in Derry (20 minutes away!), and then Friday we’re headed to Massachusetts to see Tiff and Rob (and Julia, are you free? E-mail me, I don’t think you got my last e-mail), and then Saturday is family Easter. Yeah, don’t ask. But we’ll see Michelle and Josh Saturday night before heading home, and hopefully find time to see David while he visits from DC (we gotta work that out). After another work week, we have another…something on that Friday night followed by a visit from Lee Anne and Steve (which we’re psyched about) and then the Elf Power concert the following evening. And then things finally calm down.

And that’s just what I remember at the moment. I guarantee I’m missing something here.

3) Our car insurance went down! Hurrah!

4) Other than all that, life is good in Chez Raymond. We’re pretty excited for the spring and summer, and we’re going to make more of an effort to see people and work stuff out. So yeah. It’ll be fun.

I’m writing this last night, so I think I’m going to stop now.

Ann: “Play that Decemberists song I like.”
Jeff: *fires up “We Both Go Down Together”*
Ann: “I love this song, but it makes me uncomfortable. It’s such a nice song, but then he rapes her.”
Jeff: “What?!”
Ann: “Yeah! Why else would she be crying?!”
Jeff: “Uh, because it’s sorta like Romeo and Juliet. They’re in love and can’t be together, and it makes her sad.”
Ann: “Oh, come on. It’s a class thing, first, and second, why would she be crying.”

*keeps listening*

Ann: “Well, regardless, that shows how different you and I are. You hear romantic love, I hear rape.”

Tomorrow’s Ann’s birthday. Give her some love.

EDIT: Later

Ann: “I get the impression that they jump off a cliff, but at the end of the song, he says ‘Meet me at my veranda.’ Does he jump off a cliff into a veranda? Is the cliff a veranda? The only reason I know what a veranda is is from The Three Amigos.”

EDIT #2: “I never knew why she jumped off a cliff with a rapist. That confused me.”

Easter is my favorite time of year for candy. I’m not a huge candy person overall - a few cookies after lunch is good, the occasional candy bar, but I’m not a big sweets person. With that said, Easter means SweetTarts and the Easter version is “Chicks, Ducks, and Bunnies.” They’re a tiny bit more chalky than their round cousins, but are also larger and thus more flavorful. I love them.

This bowl pictured represents the contents of my bag of chicks, ducks, and bunnies today. ALL blue, orange/red, and purple. No green. No yellow. I don’t even like the blue ones, and my two favorite flavors didn’t even make the bag. Absolutely ridiculous.

I hate today.

The Good: My health insurance (read: not my dental) will pay 100% for wisdom teeth extraction. Even better, they’ll pay for all of them to be removed, not just the three impacted. I’m not going to say I’m excited to have them tear some stuff out of my face, but it’s nice to know I won’t have to worry about it.

The Bad: Vehicle registration this year - about $275 combined state and local. The annoyances of a new car, I suppose.

The Ugly: It turns out that we won’t be getting a refund from Massachusetts, and that we actually owe around $250. Annoying as hell, although I should have expected this.

Combine that with the federal tax we owe (around $330) and that’s over $800 we have to lay out in the next 6 weeks. Doable, but ugh.

1) Meet Gobbles:

I got home from work today, and Ann started yelling “Did you see!? Did you see?!” I, of course, did not see, and we went out to the patio to see a large wild turkey chilling out on the roof of someone’s SUV. Pretty hilarious - he hung out for a few hours, hopped on a couple other cars before shuffling off into the sunset.

It’s not rare to see flocks/packs of wild turkeys off the side of the highway up here - it’s one of those great, odd things about New Hampshire wildlife that I appreciate. Ann took these pictures over the course of the afternoon.

2) So, since they’ve made their way to Chicago by now, I guess it’s safe to talk about them - thank you cards!

We made a deal early on after the wedding - Ann’s in charge of her family, I’m in charge of mine. She got her cards done before the summer, I think, and I was bogged down in summer reading and then dodgeball and then dodgeball and I never really got to it. Ann went to Philly a few weeks ago, and I totally intended to just do them and be done with it (if you were at the wedding, you know how many people we’re talking), and I essentially slacked off and played video games all weekend. Monday rolled around, and I’m swearing to myself, so I tell her that I’m needing to crack down and need her help finding things, which is when she shows me the cards, finished (and finished for weeks at that). I felt like more of a tool at that moment than I have the entire time we’ve been married.

If you got a neat little joke in your card outside of the pre-printed headline, I promise every word is true. If you didn’t get a card because you weren’t there, the text at the top was something close to “The Most Important Thing I’ve Learned After 11 Months of Marriage…When Your Husband Says He’ll Do the Thank You Cards, Don’t Trust Him.” It’s true.

So, publically, thank you all for coming, again, and making our big day worth it. Our anniversary is in 2 weeks, and I’ll have a fun post up for that.

3) Speaking of why New Hampshire is awesome, I bet your criminals don’t try to leap out of the courthouse window, and if they do, I bet they don’t apologize first. I love my state.

4) Our dodgeball team won! We;re 1-5! We’re 1-5!

