About this time last year, I went to a thing called Renaissance Weekend. The easiest way to describe it was like a Dos Equis commercial times several hundred, because there were that many of the most interesting men and women in the world there. Don’t ask me how I got invited because I still don’t know.

A couple of weeks before last year’s event, I got an email listing my “assignments” for the weekend. The thing about it is that with so many eminent participants like astronauts, inventors, politicians, scientists, entrepreneurs, time travelers, and me, they don’t bring in speakers. The participants are the speakers. Or panelists, or moderators, or whatever. I figured they’d ease me in for my first one.

So imagine my shock last year when I got the email saying i’d be delivering a lecture. A lecture. I immediately sent Trash a text reading “ZOMG I HAVE TO DO A LECTURE!!!” And then freaked out for the next three weeks. In my defense this was before I knew that a) my “lecture” could be a laid-back, relaxed discussion with about ten other people in a small room, or that b) nobody texts “ZOMG” any more.

It ended up going really well, and I was not only invited back, I was given the opportunity to invite a couple of other people for next time. Knowing as many brilliant, accomplished people as I do (yes, I mean you), that was a tough decision, but one of them ended up being our old friend BuenaOnda, who will be joining us at the conference when we go back in a couple of weeks. I wish she were as nervous now as I was this time last year, but I fear it is not so.

But back to the assignments. I was hoping for more low-pressure gigs this year, and was glad to see that most of what I’m doing is panelisting, which even I was able to handle. Only one of my assignments is out of my comfort zone.

I’m a co-leader of a morning run/walk.

This was a bit of a curve ball, what with my sedentary writer’s life keeping me about as active as slime mold. But I was still hopeful. The fact that I’m a co-leader means that by definition there’s at least one other co-leader, right? I figured I would lead the walk and leave the other lucky individual, whoever it was, to lead the run.

You guessed it: my co-leader is BuenaOnda.

I’ll be the first to admit that she’s in much better shape than I am, but that said...well, we used to hang out a lot. She even lived with us for a while. And I’m pretty sure the most athletic thing we’ve ever done together was when we helped her move. As for any fitness habits she may or may not pursue alone, I’m not aware of them. Other than the fact that she recently quit smoking.

So I’ve rapidly taken up the habit of walking around the lake, daily when possible. I also suggested BuenaOnda brush up on her running so she could take the other half of the task. I won’t bore you with the details of our private correspondence, but her response read, in part, “HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

At least I've been adjusting my internal clock to prepare for the early start. It's scheduled to begin at 7:30, so I’ve been making sure to be up by that time very morning.

Pacific Time, that is. There’s no need to go crazy.

1 Comments:

It was a delight to meet you at RW jeff and multi-talented you are way to modest... perhaps why you got invited... since so many there shared those attributers

By  KareAnderson, at July 9, 2012 at 4:05 PM  

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Trash isn't the only one in the family with teeth issues right now. M. Edium is trying to lose a tooth, but the damn thing can't seem to take a hint.

We've heard all the tips for getting rid of a stubborn tooth, including several we first learned about back when we were his age. But they won't work in his situation. As most people with teeth are aware, the normal system is for the adult teeth to push out the baby teeth as they grow in. But that only works if the adult teeth are in line with the baby teeth. If, as in M. Edium's case, the adult teeth are growing in behind the baby teeth, then the latter have no reason to leave. They'll just hang out there indefinitely until a dentist surgically removes them or the kid ends up with two rows of teeth like a shark.

Years from now, when he's a rebellious teenager, M. Edium may end up getting kind of pissed at us for not letting that second thing happen. But we'll worry about that when the time comes. As of now, any amateur attempts to forcibly yank a tooth free is liable to permanently damage the adult tooth waiting patiently behind it, and that's not cool. he's already had his two bottom front teeth removed with by the dentists' pliers, back in the spring. Which he was a trouper about, and while I was driving him home from the dentist, the fully-grown adult teeth that had been waiting behind the baby ones marched smartly into place and filled the gap. He looked completely normal by bedtime.

It's not the most cost-effective system, though, and it may not actually be necessary. At his last dentist's appointment in April, I was sure she was going to physically remove one or more of the top two, but she told him to keep wiggling and twisting at it to see if he could get it out the normal way. Which neither his mom nor I had much hope for. Like myself at his age, he has a freakishly complete memory except for when it comes to things he's supposed to be doing. So we figured we'd end up dropping another three bills on getting the top two removed, not to mention the exorbitant Tooth Fairy rates when a kid has to undergo an extraction in the chair ($10, or twice that if the kid's dad hasn't broken any of the twenties he got at the ATM the other day)

We were explaining this to my parents at dinner, and my dad came up with the solution: pay M. Edium half that if he can wiggle the tooth free on his own.

Trash jumped at the plan. M. Edium was reading at the time, so he was distracted, but when she offered to buy him a ridonkulously expensive Lego set or two (that's the only kind they make any more) if he could get that tooth out of his mouth within a month, he was in. The twisting began immediately.

Unfortunately, that was a few weeks ago. He's been giving it his all, so Trash gave him an extension; he can have until the end of June. Unfortunately, he has an extension in another sense as well. One of the teeth is looser than the other, and although it has swung forward almost ninety degrees, it won't swing back to the way it was. Now it's practically prehensile, and he likes to close his mouth with the one tooth sticking out so he looks like Sarge from Beetle Bailey. Not sure where to--

Update: it's out, and right here at home. More after I clean up the dental floss, blood, and power tools.

2 Comments:

This post is really beautifully explains and divert our attention don't need to know how to pull a tooth just go and take time from dentist for this purpose. Teeth increase the beauty of the face never every compromise on it. Thanks keep sharing.

By  how to pull a tooth, at June 30, 2012 at 10:48 PM  

My daughter, two months M.Edium's junior, is experiencing the double tooth thing right now as well. The baby tooth has been loose for weeks, but just doesn't seem to want to come out. You have given me some hope that it might happen. Eventually.

By  Bunny, at July 5, 2012 at 12:56 PM  

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