I hadn’t been in my car for four months and once I was loaded clearly into it (a really BIG ordeal), I turned the radio on. I bought myself ask somebody do you when I graduated from grad school. I have an extremely eclectic presets in my car and this was the first song I heard:
This song reminds me of the Olympics and eating at Logan‘s roadhouse with Sean. I took this as a good omen! Mom was reminded of my car radio ADD as a constantly changed the presets. She just let me change the station at will because she knows that I really don’t get out of the house often and especially now! I was EXTREMELY terrified to even be out of my house! As I change the stations, I heard some vintage Maroon 5 in Taylor Swift and I liked that. On the right there I heard this Bruno Mars song:
My Mom really didn’t like that song but on the way back, I heard:
We were about halfway there before I start really being attention to the radio and started to realize the magnitude of being outside. I begin to cry. I didn’t wipe my face and I knew my Mom couldn’t tell that I was crying anyway:
Once we get into the dentist, it was different with the masks and the questions but it really was the same because I have been going to the dentist for the past 30 years! Sean has gone there for the past 15 as well. Dr. Fox talked with me and my Mom showed him the gross pictures of my mouth before he began his exam. Just before he started his exam of my mouth, he told me that he did not think we would find anything because I have, “Always had good teeth!” That made me smile because I don’t know that he has ever told me that before.
he gave me a thorough exam and put my mouthguard in my mouth which still fit. He talked about possible electric toothbrushes because I explained about being heavy-handed and scratching my gums occasionally. He had Joan get me another toothbrush and since my Mom was with me, she got one too because Dr. Fox’s her dentist as well!
As we waited for the toothbrushes at the front desk, he begin writing in my file and he and my Mom talked about my brothers and my dental work that we all had there. As he was writing, I’d let him know that he was the first adult I met who was also left-handed! He laughed and said that he has been for the past 40 years as well! My Mom talked about my Dad and my brothers and my dental work again and he talked about my good exam again and I responded that, “My Dad would be proud!”
Once we got home, I waited in the car as my Mom went inside and attended to Leia because we had crated her. Something we haven’t done since we first got her. I stared off into space and vaguely remember hearing the music but not listening to it and I began to cry again because this whole thing was pretty overwhelming! I had the terror of being outside amid this virus but also I had thoughts of my Dad and all of the time we spent at that dentist office. It really did feel like, “Home!”