Okay, ’tis all.

1) If I was one to do those “Do 101 things in 1001 days” lists like everyone else I know, I would have crossed one thing off my list today: The Baconator.

I don’t generally eat fast food. It’s one of those things that used to appeal to me, but just doesn’t anymore - I go to a Burger King or McDonald’s or something maybe twice in a given year, and usually out of convenience rather than desire. With that said, around 12:30 today, the craving for two huge burger patties with six strips of bacon overwhelmed me, and since Ann is out for the day and there’s a Wendy’s less than a mile down the road, well…

The verdict? Good, but not amazing. With that much bacon, it should be amazing, but alas, it was only good. What it definitely was was amazingly greasy, though - I’ve washed my hands twice since lunch and I still feel gooey.

2) I’m overdue regarding music and stuff, but I’m so addicted to Kathleen Edwards’s new album it’s not even funny. It’s quite good, and Ann feels threatened by her, so it’s win-win.

3) Any technologically savvy people want to help me figure out why embedded flash videos (YouTube et al) just freeze without sound after about 2 seconds? I can’t figure out if it was an update, or clashing programs, or something else, but it’s completely weird. Never had this problem before, and I never realized how much I actually use YouTube until recently.

4) Speaking of YouTube, if every Celtics game was as exciting as this moment, I’d probably be on the bandwagon:

More later, I suppose.

1) I had my first dentist appointment in a very, very long time today. Very long time. Long enough where I honestly feared the worst, and you know me and fear…

a) The X-Rays were pretty interesting, although I had forgotten how intense my gag reflex was. Thankfully, I hadn’t eaten before going and I didn’t give the assisstant/nurse any presents, either.

b) The best news: only 2 cavities, both surface. This was ultimately shocking to me, as I expected much worse and in much more difficult places, but no, instead it’s a relatively simple situation. Considering my haphazard use of mouthwash (only been consistent over the last 6 months or so) and my relative lack of flossing (I know, I know), I was very happy.

c) The somewhat good news is that the problems I’ve complained about with my front teeth are entirely treatable, and are only significant because I haven’t been to the dentist in ages. If anything, it serves me right for waiting as long as I did (only partially my fault), but it was a bit of a relief to know that it’ll be dealt with relatively soon.

d) The crappy: wisdom teeth. While they’re not bothering me too much, there’s enough concern for them that I’m gonna have to get them out - hopefully all four, but probably three of them. Annoying, and does not fit with my schedule at all. So we’ll see how that works out, but that kind of blows.

We’ll see if I’m still singing praises after what will probably be a rough cleaning, but consider me surprised.

2) I think I’m coming to terms with my ability, or, more to the point, my lack thereof. I’ve found myself to be relatively happy with the way things have panned out for me as of late - I work a decent schedule, I do my sporting activities one or two nights a week, I have my gaming night, and plenty of spare time to spend with Ann, see friends, or just hang around. Now that I’m feeling settled, it’s almost as if I don’t feel overly stressed out or stretched too thin.

Of course, this means some sacrifices, but ones that I’m not entirely upset about. After all, where could I fit in a theatrical production in my schedule? How could I possibly rehearse with a band twice a week? Do I miss those things? Sure, but I also find I enjoy being at home and getting a decent night’s sleep and not being overwhelmed, too. In a lot of ways, the stability I’m finally experiencing now is the stablity I’ve been yearning for over the last few years. So it’s nice to not rock that boat. I can still write and read and create and be myself without being burdened.

Life ain’t too bad right now.

So I’ve taken yet another step in development - a smidge nerdier and a smidge more social, as I joined a Saturday night D&D group.

I have to say, it’s more fun than I thought it would be - a 5 hour session last night essentially flew by. I’m playing a Cleric for this campaign, which is interesting, and my problem is more overthinking (”Hey, can’t I just cast a command spell on this guard and MAKE him let us into the city?”) than getting the hang of it, although it’s still a lot more complicated than I remembered. But I’ll get the hang of it, I’m sure.

Steph, didn’t you give me a book at some point? I think I may have left it at my house, which is annoying, but isn’t a 4th edition coming soon as well? I’m wary of picking up a bunch of stuff anyway, but still, pretty fun stuff.

I’ll have more later, I suppose.

So we did our taxes today.

1) We went to Liberty Tax, which is another chain, but a little classier than H & R, not that it’d take much. It was snowy, so we were in and out in 40 minutes, and it was quick and easy.

2) We actually owe the federal government, those rat bastards. I didn’t expect to owe, quite honestly, but we do based on some bonds we cashed in so we could kill some debts and get a mortgage. Quite frankly, if you boil down the tax savings + interest savings + lesser bills + everything else we were able to do with the bonds we cashed in, the $330 we owe the fed isn’t terrible, but still annoying as hell.

3) Massachusetts owes us! Big time! That was a surprise - I figured we’d owe them given the weird circumstances of the move and the wedding and everything else, but we’re actually getting $500-something back from the looks of things.

4) This means we’re somehow +$200ish or so. At least we’re in the black.

I’ll be glad to go back to doing my own taxes next year, though.