For those of you that don't know what I do for a living, I am a dental assistant. (Spit-sucker extraordinaire) I've been doing this for 24+ years. Dentistry has been very good for me and I have enjoyed it. I have to admit that through the years, there have been times when I've felt burned out...but managed to find a way to inspired and find new life in my chosen field. A big part of my job is visiting with the patients and helping them have a pleasant experience. I used to be painfully shy...it was awful! Over the years, I've pushed myself and worked through my shyness. Now, anyone would be hard-pressed to ever, in their wildest dreams believe that I was ever shy. I could talk to a brick wall. I enjoy visiting with people...especially my patients and see them relax right before my eyes...it's like I'm able to make a connection with them. I understand that there are all different personality types and usually I'm able to gently find a topic that sparks the patients interest and so the "jibber-jabber" ensues. Every now and again I have a patient that is so shy or just obviously not interested in conversing. I typically respect their mood and leave them be. I know that sometimes I'm not in the mood to be social. I had this patient the other day, that we did a crown for, so he spent some time in the chair, I really very pleasantly tried to make conversation with him and he would just give one word answers to my questions and not even look at me. It's not like he was being shy, I know the difference. I checked his chart to see what line of work he was in, (sometimes you can find conversation topics from that) and saw that he was an attorney. (I have had very bad experiences with every attorney I have ever personally known or have been associated with). Well, usually, I would leave him alone. Since he was obviously being curt with me, I decided to bother him by continuing to try to make conversation with him. He continued to give me one word answers. I then started telling him all my silly kid stories, while I made his temporary crown. It's not like he was going anywhere before I cemented his temp. crown. I boasted about "my Spencer" and what a gifted football player he is. How cute he looks in his football "outfit". He got to hear about what a wonderful Trombone player Spencer is and how he sounds better than all of the other trombone players in the band. I told him about Trey and that he plays rhythm guitar in the church band. He finally gave me a sideways glance with a slight smile...I took that to mean that I had finally gotten through to him. I guess he could see I wasn't going to give up. He knew I was trying to make conversation with him. He started to open up and gave up that he was into photography and we talked a lot about that. Overall, I think he ended up having a good visit, as he got up from the chair smiling and thanked me. When he came back for his next visit, he was quite pleasant and social. I'm sure he didn't want to hear anymore of my silly stories. Okay, so I've been at my present dental office for a year now, and all this time I haven't had a key to the office. I'm one that has always gotten to the office between 15-30 minutes before patients so that I can get everything turned on, booted up and in it's place, with a few minutes to spare to get mentally prepared for my day. (once my day starts, I have to be "on" all day) Everyone at my office arrives either right at 7:00 am (first patient) or 1-2 mins before that. I am usually left waiting in my car for 15-20 minutes for someone to get there. I hate that. Over the past year, I"ve made little comments about not having a key, but to no avail. Today, he and I were the only ones left and I was running end of day reports and he made a comment about trusting me. I took that one and ran...I smarted back..."Trust me enough to give me a key to the office?" He said "Is that what you want?" I was all "yes. I would like a key to the office". He said "I'll get you a key to the office then." I told him "Well, I've been here a year, if you don't trust me by now, you never will". Of course, we'll see if a key ever makes it to my lil' hands. The other girls were with him over 2 years before he gave them keys. So, I guess that's a good sign.

Here's a cool something I'd like in my house:

I found this at a site called Fish N Flush
It's just the tank part and those are real fish in there. It's pretty
cool. It looks really cool when the tank lights are on. I think it costs
like $300. Okay, so it's not a "Must Have". But it definitely is a
"Loli-Want".