My wisdom teeth — they are gone! Friday I got them out, in an hour-long surgery, and I spent the afternoon shaking off the drug-induced sleepiness and strapping packs of frozen peas to my face. Soon enough I felt fine, except for a weird stiffness in the back of my jaw, and the most discomfort I experienced over the next few days was insomnia caused by an ill-advised dose narcotics and the envy of watching everyone around me munch on delicious solid foods. I had the impression that I would be completely out of action for several days — I really don’t know what all the fuss was about.

Here is the dialogue I had via my computer in the minutes I couldn’t talk immediately following the procedure:

I actually feel fine, just a bit groggy. The anethestic was very weird — I fell asleep from the inside out, like I couldn’t move me muscles. And I didn’t feel fully asleep, so now it’s very off, like I just woke up from a nap I never was fully out for. I almost feel like running. My fingers are still a bit slow. I want to shake my head to get it out.

They were laughing at me, and asked about my heart rate. And if I ran. And were laughing at me. It was odd, listening to my heart rate slow down. (Darn spelling. I blame the keyboard and my less-than perfect fine motor control.)

[...]

Trying to clear my head. It’s like waking up in the middle of the night.

So when I was going under, it was odd. My body relaxed first, but my eyes wandered around and a small part of my mind was still awake. Trapped. I did not panic, I just wanted to fall asleep, but the doctors asking questions.

Will I remember this? It would be weird if didn’t.

[...]

[Now I slip into incoherence.]

Badly? It’s the darn juice-filled sticky keyboard. The words or just the dyslexia? Or is it actually stupid? What’s bad about it?

The days of break have been alternating between intense doses of family socializing and lazy hours wiled away reading books (My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell) and watching movies (Once). It’s been a wonderfully enjoyable holiday, even laying to rest my apprehension about bringing Peaches home. With no family feuds or drug-induced hazes, plus a healthy dose of holiday cookies and fancy pears, who could ask for more?

Yesterday Jim Shipton wondered if I was still interested in his Technology Reviews since I moving on to the softer sciences and arts. Of course I was interested! Did he really have to ask? That is the wonderful thing about industrial design: it combines art and technology. My dad commented that this made sense, really, since I have always been passionate about both subjects — but especially about the design of things we interact with every day. The cooking part, however, he thought came out of the blue. Yet it did not. Food is an integral part of life, just like the spaces we live in and the tools we use. I choose to pay careful attention to the ways in which I choose, prepare, and consume food. It seems terribly domestic, but there’s a geekery (and an art!) applicable to food and health just as there is to anything else. Peaches has managed to call me both a “composition nerd” and a “food nerd” in the past week — and you know what? I’m proud to be both!