I had mentioned a while back that I had a tooth that was reacting to cold. Nina, of A Sort of Notebook fame, suggested it was a cracked tooth. I suspected she was correct, but I didn’t make an appointment since I knew I was going in in about a month anyway. (Well, okay, I admit it; that wasn’t the only reason I didn’t immediately call my pal the dentist.)

So yes. I finally went in last week. The dentist wasn’t in but the hygienist said it did look cracked. So I went back in today to see Mr. Let-Me-Work-On-Your-Mouth-And-Ask-You-Questions-At-The-Same-Time. Yes. Indeed. The tooth is cracked and must get a crown.

Ugh.

Because I have a big job coming up, the dentist is kindly getting me in very quickly to take care of this whole thing. I’m grateful, but nervous too. I’d rather give birth, as I’ve stated many times before. In fact I’d rather give birth without medication (which is the way I had our three children) than go to the dentist. But, alas, I will be in there next week to have him hurt, maim and in every way he can make me sad and miserable, and then I go back the week after to be crowned Queen of Everything.

Oh. Wait. I guess that’s not what he’s crowning me, is he? Oh well.

But I really am thankful that he’ll get me in prior to the beginning of the job. Once that starts I won’t have time for things like this. This is one problem with being a musician; we have to schedule appointments around our work and that can be difficult since we sometimes don’t know when we’ll get work until a few weeks before. With me, a dentist appointment that involves any kind of pain can’t happen on a day when I play. I’m not willing to take the chance that something may go awry. Not any more.

Anyway, the better news — the big job news — is that I have ten weeks of employment this summer! I’m happy to say I’ll be playing oboe and English horn for the Les Miserables tour when it comes to San Francisco. This is such a blessing; prior to being hired for this my summer was entirely empty. Now I know I’ll have a steady income when before I had nearly nothing. Whew! It does mean a lot of driving, and that I’ll need to get a good number of reeds going, and I’ll be driving up there six days a week, and it does mean, too, that my house will be a mess and I’ll be a walking zombie much of the time, but NO MATTER … hoorah for work!