I Am Not An Animal!

I mentioned before that food is one of my greatest pleasures--and that the fact that these braces have curtailed that pleasure has made me feel small and vulnerable, unsure how to inhabit this altered body of mine. It has been a wonderful side effect that I have lost weight (noticeably, in almost 2 weeks) but it represents a loss of sensuality to me, and I have been a bit mopey about that. I met my friends Louise and Jackie for dinner tonight--lovely ladies who I haven't seen in quite some time. We went to Blossom, a place I chose since Jackie's a vegetarian and Louise is a big ol' foodie like me. The food was great--the whipped sweet potatoes made me think I was enjoying a Thanksgiving dinner and the risotto with peas and artichokes was wonderful--once I got it home and put it in my blender so that I could eat it. (Ah, to spend $20 for an entree of mush!)

But as I was blending, I looked at the takeout container of mini spring rolls that had been a part of the Chinese soup special that I had ordered for lunch. I couldn't bring myself to throw them away, so I took them home with me. And as I blended, I had this animalistic need to gnaw on those rolls like a dog with a bone. I wanted to try using the teeth. Just try! The sauce that they had been bathed in all day had softened them up, and for the first time in almost two weeks, I used my front teeth, my back teeth the ups and downs of all my teeth. I felt food getting caught every which way they could squeezing my teeth even further than the braces, but I was unstoppable--I chomped on that spring roll like a predator on prey, and it tasted damn good. I have teeth! Hear me roar! Aslan ain't got nuthin' on me!

It took me about five minutes to brush and floss all the spring roll debris out of my teeth, and they feel so odd now. That clay-like feeling is back but I think this is a good thing.

That queen of the jungle act is not something you'd want to see me do in public, but it's a start.