Well, it's been one week since Dr. Jorge ice picked my impacted wisdom tooth right out of my mouth but I think that I now have some semblance of normalcy. Normalcy being the ability to open my mouth, talk, and not have a severely inflamed right side. It's still a little tender, but I'm just so happy because I actually was able to eat my entire (soft) solid meal yesterday. It took me about an hour to chew carefully and slowly, but doggone it I did it. Pasta never tasted so good. Which brings me to this post's subject.

I really love food.

Alot.

I love eating and trying new things and enjoying food with friends and good company and feeling satisfied after a hearty meal. There really is no substitute. So when I was banished to the land of milkshakes and water last week, I really felt the hole in my heart...and stomach. Ok ok, I probably did lose a couple of kilos, but still, there is nothing like a heartwarming meal to make you feel good all over. So anyway, all that is just because I wanted to share with you guys one of my favorite websites in the whole world. This is also the website that I stared at all of last week while isolated tears streamed down my face because I knew it would be awhile before I could partake in any of it.

Food Gawker- God's gift to the World Wide Web



This website is ah-mazing. It takes all the food blogger posts and consolidates them into a beautiful slideshow of wonder and magnificence that lets you click on one of the picture and be taken directly to the recipe. Enjoy!
Just make sure you have a granola bar near you...you will get hungry

A Wednesday Afternoon Haiku

Wisdom Tooth removed.
Now, Frozen chicken nuggets
help my inflamed face.

thank you.

Things I hoped would never happen.

1) I've always hoped that I could maintain my perfect record of no broken bones.
2) I've always hoped to never need stitches
3) I've always hoped that I would be one of the lucky people who never needed to have her wisdom teeth taken out.

Son of a Gun. 1 out of 3.

My tooth started hurting on Saturday...specifically one my wisdom teeth which were never taken out because they never gave me problems and appeared like they wouldn't come in. I was so happy for this. The thought of having a tooth extracted from below the gums always made my timbers shiver, so I was very happy to assume that it would never give me problems.

Wrong.

Flash forward to today, when I woke up at 2 am in a lot of pain. I had to wait until morning because there are no 24 hour dentists in Trujillo, but I probably would have gone had there been. I got x-rays taken this morning, and sure enough my lower right wisdom tooth (in spanish, tercer molar or diente de juicio) was completely impacted and pushing on my other teeth. Yowzas. So I luckily got to see the oral surgeon right away, who shot me up with a couple stabs of a local anesthesia, and began the process.

Not a fun process mind you. And because the tooth was so deeply rooted, I spent over an hour listening to the interchanging (not-so) soothing sounds of a drill plus suction, and watching what appears to be a fancy ice pick get shoved into the tooth and cracking around. Not pleasant.

I had to start singing songs in my head to distract me. And after the surgery, stitches, and all the other hubbub that goes along with a wisdom tooth extraction, I shed a few tears because I really hated that one of the things I never wanted to have happen, came true....and it hurt.

Positives: My wisdom tooth is out, which hopefully means my jaw will stop popping so much...does anyone know if this is true or not? Maybe just wishful thinking? Either way, at least my teeth won't hurt after everything is healed

I had a delicious chocolate milkshake..and only that for my sustenance today...not bad.

Despite the fact that my dreams were crushed (along with my molar) about not having stitches, I can now say that I have only ever had two surgeries in my entire life (A Frenectomy last year, and now this one) They have both been oral surgeries, and they both have taken place in Peru, which has proven to be the land of firsts for me. At least it's a good story to tell.

Anyone have any good suggestions for recovery?

So my enamorado's uncle has a farm up in the mountains of northern Peru, where they grow rice, mango and avocado.

Some guys might bring a gal flowers...

I get giant boxes of delicious Peruvian mangos!

Here's what I did with them-
Coconut Shrimp & Mango Salsa
Mango Crumb Cake

Random Thoughts.

I just got back to Peru recently after spending 3 weeks in the states. I find that when I return, there is not really a pattern to my thoughts, it's like someone uprooted me, shook me around for a bit, and all my normal in order thoughts got jumbled and mixed around, so now there is a veritable smorgasbord that may not have so much rhyme or reason. Therefore, this post won't really have a lot of rhyme or reason.

• One thing that I recently discovered was that thanks to Denver being awesome in all it does, including it's public library system, I can check out e-books for freeee! I'm currently reading Mirror, Mirror by Gregory Maguire (same author of Wicked). I only wish I had found this 2.5 years ago.
• I also found out tonight that I whisper as I type. Everything I type I whisper. Weird habit, I know. I don't know where I picked that one up from.
• It's been great being back in Peru, I already have eaten delicious Peruvian food, gone to a friend's birthday party, ridden in a few micros, spent time with one of my favorite families, and have watched a suitcase explode in my room...and have not cleaned it up.
• I was invited to a wedding and the couple has the best wedding invitation I've ever seen

This past time of me being in the states was not so much culturally shocking in a very obvious way, but I think my subconscious was going crazy.

This manifested itself in my dreams, which were some of the nuttiest, consecutive crazy dreams I've ever had. Just to sample: one of the first nights I had a dream that involved College and my old professor who made many a student's lives hell, the Peruvian theater, Denzel Washington, Goblins, making homemade donuts, and letting them bake under some very large christmas trees which were all growing indoors. This was all in one dream.

My intercontinental limbo also was very evident when I woke up this morning, and literally had no idea which country I was in. Sigh...one day I'll figure where in the world my place is.