I live!

Wasn't all that bad. Definitely the most skillful application of Novocaine I've ever had--didn't feel anything, and I live in Fear of the Giant Needle. And he had to give me a LOT of Novocaine, too--my tooth proved rather sensitive, comin' down off that big hurting episode, so we paused halfway through, when I felt a faint twinge, and he loaded me up with the stuff again.

On the bright side, no bad jabbing OHMYGODTHENERVE! jolts (a few minor ones, but nothing bad).

On the downside, I can't feel my ear.

This dentist does not believe in heavy drugs, and is hoping I'll get through it on ibuprofen, but I can either badger him on his cel phone, or (more likely) break into my stash of 750mg Vicodin from the LAST root canal (and a dentist who believed in drugs, more drugs, lots of drugs.)

So s'all good. I'll be pretty much useless for painting for the next two days--I've already made the apologies and updated timelines on my current time sensitive commissions--but I can still write, and I have much of the text for the art book to write, so I'll probably make some inroads on that. It's weird that I can write fine when baked and in pain, but I can't paint very well. Probably different parts of the brain or something, but whatever mental pathways are required for painting get a big muzzy gray roadblock smacked over them when I'm opiated. (Which makes no sense, when you think of Xanadu and Coleridge, but then again, he didn't have to paint it...)