New Administration, New Teeth Issues, New Semester

The end of the first month of a new decade. Or was that 2020? Anyway, Trump is finally out of power. After the January 6^th capital riot, I was anxious there would be violence at the inauguration but fortunately it more or less went smoothly (Aside from some mistreatment of National Guard Troops with where to put them at one point – I’m not a fan of the military and such but that was…yeah). Biden wasn’t my pick for president but at least Trump’s out of power and taking the pandemic seriously. I’ll still call my representatives and push them in a more progressive direction, especially if Biden does something side-eye worthy, as he might do.

I had some dentist work done. I still seem to be taking care of my teeth well for the most, it’s just one tooth needed a filling and that was done later the same week. Except I might have misjudged how much the filling needed to be ground down, since when I pressed my teeth together a few days later, I felt the filling tooth strain with not-quite pain and be pressed into the gums. I did wonder if the tooth was being extra sensitive but after a couple days of that discomfort, I asked for another dentist appointment which I fortunately got the same day I called for it. Barely took them fifteen minutes to grind the filling down to a more sensible level and I could chew far better without that wincing feeling. They also put fluoride on a back tooth since it felt sensitive and that might reduce the sensitivity. I had to not eat after that but fortunately the dentists confirmed I could eat two hours later, so I didn’t have the ambiguous time of judging when to eat. There’s the caveat that the tooth still gives a wincing feeling when I eat apples and I don’t know if there’s still problem I need to get checked on later or if it’s regular tooth sensitivity again.

I’ve started my last semester in Albertus Magnus on the eleventh. I’ve already started on and submitted my Writing Portfolio entry a week in advance – and it already got two comments from my fellow students. LOL. I don’t blame them, one already submitted their work this week, so they might as well get the next student’s work over with. At least my submission is done for this week. I have started on the second book for Seminar in Fiction II, the required class everyone forgot I should take that made me go another semester. Doing the math, I’m reading 24 pages a day to keep up with the reading schedule and though it’s doable, it can be a challenge to find a time in the day to do it, especially if I have other appointments or duties. I plan to switch my reading schedule a bit, which’ll disrupt my writing of other classwork and side projects but I want to make the days more manageable. I guess I’ll do some classwork in morning watches or any other free times in the day, the same with side projects. I was going to start the Seminar in Fiction II 60 page writing project last week but after finishing and sending in my Master Project, I decided to take a break, as I felt the strain of a feeling like burnout happening at the thought of starting one big project after just finishing another.

Speaking of my personal writing, I’ve only been able to have one or two days a week where I can write my fanfic We Will Hold On Forever (and weekends when I don’t have to write for Writing Portfolio). This is based on days I missed and though it’s slow, at least I’m making incremental progress. I’ve already started on the second draft of the next chapters. The first draft was surprisingly short, but I have a feeling the second draft might lengthen it to the usual 40-60 page monster chapters that have to be cut in two. Since it sounds like I’ll be writing at this slow pace the whole semester, don’t expect the next chapters to be posted any time soon.

That’s all for now. I’m editing this the day before a snow storm. Until February’s end, see you!