wouldn't know--I'm like a leaky bucket.

just meant to say about the dentist thing--it's such a personal violation.

There is something surprising and fascinating to me about this since you electively pierce and tattoo yourself -- activities, I am told, that are not pain free and usually require another person to perform.

Apart from one being healthcare/hygiene and the others being aesthetic what is it that is different about the experience to you?

I would think it's to do with it being elective. You choose what piercings/tats to have where, (or not to have any at all), dentists tell you what needs to be done to protect your teeth and you really, generally have to trust their judgement, even though you know they're making money from you so are perfectly positioned to lie and do unnecessary work. I have no fear of needles or pain, or even the drill. If I wanted a tat, I'd have no problem with getting it.

I've come across dentists like that when first moving to an area and looking for a new dentist. If a new dentist is telling you that your teeth are on the verge of falling out and you need all this expensive work, when your old dentists always said you had good teeth, it's a good sign the new dentist is a greedy liar.

Dentists, like most services, should be chosen based on reasoned recommendations from trusted sources. (Not trying to lecture you, but this one guy I went to years ago when I joined a new plan was just amazing in the unnecessary crap he was doing.)

It's true that I have a different relationship to pain after getting my body art done, but having someone mess with your head/mouth for prolonged periods of time (as opposed to the few seconds a piercing takes) is a different matter.

@ glatt

right. And this dentist was like this. Or felt like this. But beest recommended them to me (and now to everyone else at his work) But it turns out I'm a difficult patient (!), and my previous dentist (the one I picked before I knew anyone to recommend a dentist to me) was just so bad they couldn't be bothered to persuade me that work needed doing and let my rot progress...

Sigh. No good deed goes unpunished.

About three weeks ago, a woman asked for a recommendation for a PPCD class. Her home elementary school doesn't run one, so she was being given a choice between the next two closest schools, one of which was ours. I enthusiastically recommended our awesome teacher and state-recognized program. She thanked me, and chose it.

So now, I go to Minifobette's first official evaluation meeting that precedes her entry into the class on her third birthday in April. And I am informed that, while she obviously qualifies, our school's program is now full. She's guaranteed a spot in the Fall (duh, my own son is the one vacating his spot,) but unless a kid miraculously drops out in the next couple of weeks, she's screwed for this year. (We do have the choice to go to a not-nearly-as-good school, but that's not gonna happen.)

:facepalm:

Fuck Arthritis.

and his wife, Sist

eh?

agreed. mine is always nagging me. some days are worse than others but you know what i mean....aleve is a wonderful thing. then again so is naproxin. pure aleve that is....

Sistitis.

Cystitis.

The nun fainted.

So apparently asking someone to stop coming to my work, due to being rude to my staff, is not great idea. Kid, about 18-19, threatened to kill me, showed me his knife, threatened to burn the store down, break all the windows, kill all my staff... He then threatened to "hunt me down and kill me" and flashed the knife at me. I walked calmly back into my store, hit the panic button, then went back out, to make sure he did not go after any of the .. oh I don't know, 30-50 people on a tour bus, coming into the hotel! As he was walking toward them, he was yelling death threats to me and my staff. My boss, hearing the alarm, but having no idea what was going on, started walking towards us. The guy lost it, reached for the knife and then tried to go at my boss with the knife. The guy lunged 3 times at my boss, then turned to me... I said, " you really don't want to do that, you should just leave before the police get here" He turned and ran off our property. We called the cops, blah blah blah. They caught the guy several hours later. Then we had to go down to the police station tonight and do a photo line up. I picked the guy out right away. My boss, was not so sure. He said he was too busy watching me, and figuring out if the guy was stealing from us, (the only other time I have ever used the panic alarm is when I've been robbed) and watching me to see if I was ok. After the knife was produced, my boss was more concernd with keeping us calm and safe, as well as all the looky loos watching...SIGH. So while I nailed the photo ID, because my boss was not allowed to go back and look at them again, he is not sure he got it right. bah... Stressful day!

A recap of my last 8 months? I know you didn't ask, but here you go.

After spending my entire post-military adult life in sales/consulting I closed down my company and decided that high end potential and fantastic months were less valuable than consistant predictable life. I took a position with a very large corporation in a non-sales capacity. I spent a little over 6 months on a project that you've all seen in the news, and without tooting my own horn too much... I fucking rocked it. I knocked it out of the park. Actually my whole department blew the expectations straight out of the water and I blew the department averages into unrecognizeable smithereens. Woohoo, I rule!

What's that you say? my reward for doing more than you asked is to get laid off? Why? Did I not do more than you asked? Did I disappoint in some way? Oooh. I see. I have less seniority than the 4 employees who are literally on final written warning for being lazy and incompetent. I understand. Thanks for your letter of recommendation. The hour and a half notice you gave me that I was unemployed was more than I could have possibly asked for. Fuck you sideways.

And that has been among my top 25% positive experiences of the last 6 months.