Sags and Freckles and Voices

At my last dental exam the doctor said something to the assistant that has been niggling at my brain, needing an explanation. You know how they are anyway . . . "number 10 has a blah, blah, blah" . . . but my ears did prick up when I heard . . . one, two, three . . . six, seven freckles . . . as he was probing my mouth.

It registered, but I didn't get a chance to question him - too many other things to talk about.

Well, my chance came yesterday at the Village Fair/Health Fair. Our group was busily setting up when I spotted my dentist at another booth. One of his employees was there to do whitening treatments on people and he was there to do oral cancer checks, but had stopped by the booth to chat with his employee.

So, I went over to speak with him - he is a really nice young man - and finally asked the question that has been bugging me - what did you mean when you said I had freckles? Apparently they are just that - the same type of pigment change that occurs on your face, occurs inside your mouth. They are just little dots, nothing to be concerned about. (I wasn't concerned, just curious)

He laughed when I said - well, I AM Irish, after all, so it stands to reason that if it can freckle, it will freckle.

Hubby (when I was telling him about it later) said - "ooh, I know - they're the roots of your freckles!"

Dr. Hu also told me that he likes to tease ultra conservative people from time to time by telling them that they have tattoos. It would seem that if you have amalgam fillings they sometimes leave permanent dark marks (or tattoos) on the gum surrounding the tooth. Hmmm, interesting.

Another painfully interesting thing about the mouth is how your cheeks begin to sag - on the inside - as you age. One of his assistants had mentioned that to me during an exam once. She noted that is why we sometimes bite our cheeks - the flesh has begun to sag, lose its elasticity. (I know, THERE, too! Can we NOT get a break here?)

A few mornings ago I woke to find that I had somehow sucked a huge portion of my cheek in between my teeth and had ground down on it, apparently for quite some time. OUCH! It was swollen all the rest of that day, and I found myself biting it a few times - it also made me talk funny.

I mentioned it to Dr. Hu yesterday. He said I probably have a line where I have done that in the past. I'm sure he is probably right. But it is still a bit swollen - and extremely tender. I can sympathise a bit more with Isaiah and his thrush now. Maybe I ouhgt to borrow some of that gentian violet. ;-)) Actually I just treated it with some peroxide a bit ago. Maybe it will heal up quicker.

SO - that was probably more than you wanted to know, huh?

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I have begun singing on Sunday mornings with the Worship Team. It is a revolving group of people - about 5 or 6 - who don't always get to be there at the same time, but it is a good blend of voices. I'm the only alto*. I used to just sing out from the back pew, but am enjoying doing it from the front of the auditorium.

*I'm not the only alto in the church family - just the only one who is singing up front for now.

Two of the ladies asked me to join them in preparing for special music. So, tonight our music director (for lack of a better term) met us an hour before evening services and we practiced a bit. We will probably not do it for awhile - she wants us to sing it acapello and we all still need to learn our parts.

Then she had us work on one that we will probably do with the whole group on Easter. It is a beautiful piece called The Ballod of the Cross.

We have a clavinova so, a lot of our music is downloaded from such sites as the above one - then we can sing it with that accompaniment. So, the pianist may join the three of us and sing this one - it has parts for a low voice and parts for the high voices. So, she can help me with the low parts - give me a bit of a boost to counteract the other two. Another neat thing about the clavinova is that she can change the key - higher or lower pitch - to suit the voices of those singing. It is an amazing thing to hear a whole orchestra coming out of one keyboard. Very cool.

Have a wonderful week, everyone.

Posted by Purplemoose at March 14, 2004 08:49 PM