improvement

skin situation:

not good, but somewhat improved.

work situation:

i received a day's reprieve, i'm only going on-call tomorrow. i'm still on "ninja" (ops) duty, though, but i had exactly one ticket i needed to look at and i managed to figure out the root cause which turned out to be a mistake on the customer's side. that felt good.

i also managed to push the stuff i've been working on and make some progress with the next task, so that also felt good.

dental situation:

i went to see the first dentist who couldn't identify my cracked filling, but in spite of that i really like him and his approach. he's not convinced that i need a root canal and crown - which i've been dreading - and my homework is to tentatively experiment with chewing on the damaged tooth to see if the past weeks have given it a chance to heal.

i haven't chewed yet. i'm a little scared.

interview situation:

apparently we're moving forward? i was a little surprised, but that's good news.

after the dentist i tagged gd at mr smear's jiujitsu lesson, there was a bit of discomfort because the instructor didn't think mr smear would benefit from the second class but he enjoyed it and i enjoyed a little more time to figure out what my code was and wasn't doing.

we then took the bus home - which took a lot longer than it should have - he had a really fast shower and we caught the same bus returning in the other direction (same bus, line and driver) and went to the port for the "festival of lights" with  dod and his family.

we had a really good time. the kids were entertained, the adults had good chats. it was very late when we eventually went our separate ways, mr smear and i raced to catch the bus home (*just* made it) and he ate a little on the way. i'm very glad we managed to get there!

...

i was very sad, again, to realize that a few years ago i said something while mishandling a tantrum that did some real damage; on some level i think he actually believes that we might one day give him up for adoption or something. i hope and pray he internalized some of what i said to him this evening.