The Undeniable Tooth

You can either see it as my body loves my front tooth unconditionally and never wants to part from it, or you can see it as my body saying it would prefer I get dentures early. Jeanette and I arrived in Cincinnati after a night of flying and a day of driving to visit my brother and his family on Saturday evening. I foolishly glanced in the mirror and noticed that one of my teeth was a rather hideous shade of brown and looked like it would fall out soon. Even I had to agree with Jeanette (the practical one) that I should see a dentist. And what did I find out? That my body is trying to reabsorb my tooth. Seriously.

Apparently it's been dead for a while due to an "unknown trauma" and when I had a cavity filled a few months ago, it trigger something in my body to notify me that it was a toxin. So, my body was trying to reabsorb it to get rid of it. It's funny colored because it's filled with blood. The dentist said this isn't rare, but it is uncommon. Because we're about to leave on this trip to areas with questionable dental care, I have to get it extracted.

But here's the best part: in it's place I'm getting a flipper. I feel a TV dolphin. It's a fake tooth attached to a retainer (like for braces) that I can take in and out. I'll wear it until I can afford a dental implant, which costs the equivalent of spending about 120 days in Ethiopia. Needless to say, I'm gonna feel like a dolphin for a really long time, but at least I have an automatic Halloween costume.

One advantage of this happening now is that, since I'm staying with my 3-year-old and 6-year-old nieces, the tooth fairy may have to give me something for it... (You can email the tooth fairy at jeanettealas@gmail.com to plead my case.) Also, I still have dental insurance for the next five days. That's nice, too.

Channel 8 never leaves you

This is for everyone from Unalaska. A funny incident in Anchorage yesterday reminded Jeanette and I that Alaska is small and sometimes creepy and that the power of Channel 8 is limitless.

Yesterday afternoon we went to PenAir Cargo to pick up my bicycles. Please note that PenAir ships things all over the state, not just Unalaska, and that Anchorage is actually a large(ish) city. Now it wouldn't have been surprising if the guy at the front desk knew what I shipped once I mentioned Unalaska. Let's face it, not many people ship large awkward masses of bike parts wrapped in about two dozen boxes held together with a roll of packing tape. It was a unique packing job. But that's not what happened. No, I walked into the pick-up area, and a man I can't ever remember seeing before in my entire life says "Oh, you're Anne Hillman. We've got your bikes." I blink. "I used to live in Dutch," he says. "I've seen you on Channel 8." I didn't have to sign for my bikes or show ID. And he carried them to the car for us. Jeanette thought it was creepy. I thought it was hilarious.

And that, my friends, is the power of Channel 8. :)  

Finally started it

We're finally fulfilling the promise we've made to everyone who knows of our plans and starting a blog. It took a few days to concoct a name, and we tossed out a few good ones, like the alliterative "Anne's Adventures in Africa Guest Starring Jeanette" and Jeanette's expletive laden favorite that a few of you may guess at. In the end, our group of literary friends in Unalaska suggested the winner.

This blog will likely be a bit empty for a while. Apparently if we want to move off of our island we actually have to pack our things. Then we're taking a quick road trip to visit family members in the Lower 48. Check back in late March. By that time we should be watching penguins in South Africa and considering the best ways to de-worm ourselves.

All of that said, KUCB is still the best radio station on the planet, and I love Channel 8. (Pledge your membership at www.kucb.org.)