My Glass Jaw

Ow, ow ow ... Have you ever had TMJ? It stands for Temporo-mandibular joint disorder, and it's a problem where the jaw joint locks or is out of sync. I had a slightly uneven opening of the jaw for years, most of my adult life. It didn't hurt, but it would click. One day I bit down wrong on a nut or something, and that did it. I couldn't open my mouth fully, and when I did, it was uneven. I had to have oral surgery to correct it. After the procedure, it was lots better, but not 100%, and over the years it gets better or not as good, and recently it's been bothering me quite a bit. The more it seemed out of place, the more I would try to get it back, and I irritated it, I think. Now it's achy. The past couple of days I haven't been able to bite or chew normally because of the discomfort. Forget about taking a bite out of an apple. Impossible, and I've always been able to do that. I've made a dental appointment to have my dentist check it out and refer me to someone local who can take care of it. In the meantime, eating is difficult, and for someone who really enjoys eating, it's a major issue!

I had my last Drawing and Painting class today, and it was a great class. We used all the techniques and skills we had learned and painted a still life in acrylics. It was a brown jug, a cut orange on a plate, the knife, all sitting on a blue cloth. The arrangement was nice, and we started in with some small, quick sketches for composition, selected one and made it full sized, then went on to canvas paper and painted. No pencil on the canvas, that was a no-no. Our instructor said that would be like paint by number. We had to refer to our drawing, then draw with the paint brush. We were all intimidated initially, but dove in, and everyone ended up with a believable and fairly good painting. The other thing is that all the colors - orange, brown, background neutral, blue - had to be created from 3 primary colors (red, yellow, blue) and white. That's one thing I seem to be able to do pretty well. We didn't have enough time to finish or do the details, but we all got the basic painting done, and we were feeling pretty good about it. I'm going to take the next course this summer that begins in July.

Today was the day for the cats to be "slimed" with Frontline. I have to put it at the base of their necks and they hate it. It must be the smell they detest, although I hardly smell anything. They run when they see it in my hand. Ming Poo was performing such acrobatics trying to lick the back of her own neck that Jim said she'd be good in The Exorcist for the scene where the girl's head turns all the way around. I hope they don't think I'm dong this to torture them. Poor little things. At least it keeps them flea and tick free. I put it on Ming Poo even though she doesn't go outside, just in case she picked one up that dropped off one of the other cats. That's my rationale, but I really don't know if I need to slime her or not. I should check with the vet, I guess. Or Google.

PHOTO: My Sweeties!