We did dental indices on our peers today — so, this was the first time I have ever in my life probed around someone’s gums using actual dental instruments.
I’ve never sweat so much in my life.
By the time I was done with my rotation as examiner, my nitrile gloves were transparent from sweat. Posture, working in your mirror, keeping your hands braced on the person’s face, not blinding them with light, not poking them in their soft palate… so many things to keep in mind. And all we were doing is counting teeth and testing the health of the mouth! Drilling and filling a cavity seems a lifetime away right now. I think the hardest part is knowing what someone is comfortable with; I mean, it’s one thing to say you can (and should) brace your working hands on your patient’s face, but it’s quite another thing to physically maneuver your hands into the correct positions. I’m nervous and excited to get better at this.
The reason it looks so similar to this website has nothing to do with both websites running the same software, it’s just that I haven’t had time to refine the style of Mykala’s page. We’ll get around to that… but in the meantime both pages are rather obviously cut from the same cloth, so to speak.
Oh, also: Mykala’s Unicorndog.com has the same commenting and “new stuff” notification system that you’ve come to know (and hopefully not hate) here on the new tumbledry.
Mykala and I have been dating for a bit over 4 years now. We’ve shared successes and failures, satisfaction and disappointment, snow days and beach days. (Some of it is recorded here on tumbledry, which I am rather happy about.) I am, however, getting ahead of myself. You see, it all began when Caley introduced us — don’t forget to click on that link, because it’s a wonderfully kind and well-written account of When Mykala Met Alex. Ahh, nostalgia!
Mykala brings out the best in me — and I certainly hope I bring out the best in her. While phrasing things in such a way risks me stumbling down the slippery slope of Platitude Hill, I really do believe that it is true. (Take a second to think about it — the idea demands more time than the words used to express it.) And that brings me to the first unexpected turn in this story: the beginning of relationships aren’t the best part.
Don’t get me wrong, the times Mykala and I spent getting to know one another and the adventures we had will joyously live forever in my memory. It was a magical, carefree time. Traipsing around the St. Thomas campus, enjoying the people, seasons, sights, sounds… doing things like eating with good company, experiencing different music, and marvelling at the annual Christmas lights. It was all great fun (seriously, it was a blast). But past all that is a secret: it gets better. In some ways, though, I got in my own way. I so thoroughly enjoyed our early years that I couldn’t imagine things could be better, that two people could feel closer. Of course, I was mistaken.
During those times we began to really talk: religion, sociology, theology, scientific theory, music, art… and then combining all those cerebral exercises to do something silly like critique the latest reality TV. What began with my eyes leapt beyond those shallows to the deep passions stirred up when two minds meet. And so we grew. (The picture below is Mykala dressing up as me, to make me laugh while I was studying. One of my favorites.)
Here’s the part where I say “these 4 years have been so easy!” And the truth is, of course, that isn’t true at all. I can’t mislead myself or anyone else by glossing over the pits and valleys we encountered. But the journey, ahh the journey — it makes two people strong. Now, at this waypoint we find ourselves ready to walk the path of life together, and in that feeling is where magic lies.
This past Labor Day, thinking of all this, I knelt down on one knee and asked Mykala Lind to marry me. Below is not a picture of that.
See, my plan failed. Mykala and I take walks around Saint Paul; so I intended to surreptitiously sneak some photographic equipment along for the ride. This is not unusual for me, but I made the mistake of taking a tripod along with. Carrying it slowed the walk down so much that Mykala and I had to turn back, drop off the tripod, and continue on our way. By the time we reached the river, the sunset I had so carefully timed was past, and we strolled back home. This is not a picture from that walk either:
But in a simple way later that night, without any cameras looking on, I nervously asked Mykala to be my wife. She smiled through her tears and said “yes.”
I love you, bun. And I am excited for the future. So excited that sometimes I feel I may burst.
Sigur Rós’s song “Festival” makes a pretty darn good soundtrack for a Friday afternoon. I’ve survived my first oral anatomy assessment and there’s nothing like listening to great music to unwind on this beautiful afternoon. If you listen to the (admittedly low-fi) link to the song, I think you’ll find the male falsetto to be nearly unearthly-beautiful.
I’ve an image file on my computer that says “Life is beautiful.” I was going to print it out and hang it up until I realized this: I don’t think the word “beauty” is enough to capture this life. (“Life is many things, including beautiful” probably wouldn’t read well on the wall.) The shortcomings of this adjective make me think there’s one problem with intense, focused training: it reveals the world to the participant in one dimension, from one angle, in one color, from one perspective. Yet the glory of living pushes out from the uncountable, myriad aspects of reality.
I hope I don’t miss it all because I was attempting to write about it.
