A Shout Out to Susan

Susan, you have the same orthodontist AND surgeon? Whoa, small world. Leave (another) comment and let me know however I can help out! :)

I live in San Francisco. Don't wanna post my number or email address here for obvious reasons, but you can IM me on Yahoo Messenger at "kristenchat" so we can connect.

One word that will hopefully help put your mind at ease: Dr. Li will send your insurance company a request for authorization. It's his standard procedure. No need for you to lift a finger.

In my case, it was considered Class III Skeletal Deformity. Medical reason enough for any insurance company. The trick is, some of them state explicitly that medical reasons or not, they simply don't cover jaw surgeries, period. That you gotta figure out directly with them. Best of luck!

1 Year Post Op, Before & After Photo 4

Before and after profiles!

The surgery is now a distant memory. I hit my one year post-op anniversary last Thursday, January 31st. You can still see some gum when I smile big - that can't be helped. But, it's part of what makes me look like ME (and my mother), so I don't mind it at all.

Most importantly, I've been excercising my front teeth and cutting through lots of sandwiches and noodles, etc., which I hadn't been able to do in a long time, due to the edge-on-edge bite. Oh, the joy and satisfaction of literally sinking your teeth into food! :)

Another benefit? No more jaw fatigue. Some people get headaches when they're tired. I used to get jaw aches. My jaws would get tired and feel a dull ache. Very annoying. Now poof, that's long gone. Plus, no more clicking or weird shifting when I open wide! That used to freak me out: the weird twisting and popping of my jaw joints when I had to open wide at a dentist's. No more of that. The nightmare is over!

Normalization

My very gummy smile and pointy long chin before braces and surgery, vs. a much rounder face now.

1 Year Post Op, Before & After Photo 3

Before Braces Vs. One Year Post-Op.

1 Year Post Op, Before & After Photo 2

Before Braces Vs. 1-Year Post-Op.

1 Year Post Op, Before & After Photo 1

Morning of braces installation (Feb. 7th, 2006) Vs. (almost) one year post-op (December 2007).

Random House

An importer of wine and sake.  A deportation officer.  Two graphic designers.  A stage producer.  A software marketer. 

 

What do they all have in common?

 

....

 

....

 

They - WE - are all taking beginner level voice lessons on Wednesday nights at a local music school.  Tonight we learned what "solfege" means.  We've also started singing Sonny & Cher's "I Got You Babe".  A very old song, but it has such a sweet innocence. 

 

Life is good.

A Lost Art

How often do you write? As in, pen on paper, free form, NOT typing (as I'm apparently doing right now).

I have a notebook at work - most of us probably do - but rarely write anything in it. It's just so much easier to jut down notes in an Outlook email and keep to-do lists and appointments in Google Desktop. Forget "writing" a friend - that's what we have txt msgs and emails for. Letters are so WW II.

A couple weeks ago a friend of mine had a birthday. In the card I wrote a couple paragraphs in addition to the usual "happy birthday!". A few days later, I received a "thank you" card in the mail from her with a long hand-written note. All of a sudden it took me back 20, 30 years. A HAND-written note! Someone put pen to paper and WROTE these sentences! It's become so rare these days when practically everything's electronically input.

Her handwriting is beautiful, by the way. She's a graphic artist by training and has taken calligraphy classes. It looks just like the handwritings you'd see in a Janue Austen movie - fluid, curvey, and classic - truly a lost art in today's world.

I'd forgotten about the whole thing until this morning, when my Daily Candy email promoted a local calligraphy class next month. Write on! How very....old school! I'm in. :)

Brilliant!

Saw the Bucket List yesterday - a touching film starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, about two dying cancer patients fulfilling their last wishes and squeezing the last bits out of the great experience that we call life.

Saw the movie at a Sundance theater, a new theater in San Francisco. I didn't know this - but at the time of the ticket purchase, they ask you to pick your own seat on a touch screen, just like you would booking a flight online. Very cool!

Walk in and you'll find that the theater isn't big at all. It only accommodates maybe eighty people, IF that. The arm rests are wide, and comfortable, complete with cup holders. The seats are oh so comfy. The whole place smells clean, and the floor's not sticky at all.

If you have a Sundance theater in your city, I'd recommend checking it out.

The Irony

Saw someone yesterday that I hadn't seen in almost a year and half.

"So you had jaw surgery. What did they do?"

"I don't want to tell you." I half-joked to avoid the gory details, and we moved on to other subjects.

Was telling a friend about this just now. She said, "You could just direct him to your blog." "Oh no, that's too personal." I responded, then laughed - "Too personal for someone I know to read, but not too personal for random strangers online who are also going through the same experience." Now THAT's ironic.

But you know what I mean.

Updated on Jan. 17th - Mary commented:

"I think it's human nature not to want to expose to much to someone whom we might feel more vulnerable to. There is a certain appeal to anonymity, don't you think? M"

Yes, that's exactly it. You summed it up perfectly. Sigh. Thanks Mary.

Mid-Life Crisis?

Here's a no-nonsense article in the New York Times about mid-life crisis. Often times, the author points out, they're just "a garden-variety case of a middle-aged narcissist grappling with the biggest insult he had ever faced: getting older".

Two Sides of the Same Cord

Swedish singer Sophie Zelmani's "Going Home".



Chinese singer Faye Wang's take of the same melody. I love her voice - clean, elegant, and angelic. In fact, she says she hated its crystal-clear quality so much that she used to smoke, hoping to make it more coarse. !!! And that dress! She's probably the only one that can put it on without looking ridiculous.

