March 16, 2005
Had a wisdom tooth pulled today. Surprisingly painless, but still it's the idea of the whole thing: long needles in the gums and tongue, pliers wrenching bone away from bone, gaping holes in mouth, that damn suction tube, etc.

One funny thing did happen. I got in there about ten this morning and was quite irritated about it, dreading the needle, sorry I made the appointment, wondering if I could rear end a car on the way there and get out of going. But I got in the office and there's no wait, they take me right in. The dental assistant, Nikka, a tall blond Norwegian, comes in, grabs my hat off the chair and plops it crown up on a table. I snapped: "Don't ever put a hat down like that! It ruins the curl of the brim." She gave one of those kind of sarcastic—Well, excuse me—looks, so I added, “By the way, that is extremely rude to pick up someone's hat without asking them.”

She was clearly upset, but cool about it. After the procedure I asked to see the tooth and she showed it to me and I said "I need my glasses, they're in my hat," and she quipped, "Nice try. I ain't touchin' that hat." We both laughed. I'll bet I'm her lead story at dinner tonight.

Got back in the office at about 11 biting down on a big ol’ wad of gauze in my mouth. Of course everyone wanted to talk to me and I did my Clint Eastwood through the teeth whisper, “Well, do you feel lucky? Punk.”

Worked on an illustration of Lozen, the female Apache warrior. It's for Jana's piece in the next issue. The office copies of the train issue (May) arrived about noon. Everyone buzzing. Looks very strong. Lots of cool photos of trains for all the trainiacs.

Came home about one and took a short nap. Got up and wailed on three different approaches to Lozen. Two gouaches and a scratchboard. I think the scratchboard is going to win out. Has a very Mexican Revolution poster look.

Paul Hutton is flying in tonight and we're putting him up at the Carefree Conference Resort. He just called from the airport and wants to meet for dinner in about an hour. I can't eat anything warm (might blow the clot, which is funny because I'm taking massive doses of coumadin to avoid any clotting) so I'm limited on what I can eat tonight. And dammit, Paul is buying! (I'll take a couple pounds of frozen shrimp and a barrel of bread please.). Hutton is always late, so I imagine he'll call in about two hours. Oops, he just called at 6:45, only fifteen minutes late. Gotta run. Free food.

"In this world, truth can wait; she's used to it.”
—Douglas Jerrold