Got my new teef & School Sucks

Date posted: Wednesday June 16th, 2010 || Filed under: Life Updates || 3 Comments

As you know I’ve been waiting for this day (well, yesterday) for a very long time. I went in to the dentist office yesterday to receive my new teeth. I was hectic that morning. I had to drop off the kids at Lynn’s house. I wrangled them up, got them in the car and drove over there. It was before 9am, my appointment at 10am. I was so worried that I wasn’t going to make my appointment in time.  The kids were all settled and I just had to wait for Lynn to get home from work. I realized I had forgotten my phone. Fuck!

Once Lynn arrived, I flew out the door, jumped in to my car, and ran home. I retrieved my phone in record time. I headed to my dentist appointment. I had 35-40 minutes to get there. It’s quite a drive actually. I’m going from the south side of town to the northeast side. According to Google Maps, it takes approximately 31 minutes. Either way, the dentist offices and appointments are things you’d rather be 30 minutes early to than 1 minute late.

Now, I’m not all that racist, but the northeast side of Milwaukee scares the living daylights out o f me. I’m an innocent looking white girl walking the streets of the ghetto. I know how to act, but I’m scared. So, please forgive me if I say something that sounds remotely racist. It freaks me out.

I arrived at the dentist office faster than I could have ever imagined. Once again I had to park up a residential block and walk a little bit. I walked up the street, fingers intertwined in my keys, my phone in my other hand. If someone was coming after me, I was swinging hard.

I walked in to the lobby and there were  people everywhere. I checked in at the front desk and attempted to make my way through the crowd to find a seat. I sat down, got out my book and began to read. I know that this wait is going to take a long time. My insurance sucks. You have a 10am appointment you best guarantee you’re not going to be seen until at least 11:30am if not a lot later. Therefore, I bring a book with me. I come prepared. I sat there watching as one by one people would get up and bitch and moan that their appointment was an hour ago and they don’t have time to be sittin’ there waiting. Rule number two: If you have an appointment, you know damn well they’re going to take a long time. Arrange your day around it. I make sure to take an appointment the day Lynn has off. If I’m sitting there for three to four hours it will be okay cause she has no where to go.

After an hour and a half and I was finally called in. I barely even seen my dentist. He popped his head in and said, “Two weeks. That has to be a new record for us. Is that fast enough for you?” in a joking way.

“Absolutely. You have no idea how much I appreciate this.” I responded.

The dental assistant came in with my new set of teeth. She told me that she’d have to adjust them to work right. She put the bottoms in and boy were they tight. Basically I have one tooth in the front left missing. The tooth next to it shifted on a diagonal because there’s nothing there holding it back anymore. So, when she put it in she pushed that tooth back in an upright position. Yeouch! After adjusting the bottoms she taught me how to unhook them out. She proceeded to put the top ones in and play around with how they felt. She made sure my teeth were lined up properly on the sides. I bite down a couple of times. It felt weird. They felt like I had these huge vampire fake Halloween teeth in my mouth. She didn’t tell me much about them. She just kept asking, “Do you have any questions?”

When you’re put on the spot like that, its hard to just pull questions out of no where. I asked a few about taking care of them. She then sent me on my way. She told me if I needed any adjustments to come on in and get them done. I didn’t have to make an appointment for that either!

I had ‘em. I had my new teeth. I looked at myself in the mirror once I was able to finally get to my car and lock the door. I realized something; I looked weird. I mean, I told Mike I looked like a Who from Whoville. (The fact that my nose points up has nothing to do with that, hehe) I couldn’t help but stare at myself in the mirror every few minutes. I decided it was going to take a long time to get used to looking at myself like this.

(BEFORE)

(AFTER)

Right after my appointment, I went to MATC or Milwaukee Area Technical College. I wanted to finish enrolling myself in school. I arrived there, found the registration after looking for a good 20 minutes and asked them what I do next. The lady took my high school transcripts and told me she wasn’t allowed to use those. *gasp* Wait, what?

“I cannot use this. First off, it has to be in a sealed envelope. Secondly, it doesn’t have a gold seal saying that its authentic.”

“But, this is all the school would provide for me. It was an online high school, I don’t have anything else.” I argued.

“Well, you’re going to have to see the councilor about this.”

I went to the next room where I could find the councilor. I was under the impression I’d just be filling out a form or something and getting rolling with my degree. Boy, was I wrong. I placed my name on the sheet. I waited a few moments while the lady ahead of me went to speak to him. Finally, he called me in next.

“Yes, I applied online to do an associates degree. I paid the application fee. I’m just wondering what I do next?” I asked.

“Well, uhm… do you have your transcripts?” I handed my transcript and waited patiently as he looked it over. “We cannot accept this transcript. You see, it’s on my list of unaccredited schools.” He pointed to the list on the filing cabinet. “Yup. Penn Foster isn’t an accredited school we’re allowed to except. You’re going to have to do a GED program. You can do college courses in that. Unfortunately, we cannot use this though.”

I was irate. I wasn’t towards him, but I was fuming in my mind. I’m sure if I had the ability to do so there would have been steam coming out of my ears. I looked at the transcript and said, “So this thing is completely useless?”

“Unfortunately it is. We cannot use it. You’re going to have to do our GED test. Also, that’s not covered under financial aid. So you’re going to have to pay out of pocket for that. Like I said before, you can do some college level courses during your GED so you can use those towards your degree.”

“So I spent $700 on nothing? I worked so hard for four years for absolutely nothing? All this for nothing. This transcript is completely useless?!”

“Yes. I’m sorry. We can start setting you up with classes for your GED.”

“No. I’m going to have to think about this. I cannot believe this. I will get back to you all. I will be back later after I look in to this more. Thank you for your time.” I said right before I stormed out of the building.

I was so upset I nearly started to cry. I mean, I worked my ass off on that degree. Sure, towards the end I didn’t do all that great with the learning process of it, but regardless. I went to high school until I was a junior. I then spent four years doing what I thought was a full blown high school diploma. Now I have to go back and do this for a third time?! Jesus christ. Why the fuck didn’t I just stay in school in the first place? Why the hell did I have to have Matt sprinkle his fairy “everything will be okay if you stay with me” dust in my face and drop out of school? Ugh!

So now what you ask? Now, I have no idea what I’m going to do. I mean, I have to get my GED again apparently. I think today I’m going to go to my old high school and pick up my transcripts. I didn’t get very many credits while I was there but at least it will be something, right? I’m going to go back to MATC and sign up for my GED and just do it. I fucking hate that shit like this happens to me. I mean, shit like this ALWAYS happens to me. It’s not that like, oh its life that stuff doesn’t work out the way you planned. Oh no. It’s more like, “We’re going to make every single thing you do a hard and grueling process. Not a single thing you do will be an easy task.” Fuck you life.

Anyways, that was my day yesterday. Quite eventful. I’m still trying to get used to my teeth. I haven’t ate much at all lately. I still have very little of an appetite. I gag every time I think about them too much or if I’m talking for too long. I still think I look weird. Mike even said, “I’m so used to how you look without them that this is just a little weird. I have to get used to them.”  So, it’s a process I suppose. I’ll keep you all updated with how things go though.