Die Vs. Diet

Flipping through the current issue of Fitness magazine and found their survey of 1,000 women, on how, when, and why they diet.  Yeah yeah, diets are all the rage after the holiday binges.  But they did have some juicy data points:

 

The most popular weight-loss plans are:

• Slim-Fast (35%)
• Weight Watchers (34%)
• Atkins (25%)

Our #1 dieting trick?

• Drinking water constantly (67%)
• Chewing a lot of gum (20%)
• Smoking (15%) -  !!

30 - the minimum number of pounds most women want to lose.  Typical target weight?  131 to 145. 

 

Anecdotally, I saw a new Weight Watchers ad campaign in NYC last month that flashed catch-phrases such as "Diets are mean" and "Take a diet from dieting" on subways and cabs. 

 

Ironically, there are fellow human beings who're malnourished and struggle to survive, while we fight the battle with fat.  Is this all happening on the same planet?  What can we do to level the playing field?

Clean Air!

Smoking has been banned in every commercial corner in France.  Thank goodness!  No more stinky hair or overcoat because you had to sit in a cloud of smoke to enjoy live jazz in a local piano bar. 

Money Money Money

IRA is on my mind this morning. The maximum amount you can contribute for 2008 (either ROTH or Traditional) is $5,000. It pays to max out as early as possible, so your fund can snowball throughout the year - January through December - as opposed to just a month or two at the end of the year.

Missed out in 2007? No sweat - you have until April 15th to make up for the previous year. The maximum amount for 2007 is $4,000.

Of course, I'm no expert on any of this. Read up on Jim Cramer. He's handpicked some gems.

Happy 2008!

Mark made hush puppies, coleslaw, and catfish for dinner tonight. Great southern fried food - exactly the right way to kick off a new year where I'd like to lose a few pounds. :P Also on this year's "bucket" list?

1. Eat more veggies and fruits.
2. Get a physical done.
3. Take French and either photography or voice lessons.
4. Adopt a puppy.
5. Visit Vietnam.

Manhattan, Meh

I'd always loved New York. All the museums, bars, and restaurants in Manhattan. Its diverse population. Even the attitude. Every time I went I fell a little more in love and dreamed about relocating there someday.

But this extended trip changed my view.

It was cold but not cold enough. Rainy but didn't snow. Crowded and lit but not festive. "Sale sale" everywhere but I didn't want to buy. It felt harsh and rushed and you could see the weathered look in people's faces.

The travel to and from was also a drag, especially the inbound flight. I thought I'd boarded Day Care Central - so many screaming, crying babies on the plane that I had to throw my coat over my head to block out it all.

Things started looking up as soon as I landed in San Francisco, however. On the drive home, the Sun was shining, no traffic on the freeway, air was cool and crisp - we're called the Golden State for a reason!

For once, I'm deeply grateful I live in San Francisco and not New York. This feels like, and IS, home.

Se7en Deadly Sins

Lust. Envy. Greed. Sloth. Wrath. Pride. And gluttony.

All names of martinis at the Fifty-Seven Fifty-Seven bar at the Four Seasons Hotel in midtown Manhattan (address: 57 E. 57th Street). True to their names, Lust is made of strawberries and champagne; Envy of green tea liquor; Greed with chocolate, and so on.

The bar scene isn't much to lust after, but still, the place feels classier than the W, and more modern than the Waldorf.

Does I, Lucifer come to mind, anyone? Ah, but I think in the book he was at the Ritz Carlton in London.

Sent from my iPhone

Fatigued

Didn't think these words would ever leave my lips - but I'm tired of New York. After ten days, the honeymoon is over, and I can't wait to head back to San Francisco.

Why? I'll elaborate tomorrow. Eyelids getting heavy....

Sent from my iPhone

Word, Play

NoLita and Greenwich Village both have some clever store names.

• Trust Fund Baby (kids' clothing)
• A Salt & Battery (fish & chips)
• Tea & Sympathy (parent company of A Salt & Battery)
• Rice to Riches (rice pudding)

Rice to Riches sells nothing but different flavors of rice pudding with fancy toppings, and that, in fashion/figure-conscious Manhattan could be.... well, treading on thin ice. So what do they do? Their brilliant marketing minds have come up with catchy phrases and hung them around the store.

"Eat all you want. You're already fat anyway."

"The calories you consume here are yours to keep."

"We have an agreement with the bank. They don't make rice pudding, and we don't cash checks." ;)

Another phenonmennon worth mentioning is Pinkberry, who attracts long lines with its slightly tart plain yogurt and a ton of healthy topping selections. They have multiple locations in Manhattan - do yourself a favor, avoid the one on 32nd Street. It's unbelievably long. You'd think they're handing out free shares of Apple stock!

Pinkberry does face competition, in the form of Red Mango, who's opened up shop on Bleecker Street, and received rave reviews on Yelp. I had some from both places yesterday. Honestly, I couldn't tell the difference in taste. The girl at Red Mango was friendlier, though.

The entire Bleecker Street was a friendly place. If you took Fillmore and Haight from San Francisco and meshed them together, you'd get Bleecker Street in Manhattan. It has some reasonably price boutiques, and LOTS of Jazz bars and pizza joints, where you can get a slice for $3 (and I did). Their best Jazz bar in my opinion? Zinc Bar. Not in the mood for the blues from Terra Blues, and the atmosphere was definitely different - more tourist-sy, less intimate.