My mornings are anti-climactic, but involve an unusual step: Spackle on five layers of concealer to cover up the green bruise that's become the best of friends with the swollen lump along my jaw and cheek.
I tell myself I do this not out of vanity, but of politeness. Wouldn't want anyone to think my husband is a wife-beater. It really does look like I've been punched in the face repeatedly, but what remains is the brutal aftermath of an unexpected surgery.
It was supposed to be a simple wisdom tooth extraction. I was awake, dizzy from nitrous oxide as my skilled dentist went to town on the tooth removal. I trust my dentist and feel like he is generally an awesome guy, but what occurred no one could have predicted. The bone my tooth had comfortably lodged itself into was calcified and buttressed on all sides.
What x-rays had indicated would be an easy removal turned into a living nightmare as I listened to my tooth cracking into shards, unwilling to depart from their fortress. The rotating tools were brought out and I was treated to the delightful aroma of tooth and bone dust as my dentist struggled, the overhead lamp glinting off his magnifying glasses.
I sobbed uncontrollably and finally, the symphony of saws ceased.
"You really need to be asleep for this," my dentist declared.
Apparently, in his thirty plus years of practice, he had never seen anything quite as stubborn as my tooth. Due to the 2D nature of the x-rays, it was impossible to predict.
"Normally it's like pulling a nail out of styrofoam, but yours is like trying to remove a fish hook from concrete."
I was sent directly to an oral surgeon, my mouth stuffed with gauze.
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I started my new job on Tuesday, still bruised, swollen, and unable to speak coherently. It's okay, though. As I've gotten older, there's very little that embarrasses me. It might be due to maturity over time, but it could also be the prescription drugs. Who knows?
*Disclaimer: For anyone jumping in, these are drugs prescribed to me for anxiety/depression that I take in the way directed by my doctor. *
It is so nice to be working again! My boss and team seem amazing. I like that there's a culture of admitting mistakes without fear. Several times, I've seen someone admit to missing a detail or another coworker notice an error and no one makes a big deal about it. They acknowledge it, correct it (or state their plan for correction), and move on. This is a far cry from some of the other places I've worked. There would be a lot of blame shifting, screaming, etc. I like this new environment a lot! It seems like a great place to learn!
Currently, I'm working from home. I've been assigned an "onboarding buddy" and I've been pairing with him. We haven't done much coding yet because our team is in a bit of a time crunch and it's all hands on deck, but the experience is still valuable. I'm learning a lot of new terminology and how our software is used and interacted with internally and externally.
I had to figure out how to set up the mac and change paths, etc. This took a lot of Googling because the only other time I did this it was for a PC (which also took a lot of Googling, but I digress). I hate how a lot of instructional websites assume you know what Vim is or how to change an environment variable. This may be obvious to the seasoned programmer, but not to me.
Next post: I will attempt to alleviate the future suffering of others by telling you exactly how to change an environment variable, install Maven, and get other common programs up and running.
