Another column today. Enjoy.

Also, the Sox won on a walk-off home run vs. the Cubs today. I couldn't be more pleased. I hope our softball game later goes as well, though many of my teammates may be drunk arriving at the game, since it's a 9:30pm game and they're going out beforehand.

Apparently, I think I might be sick somehow. I've felt (and apparently looked and acted) completely out of it the last two days. I went to my buddy's house to watch the boring-ass NBA Draft, but I left around 9:30 after eating, taking three Advils because my tooth hurt (at the hygenist's advice) and starting to get tired. I got home around 10:15 and went to bed by 11. Today I started out fine, but I'm feeling funky this afternoon and a little run-down. Yesterday, on top of the toothache I had a queasy stomach and teensy headache. So who knows what's going on. Maybe it's just malaise, I don't know. If so, I'll snap out of it sometime, I'm sure.

So I'll be heading home in a half hour or so, eating, relaxing and getting ready for softball. So we shall see.

Well, it's done.

I've officially made a dentist appointment, knowing full well that I cannot really afford to go to the dentist, even with dental insurance, and especially since I just dropped $300 on new brakes and tie rod ends on my car (and it needs another $100-$200 more work in new tires and other parts). I think one of my fillings busted, cracked, gave way or something, because I have a nerve exposed that pains me every time I drink anything room temp or colder. It's torture.

But what will be even more torture, and more torturous than even the pain of dental work (which honestly I've grown quite used to in my life), is the pain in my wallet. My insurance is pretty solid, for it not being an in-network dentist, but even so, I will have to pay plenty over the long haul. I'm not happy about that, but I don't know.

I haven't been to the dentist in years. However, my mouth has not really "bothered" me. I've not had toothaches or anything, and the tooth I'm missing hasn't caused me much trouble because I do my best to keep the area clean. I probably have cavities, no doubt. But I've always had cavities, no matter how much I've brushed/flossed in my entire life. I just have really weak teeth, which is weird because I've never broken any bones in my life, and teeth are bones.

I've also had some shitty dentists in my life, one of which filled several of my cavities incorrectly (so I was told by my last dentist, who also was pretty shitty), leading to the tooth I lost eventually dying and falling out (while I was at NU, actually). That's because there was an air pocket under the filling from the first time it was filled. By then, I was on my fourth dentist or so, and he wanted me to get a root canal. Unfortunately, my parents and their insurance could not afford another root canal, so it just went by the wayside.

So a week from today, I'll be off to the dentist, ready to tell the guy (who apparently is awesome...my parents and brothers and Gerard all go there and think the guy's great), "OK, I'm poor and my mouth is a war zone. But we've got to start somewhere. Let's lay out a gameplan to meet over, say, five years time, looking at how much things will cost and how immediate things need to be done, using your input and mine. But I can't have all kinds of crap being done right away because I don't have the money or the prospects of getting the money." If he's as great as my family and roommate say, then this won't be a problem. So yeah...

Wow, blogger has a new posting format. Interesting. We'll see if this ruins the experience or truly makes it better. Kind of like picture cellphones. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Well, where to start. I did not sip lemonade on the porch in 'sippi. However, I did get to relax and sip Red Creme Soda and cranberry juice on the porch. It was more about relaxing than sipping of lemonade, really. I had homeade gumbo, which was fantastic. I also had homeade enchiladas and homeade fried chicken. Man. Damn, damn good. So was, of course, Troy's mom's cake. If you ever were blessed enough to have a piece at NU when Troy got a care package, you'll know what I'm talking about...just imagine that cake available to you at any moment, and much fresher than having been sent through the mail. Heaven on Earth.

Troy and I also discovered a show called "Kung Faux" which is far too good to be on some satellite cable channel called "Fuse," which of course neither I nor my parents get. So I'll have to buy the DVDs as they come out. Too freakin' funny. I pitched some horseshoes for awhile with Troy and his dad, toured Hazlehurst (seeing how they have a great big statue honoring the poor Confederate soldiers who died in the Civil War front and center in front of the courthouse in the "town square" area. I mean, sure, those soldiers shouldn't be ignored, because, hey they fought for what they thought was right (ignorant or not), but I forgot just how honorable the Confederacy was in the South. I also saw the stone monument to Robert Johnson, the musician the guy in "Oh Brother Where Art Thou?" was based on. Johnson, the legend goes (told via me by Troy) sold his soul to the devil and became the pioneer of delta blues. Or something like that...we also went to Walmart. We went to the white people's mall on Monday to hit Men's Wearhouse, where we finally got shirts and ties and silks for Troy and Eulalia's wedding. So hooray for that.

I left on Tuesday, hesitantly (I wanted to stay the whole week, really), and went to PFW softball. I was wired, but I didn't feel sleepy all the way from Mississippi. I woke up at 4:30am and got to softball in time for a 7:15pm game. We were playing the first place, 6-1 team. I decided that I had to be there to pitch (I've been a veritable Cy Young on the mound this season, pitching much, much better than I've done in the past.) against this team, because we played them in Week One and I had great results. I came in off the bench after our then-starter allowed 10 or 11 runs in barely two innings of work, walking in most of those runs.

So I came in psyched, as much as I could have been after driving 800 miles and not eating much of a dinner. Well, we had a big first inning, but then my arm went dead for an inning. Uncharacteristically, I lost my release point and began hitting the plate, dead center, on a consistent basis. It seemed no matter how hard I threw the ball, I couldn't get it further than the plate. I walked the bases loaded, gave up a double, and proceeded to walk even more people...I walked in four runs. Finally we got out of the inning, and because of the early lead, we weren't down too much. Our bats were working that night as well, and we had some excellent, excellent base running. I settled down and, other than the one big inning, didn't allow more than 1 or 2 runs per inning. We came up in the bottom of the sixth (the last inning) down one run, and most of us were thinking, there's no way we're not winning this game. That's a great feeling to have. I drove in the game-tying run with a single that moved the game winner to third, and our home run hitter drove a ball deep with one out that allowed the winning run to tag and score. Great game.

Yesterday was volleyball followed by a Vodka Moxie show at some bar called "Beat Kitchen." As usual, it was sweet. It sounded better because I sat in a better spot than I did at Elbo Room...I was poorly situated there and getting bad reverb. But at Beat Kitchen, it was all good.

I returned to work today...I'll be busy, of course. But I forgot next week is the Fourth of July...and thus, we are off Thursday and Friday. Since I work Sunday, I'm also off Monday. So I work Tuesday and Wednesday next week. That's nice.

More as events warrant.

Thor home. Thor sleep now.