Dear orthodontist, can you please take my braces off now?

In my last post I talked about obeisance and being thankful for the simple things in my life, like walking. I told myself to stay positive and was convinced that life will keep on moving whether I want it to or not. Nearly a week later, needless to say, my attitude has changed.

[L]

Lambaste
Dictionary meaning: to criticize someone or something harshly.

Jentionary meaning:
Have you ever wanted something so bad in your life that you could literally taste it? I am talking on the tip of your tongue here people. Or maybe in my case, the tip of my teeth.

On the tip of my teeth, or middle in this case, there happen to be brackets. These brackets make up braces. For those of you who are not aware, I have had my braces on for 11 years. I only wish that number was made up and that I was kidding. I first got my braces on in December of my fourth grade year of elementary school.

Where am I getting at with this?
Today, March 25, 2013 was supposed to be the day that I would finally get my braces off after 11 years. The "snow storm" however, hindered me of that.

 So it makes me want to lambaste the crap out of the people who work at my orthodontist's office. To be fair, I cannot be mad at my orthodontist. My old orthodontist that got me into this 11 year mess is history and now I have an orthodontist who is well educated and knows what she is doing.

That still does not take away the fact that I hate the secretaries who told me that the earliest appointment they could get me is nearly a month away. After 11 years of waiting, even five weeks seems like an eternity. So mentally and quite verbally after getting the news, I criticized, or lambasted them pretty harshly.

So what did I do to take out my anger? I asked my mom to cut some of my hair and dye it. Just a simple change, but one that was needed to get my mind off of something I had been waiting for, for quite a long time coming.

As for my teeth?
Oh well, they will live. Five more weeks isn't really going to kill me, but it does piss me off.
As for my hair? It will grow and the color will fade. All I have to keep telling myself is that life is not going to stop for me simply because I do not like the way it has been treating me lately.


Have you ever been disappointed in something that you have been waiting for a long time? If so, what is it and why were you so excited about it?

Hearing about other disappointments will remind me that I am not alone. Let's all come together and be disappointed for a split amount of time!

Turning a bad day into a thankful one

[O]

Obeisance [o-bey-sance]
Dictionary meaning: A gesture expressing deferential respect, such as a bow or curtsy.

Jentionary meaning:
I will go ahead and admit it now, I judge people. What they wear, how they handle themselves under pressure, how they talk and even how they walk. It is in my nature to judge and I will not deny it.

I just do not like when people make it a point to say that judging someone takes away from seeing the 'real' person inside. If anything a judgment is a mental note that you are taking the time to pay attention to that person and what they stand for. If you are being judged, great! It shows that if the person judging you wishes, they will take the time to see the 'real' you that you strive for others to see.

For that, I say that we show obeisance to the people that judge us.

I had one of the worst days that I have had in a long time today. It was one of those days where you wake up and everything that can possibly go wrong seems to find its way into everything you do. One misunderstanding leads to another and you find yourself pissed off at everything and everyone for no logical reason. I felt like that today, until my attitude was knocked down to size.

This is little me with a brace on my foot.
Unfortunately I still have to wear a brace
from time to time when it starts hurting.

I was born premature and have had many complications, one of which was a club foot. For those of you who are unaware of what a club foot is, it can be described as when the tendons in the leg and foot are shorter than usual causing the foot to pull in an abnormal position (in like a golf club). I have had multiple surgeries at a young age to fix this and thankfully they were successful. The only remaining problem is the arthritis in my ankle.

Arthritis can be painful. Today, for some reason, it hurt like you would not believe so I was limping. I did not think anything of it considering this is my semi-normal walk
— until I saw two young men making fun of me.

In that instant the pissed off feeling I had been holding above my head all day was knocked right from under that limp of mine. Those two young men that were making fun of me know nothing about me. Nor do they care enough to take the time to understand why I was limping.

I have to be honest with myself in moments like this. I would judge someone that was limping just as those two were judging me today. I have to give them some respect for making me come full circle in remembering that I do have things to be thankful for when I am having a bad day. One of which is to be thankful that I am walking each day. Just for that, I can show obeisance to myself and remember to keep positive thoughts in my mind when my day is feeling a little more gray than usual.

Becoming Ubiquitous with Social Media

[U]

Ubiquitous [yoo-big-wi-tiss]

Dictionary meaning: existing or being everywhere, or seeming to exist everywhere, especially at the same time.

Jentionary meaning:

We live in a society where social media has become ubiquitous. No matter if you are grocery shopping or sitting in class, social media lives on not only in personal computers but through our cell phones and the instant access to internet. Whether this is good or bad is something I believe is generational.

My addiction to my cell phone causes me to take
pictures of wherever I am at all times.

My grandmother, for example, absolutely hates when my cousins and I have our phones out at all times of the day, whether it be to see if someone we know has said something interesting on Facebook, or if someone has taken a picture of their food on Instagram.
However for the younger generation, having your phone out or being on the computer has become as much of a pass time, if not more so, than going outside and taking a walk around the block. We are instantly hooked to social media and I believe that we have quickly become addicted to it.

Do I like this rapid trend? No. Am I guilty of it? Yes.

This is a picture I took after parking on
the top level of the parking garage simply
because I thought it would look neat.

My current addiction involving social media happens to be taking pictures of the landscape wherever I am so I can post it on Instagram minutes later. I started this weird habit sometime within the last month and even though some of the pictures I have taken are interesting, I feel like my grandmother and I just want to look at myself and say, "would you put that phone down?"

Instead of looking at our phones or getting on the computer as soon as we can, I challenge us social media users to give it a break for at least a week. We can all make an ubiquitous effort to just put the internet down and reconnect with the world around us.

Can you give up social media, and if so, for how long? If you don't think you could, what is the reason?