This past week, I got my wisdom teeth extracted. I had been kinda worried and dreading the eventuality of it for years, but it really wasn't so bad after all. Probably the biggest thing for me was a fear of "going under" (I was on IV sedation). The idea of altered mental states or not being in control is a little terrifying to me, but ultimately it ended up being pretty much exactly like going to bed. While the standby paramedic and oral surgeon were hooking me up to the IV, a blood pressure monitor, 2 sticky electrode thingies, and a heartrate monitor that went on my finger, I was actually able to stay calm by making small talk about how anything to do with needles or blood generally gives me a psychosomatic feeling of faintness. Like, I was opening up about an embarassing moment I had at the pharmacy once after I got a covid booster, when I thought too hard about the needle and probably gave them a scare by nearly losing my balance. Next thing I know, I'm all done and they're helping me into a wheelchair, taking me to my mom's car for the drive home. Point is, I guess small talk can actually be useful in very specific circumstances.

I have a whole bunch of site buttons now! I would notify people, but that's a lot of messages to send and I don't even have my own button yet. I started making my own button, but then I remembered I haven't made pixel art in like 3 years and I don't know how art works. How do??? I feel like I need to go, y'know, actually follow a tutorial and practice before I can make something presentable enough to show. I also want to make an automated blog at some point, but that's another complicated thing to figure out.