This Is Me--2024 A to Z Theme

My A to Z Themes in the past have covered a range of topics and for 2024 the theme is a personal retrospective that I call "I Coulda Been" which is in reference to my job and career arc over my lifetime. I'll be looking at all sorts of occupations that I have done or could have done. Maybe you've done some of these too!

Friday, August 27, 2010

Pill

          I woke up just before the alarm was scheduled to wake me up.  This was typical.  I woke up early not because I wanted to get up, but because I knew it was time to get up.  I would have preferred to sleep a little longer, but five minutes early made no difference.

          In the early morning semi-darkness I quietly made my way downstairs and turned on the kitchen light.  I took my first pill for the day.  Actually, per doctor's orders, it was one half of a glipizide tablet to be taken one half hour before eating.  Each time throughout the day when I take a pill, I down it with a glass of water. I have heard that a person should drink at least eight glasses of water per day for health benefits.  A glass each time I take pills means five glasses per day.  The other three glasses I can drink with meals.

           As I would normally do, I placed the one half of a glipizide tablet on my tongue and quickly gulped the glass of water.  After drinking the water I realized with great dismay that one of my teeth had fallen out.  Initially I thought it was a cap that had fallen off my tooth since I had had this experience once before and it felt much like it did now.  However I realized that what was in my mouth was too small to be one of my caps and it must have been a tooth.

         Probing the tiny object in my mouth I thought that perhaps one of my teeth might have broken since the object seemed too small to even be a complete tooth.  I ran my tongue across my teeth to see if I could determine where the damage was.  I had been fearing this very thing happening for a while now.  It had been a while since I had been to the dentist. 

          Now was not a good time to have to go to the dentist for a tooth repair.  No time ever was for that matter, but especially not now with my current financial situation.  My dental insurance did not adequately cover things like tooth repairs and I seemed to always leave the dentist with a hefty dentist bill.   I did not need this right now.

           Glumly I realized I had to take the unidentified dental disaster out of my mouth to figure out where it came from and what I would have to do next.  I manipulated the porcelainized particle onto my tongue and plucked it out with my thumb and forefinger. 

            I looked at it and felt foolish, but relieved to discover that it was not a tooth or a part of a tooth, but it was the pill that I thought I had swallowed.  There would not have to be an urgent visit to the dentist after all.  I was glad for this.  But why would it have not occurred to me that it was the pill in the first place?

            This post seems absurd.  This was something I thought of a few weeks ago.   It seemed like a good idea when I thought of it, but so did my Debate Day post about alliteration that appeared yesterday.  I still like my alliteration post, and there is something about today's post that I like but I'm not sure where I was originally going to go with it.  There was supposed to be a moral or a lesson of some sort.

              Where would you take this post?   What does it represent?  Is there a lesson in it?          

I was going end up with some questions along the lines of:
Have you swallowed any pills lately?    Have you mistakenly thought that one thing was another only to find it was not the solution you were looking for?  Are you experiencing any apprehension that causes you to incorrectly interpret unrelated life events?    Have you thought that you have caused damage when there was really no damage at all?

Any ideas?

34 comments:

  1. Perhaps it means you really needed more sleep, that you were not quite awake enough to think rationally. In that haze between sleep and full wakefulness, the world takes on funny coloration that temporarily makes sense, but only to us.

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  2. Haha, sometimes the random posts just sweeps us away and we can't help but post them. I feel like that all the time.

    And I agree with Elizabeth up here, you probably just needed a little more sleep. Rationality and sleep deprivation are not friends, my friend :) Glad you didn't have to go to the dentist!

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  3. The lesson - it was too early in the morning to think straight.
    Lee, you have a rockin' award awaiting you!

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  4. I had a good laugh today at your expense(sorry)
    I have to take pills for life and I too arise early in the morning and pills are the first thing of the day. I down about eight glasses of water a day , suppose to be good for you as you say. Sonething happened yesterday that my daughter is still laughing about, I put some clothes into the washing machine whilst having breakfast then when they were washed put them into the drier, I then proceeded to put my jeans into the washing machine and powder so after I came back from shopping they would be washed. I duly went shopping came home unpacked the items, took the clothes out of the drier ready to be pressed then took the jeans out of the washing machine only to find I forgot to switch the machine on, powder all over the floor and unwashed jeans. Yesterday was not my day in more ways than one,
    Glad you didn't have to go to the dentist
    they are very costly over here and we have what we call The National Health Service.

