FUNdaMENTAL

I majorly cleaned today. I almost never clean. Not in the "normal" sense. Folded and put away clean laundry that'd been sitting there for over two years. You heard me. Sorted months-old coupons and menus I'd been collecting for years.

I don't usually fall this behind. Blame it on the two years I shacked up with RJ at his place and compound that with my then freeway-driving phobia. Usually, I'm in principle very much against letting things accumulate. If I can help it, that is. I absolutely despise wrinkles in clothing that can be avoided by processing promptly. While a bit of a hoarder, I regularly cull and toss expired vouchers and lackluster catalogs and older magazines.

We all know how the bigger the task grows, the more daunting it becomes to tackle it. Before you know it, months go by. Years.

I don't know what got into me today. Got fed up with my intimidated self, I guess. Simply sickened.

Well, I couldn't handle the entire pile of laundry. Did as much as my drive took me. Really made a dent. Did put away all the fresh laundry from today, though. Proud of that.

Also recently finally got grilled enough to start flossing regularly. Long due. Hey, not my fault that we didn't have dental floss growing up. It was a novel idea. A seemingly superfluous, stupid one. We did just fine without it for years, okay? Look, I can barely stand brushing my teeth (makes me gag). Not to mention I tried and failed - just couldn't work the angles. And if you know me, I give up easy.

Took years of gingivitis and deep-cleaning and one insightful dentist to get through to me. "If you floss, you may never need deep-cleaning again!" My good new dentist spread the great news. Wha?!? How come nobody ever told me that before? I thought I was so consistently susceptible, I must have been cursed. Why bother? (Have I mentioned I don't tend to try very hard in fear of failure?)

Always suspected the old dental office milked me for all the insurance allowance they could. But now, there's hope! Work a little, try harder, save yourself. What a brilliant idea!

And the angle predicament? I've learned since then I have child-size jaws. That's right. When they needed to insert a "bite block" (who knew that's what those are called?) to hold my mouth open cuz my cheeks would just get so tired so fast, an adult size one didn't fit. They reached for the junior counterpart. Yikes! How's that for a porn-star dream-crushing revelation?

To the rescue come these tough floss-on-a-bow devices in a brand recommended by my dentist: Plackers. At first I was still befuddled and frustrated. But with relentless practice, yippee I became able to clean between ALL my teeth! You don't know how triumphant that felt!

I've spent most of my life not taking very good care of myself. These baby steps are tremendous. Who knows? Next up I may start cooking healthy, real food again. And *grasp* not self-medicate so much. Even though sometimes I think I'll run out of time first.