bandit king of lunch and string

i had a lovely birthday. the weather was perfect, dry and not too hot. my squash plants are going wild. roses v excited. cucumber still making an effort. sunflowers making a scrunchy face preparatory to the biggest flurs evar!!1 u will see!112!1 and other people’s less awesome maple trees are just starting to show a bit of color, though my awesome vast ones are still super green. fun fact: you can’t find my house on google satellite, all you see is leaves. idk how that can be since the trees don’t actually grow over the house but i looked and it’s true.

anyway, it was an absolutely gorgeous day, and i spent quite a lot of it lying by an open window reading, covered in cats. i took a little nap. when seebs got off work they cooked the meal i requested, hamburgers and corn on the cob, and we watched neko samurai while we ate. cake, snuggles, cats. loud crickets. night breeze. happiness.

now i’m listening to an archaeology course on audible, and the prof really loves saying homo erectus, it’s adorable.

actually me irl

i will gladly accept science facts as gifts, thank u friend

orange! sort of orange liqueur cake with creamsicle frosting, so very good. local bakery called Cake Walk makes it.

 

oh my goodness what a good cake <3

 

there's a cold going around and i've been achey and sniffly, slept most of the day, not so great. but i did get to go outside and look at plants, and i watched neko samurai with seebs a bit. and i made a truly amazing vietnamese noodle salad for supper. SO good. the secret is daikon and carrot quick pickle, do chua.



not my image, mine were prettier. :D

i have a dentist appt tomorrow. i hope i'm completely over the cold by morning. i better sleep extra hard!

 

watching cooking videos like always, when suddenly Knitter Brain elbowed Cooking Brain aside and took over.



this hat is clearly printed polarfleece, not a hand knit, but the pattern looks VERY DOABLE as stranded colorwork and i'm gonna chart it up.

btw that is the face of a man who just filled his mouth with pop rocks.

 

me making teriyaki meats: now i just deglaze the pan with mirin and soy sauce
the pan: *loud hissing noise*
meenah kitty, puffed up and hopping sideways along the counter:

 

do chua is REALLY good with teriyaki pork, btw

 

oh, and my dentist appointment was surprisingly tolerable. i saw my favorite hygienist, the one who put on the rock channel when i was the only customer during that snowstorm. this time i told her i was wearing my winter soldier shirt "for scary things happening in reclining chairs," and she was like "ohhh, is that how it is?" but really it wasn't very scary at all. i still don't like the ultrasonic cleaner and i hate hate hate the metal scrapey thing, but with the nitrous to sort of put a little distance/delay in my sensory inputs it was tolerable, and knowing the one who's doing it is kind of a friend makes a huge difference.

it's not that someone who likes AC/DC couldn't possibly be careless with my tender mouth regions. it's just that someone who has paused the dental exam so we can rock out to 'back in black', because there's no way either of us could hold still when it came on, definitely sees me as a fully human person rather than a meat problem. you know what i mean?

anyway, i made sure my future appointments are all with her. she's that boss.

 

i've gotten the best success with telling them i have sensory processing disorder rather than mentioning autism. i mean, it's true, and i'm not doing it to be misleading. but autism has so much cultural baggage, and isn't really informative for them. whereas SPD is a thing they can google and get concrete, actionable information. theresa (the awesome hygienist) told me, in fact, that she and the dentist she works with did research online and made notes for how best to handle my SPD, and that's why, in addition to going with my suggestion of using nitrous for cleanings so i wouldn't puke from the vibrations, they came up with the sunglasses for the bright lights, and except for the occasion when we listened to bands we liked because the office was basically closed for weather, they just turn the speakers in the room off.

they can't always accomodate everything -- for instance, they don't have any unflavored polishing paste -- but they do what they can. it can also help to bring in your own accomodations -- you might bring in your own sunglasses, for instance. i'm going to bring in my own unflavored tape floss next time, since the mint flavor and string texture upset me. also be aware of their legal and technical limitations; i have to let them know in advance when i want the nitrous, preferably when making the appointment, because they have to get the insurance to ok it. fortunately my insurance believes them when they say it's necessary, and doesn't go "uhhh you want nitrous for an ultrasonic gumline cleaning? really?? what is SPD, you're making that up, we're not paying!" which i'm aware some ppl's insurance might do.

work out a signal for when you need a break, and then actually use it. don't try to Tough It Out, as sensory overload is cumulative and you'll just get more and more sensitive. theresa knows that when i raise my left hand, she needs to stop -- finishing one tooth if necessary, but no more than that -- and let me have a breather withoout standing and staring expectantly at me. she generally goes to tidy the counter or check things on the computer, or take a drink of her fizzy water or something, so she's not staring. i really appreciate that. i take a few deep breaths, center myself, consciously relax my body, let the tight hum of overload tension unknot a little bit. then i tell her "ok" and she gets back to work.

perhaps most important, ask them to tell you what they're going to do before they do it, and keep you updated on things like changes in sensation and how long you have left. hearing "using the ultrasonic now, it's spraying cold water," versus getting a sudden shock of Cold Water And Shrill Whine, can make the difference between a slightly rough day and a hell of migraines and meltdowns.

finally, if you can't get any compliance on these items, or they seem resentful about it, switch dentists. there's apparently been a real push lately in the dental profession to be more accomodating and less scary, so you've got a good chance of finding someone who's willing to be helpful.

good luck!

 

the lil flag was in the wrong place. turns out you can see the middle of my roof. unfortunately you can NOT zoom in far enough to see, for instance, which neighbor has the chickens. i SWEAR i keep hearing chickens. WHERE CHOOKS