    Have a good week-end.
    Yvonne.

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  5. LOL - I have no idea where this story would go next, Lee.

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  6. I thought this would end up with some spooky and possibly disgusting discovery like in some horror and the character would find something dreadful in his mouth :) I already had chills running down my spine before the missing end of the story :))

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  7. I thought my computer was broken, but we were using the wrong power cord. My camera stopped working and the first shop told me it was be a $250 repair. The second shop returned it to "factory settings" and it works as good as new. I think I'd take your tooth story toward the relief you feel.

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  8. LOL :)

    Sometimes the post can be all about the fun and that's enough!

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  9. Jumping to conclusions, before knowing all the facts. We all do this... Look you saved money, didn't break the tooth, now you can be happy!

    It reminds us, things aren't always as bad, as we first think!

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  10. I had forgotten about one of my dreams last night until I read your post. I dreamed all my teeth came out and filled my mouth. I opened up to let them fall into my hands. When I did, there must have been a hundred or more. They overflowed my cupped hands. And they were all gold. That's all of the dream. No beginning or end. Just this. FYI: I don't have any gold teeth. What does it mean?

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  11. I agree with Alex, to early. But it reminds me of "Where are my glasses?" and then proceed to search for an hour only to find them on my head. :D

    Moral: Pills are not teeth
    Jules @ Trying To Get Over The Rainbow

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  12. Elizabeth -- A groggy,hazy state can cause us to misinterpret things and have poor judgement. You may have a logical explanation to the event.

    Cruella -- The random posts are rooted in ideas that probably made sense at the time we thought of them, but made less sense as we get more deeply into them. At least this is what I think may have happened here.

    Alex -- This is a big week for awards. I will check it out.

    Yvonne -- I am so happy you are here, and here laughing (even if it is at my expense! I don't mind footing that bill.).
    I guess we do things like you described because we are distracted. I do it a lot. Fortunately, I usually realize it before I actually put the milk in the cupboard and cereal in the refrigerator or something like that. Sometimes my mind is so preoccupied I lose track of what I doing in the physical world.
    And that dental insurance thing! Mine covers the cost of the xrays,exam, and cleaning, but they always seem to find a thousand dollars or more of work that needs to be done.

    L. Diane -- I'm sure you could think of something eventually with your creative talent.

    Dezmond -- You are right. This could go in a whole different fictional direction. The concept of using the incident as a slice of life story that exemplifies some concept that applies to all of us was what came to my mind, but with imagination it could go anywhere.

    Liza -- I think this was part of the point I was trying to get at: We often expect the worse and overlook the simplest or most obvious explanation. I've done things like you've described. Unfortunately sometimes I think repair people what you to go the most expensive route so they can make money. The shop that does the free or cheapest fix and solves the problem is the one that wins my business in the future.

    Jemi -- I agree with you. Sometimes the journey is more fun the getting there, especially when there's nothing at the destination.

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  13. Lee-I'm a day late; I posted on your Thursday post ;-D It was great~

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  14. LOL, Lee this doesn't need to go anywhere. There doesn't always have to be a moral to the story. You are human and sharing our foibles is fun. For all of us. (And yes, I alliterated!)

    Thanks for sharing! that rebel, Olivia

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  15. Gregg -- A vacation is always nice, but maybe I just need to focus a little more. Hmmm- maybe I should start focusing on taking a vacation.

    Ellie -- Like I said in an earlier comment, I think sometimes we just expect the worst. But I like what you said: Jumping to conclusions before we have all the facts is not the best idea.

    Karen -- What you said is related to what Ellie was pointing out. It would not be wise to make decisions based only on assumptions.

    Carol -- That sounds like a very good dream according to dream interpretations I've heard. According to some, a dream of losing teeth means you are going to get some money. Sounds like you are in store for a huge amount of money, if you are prone to believing such things. If it really happens I hope you will remember your dear friend Arlee Bird.

