ordered some thai from the vegetarian place that’s sort of expensive, but WHATEVS the papaya salad is amazing and what do i find in the bottom of the bag? a little packet of napkin and utensils – but this is not a normal packet. this is not a napkin and a knife and fork. this is a napkin, a SPORK and a STRAW. amazing. congrats, sort of expensive vegetarian thai place. you’ve scored a loyal customer.

this morning i went up to my new orthodontist’s office in burbank and got braces. again. approximately 15 years after i first had them. admittedly they’re only in the back on the right side. and only for five months (and then 9 more months of invisalign). but still. this is kind of lame right? i’m writing about it here to get it out so hopefully i won’t have to keep explaining why this has come to pass. i’m 27 years old and i have braces. ugh.

originally i had checked into invisalign because i wanted my teeth to look better. i’d never been happy with how my teeth turned out after braces in junior high – front teeth didn’t match up, bite felt funky – and then once my 12-year molars fully erupted they were all sideways (chewing surface faced my cheeks) and messed things up even more. as time went on, even though i’ve always been a faithful retainer-wearer, things got more weird in there.

so – invisalign. my teeth would look better and hey, added bonus: my bite would improve and maybe i could get that 12-year molar thing finally fixed since 10 years of a series of special retainers wasn’t quite getting it done. i had a couple consultations, shopped around for prices, and holy crap people. it’s like $5000 AT LEAST. five THOUSAND dollars. my CAR cost $5000. needless to say i was all, “yeeeeeahhhh….no thanks.”

then came the day of unexpected $1500 dental work. dental work that could’ve been prevented if my 12-year molars weren’t all jacked. suddenly, paying $5000 to have that problem put to bed didn’t seem so unreasonable. now the order of my priorities with regards to considering another year of orthodontia were: fix bite to avoid insanely expensive dental work and then, hey, i guess my teeth will look better too.

so, here i am, with poky brackets on all of my right teeth and another appointment in five weeks for a new wire and some crazy rubber band thing they’re going to do to correct my misaligned bite. so far there’s no real pain (after so much orthodontia and retainers over the past 15 years i have a pretty high mouth-pain tolerance anyway), just that wonderful feeling of the inside of my cheek being rubbed raw. more thrilling details about the inside of my mouth to come!

update: omfg my teeth are killing me. i already need to have the top wire clipped.