    Jules -- You really had me laughing with your moral "Pills are not teeth." It sounded so absurd but so true, just like finding the glasses on your head. Sometimes it's hardest to recognize the things that are right in front you. I guess a lot of us want a more complicated explanation for the simple things in life.

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  16. Lee...you put me on a spot here with this post:) i was going to leave quite a lengthy comment but figure i'd better get it off my chest so to speak in my own blog....telling it like it is. will link back to this post though. it's been bugging me for a few days now. i can easily understand why you were bummed out! at least you were awake(?) and made the discovery. i was sleeping...

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  17. Ellie -- Thanks, I saw your comment on the alliteration post and will respond to it. But late is just fine, especially when you leave a comment. It's always such a fun surprise when someone other than spam comments on an older post.

    Olivia --Yes, it's a silly little anectdote, that's way I was thinking it needed something profound to wrap it up.
    I may never live down the alliteration post! Well that's okay by me because I really like alliteration.

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  18. >> Where would you take this post?

    In the kitchen...with a glass of water.

    ~ D-FensDogg
    'Loyal American Underground'

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  19. Happy to hear it was the pill and not your tooth. :)

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  20. lol. I'm so not a morning person, therefore I can soooo relate to this. It made me smile :)

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  21. Lee if you visit my blog there is a little something for you,

    Yvonne.

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  22. Bud -- I waited for a while for you to put up the post you mentioned and now I've read it. If any reader hasn't seen Bud's post yet you can read it here .

    Carol-- I hope I'm right to and I hope I have the same dream.

    StMc -- Ha! Always the funny guy ain't ya!

    Paula -- Yeah, I'm not very fond of going to the dentist even though my dentist is kind of cute.

    Lynda -- Any more I don't know if I'm a morning person or not. I think I'm more not an afternoon person.

    Yvonne -- Thank you Yvonne. I will announce it on my Saturday post.

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  23. So glad it turned out to be a false alarm. I think things like this happen when you have too much on your mind. I can, however, see this scene being worked into a future novel or short story.

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  24. Jane-- Oooo! I like this. It could illustrate how a character is worried or preoccupied in his/her life. It could be done comically or distressingly. But yes, I like this one, Jane. That is a very creative application for this little scene.

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  25. Lee,

    Lesson?

    Don't swallow bitter pills until you are fully awake to deal with them! IF you are 1/2 asleep, then you may well assume some sort of absurdity. If that does happen, maybe the jolt that awakens you will make you see things for what they are.

    In otherwords...don't jump to conlusions when you're not thinking right!

    Cheers

    Sig

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  26. Apparently you have a proclivity or a propensity for perenially popping pills as a priority in the prime of the morning...

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  27. hi again, Lee:)

    it took the entire day to finally get it all out of me. when you see the final segment of it, you'll understand why i couldn't post it here. it would have been too long anyways! thanks for the link and you're linked as well.

    Bud Ezekiel

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  28. Sig -- Or maybe just don't jump to conclusions period.

    LC -- I don't care how much you guys tease me about it, I still actually like alliteration. And I'm sure I'll try to be funny again and be misunderstood. I've got a great story about being misunderstood that I'll have to figure out how to tell some day. I'm afraid if I tell it I might the person upset if she were to see it here. But it does involve a joke and the police.

    Bud -- Yes it was better told on your blog, but it was a story I could certainly empathize with as I told you in the comments to your post.

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  29. Lee-

    I would never attempt to alienate an afficianaddo of alliteration!

    I thought yesterday's post was very clever. Too many of your readers did not seem to get it!

    I'm always going to think of that one as your personal "Subterranean Homesick Blues" post!

    Larry

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  30. Larry -- Cool! Hope I can continue to achieve that high standard on occasion in the future.

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  31. hahahaha I thought that was really funny. I couldn't tell if this was a dream or just a made up story, but it was true! I liked it even though there really wasn't a point to it.

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  32. Emilee -- You were supposed to help me find a point to the story. Well if it made you laugh then maybe that was the main point.

    Love
    Dad

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