September 27, 1999

I spent all day yesterday watching SNL reruns on Comedy Central and playing Civ II. It was a good day. Keith sat and watched with me sporadically. We particularly liked the "Maya Angelou for Snickers" and the Joe Pesci show where the real Joe Pesci and Robert De Niro showed up. Actually, we laughed our butts off at a bunch more stuff than that, but I can't remember all of it now. It was a crapnacopia of sketch comedy, I tell you what.

At 9 we turned on the three-hour SNL 25th Anniversary Special. It was better than I thought it would be. They had real hosts and real musical guests and a bunch of celebrities in the audience that the hosts kept making fun of (the best: Billy Crystal to Drew Barrymore, "honey, we're so glad you cleaned up"). I thought it was just going to be a compilation of old skits. It was that too, but they also had real live people there, which I thought was pretty cool.

The one downside to the evening was a little problem that Keith had.

Keith has this habit of flossing his teeth while he's watching TV. Some dental hygienist he had one time suggested it, and now he does it habitually. I'm really used to sitting on the couch watching TV with him while he's flossing away.

So last night while the SNL special was on, he whips out the floss and starts going at it. By this point, I've lived with him for like three months, and I barely even noticed. So he's flossing away, I'm watching TV, and then I noticed him grimacing out of the corner of my eye.

I looked over and he goes, "Uh-oh."

"Uh-oh?" I said. "Uh-oh while flossing is bad."

He didn't say anything. I guess it's hard to talk while you've got floss in your mouth. I said, "Hon, is the floss stuck?" He nodded.

Uh-oh.

"You want me to help?" He nodded. I tilted his head back so I'd have better light, and sure enough, he had a big ol' piece of floss stuck between two of his back molars.

This is not a common situation. I was not quite sure what to do. Should I just try to yank it out? Would that hurt his teeth? Should I get scissors and CUT it? Should I try to remove it with new floss? What if the new floss got stuck too?

I sort of played with it for a minute and then gave up. "Sweetie, I dunno what I can do here. It doesn't look tangled or anything.."

He said, "OK, I'll work on it some more." By this time I was really trying not to laugh hysterically, because it's not nice to laugh at people who are in distress, but it was pretty hard, because he had FLOSS stuck in his MOUTH, I mean how often does that happen?

I said, "Um, sweetie, no offense but this is like the funniest thing I've ever seen, and I'm really sorry for laughing but it's pretty hysterical and I'm sure you'll agree with me once you don't have a big piece of floss stuck in your mouth."

He glared, but it wasn't a very menacing glare because, well, he had a big piece of floss hanging out of his mouth.

I commenced laughing hysterically. He glared more, but it just didn't help. Finally I got myself under control, and he got the floss out maybe ten minutes later. Phew. I would have taken him to the hospital if necessary, but boy am I glad it wasn't necessary.

In other news. I talked to my mom on the phone on Sunday. I love my mom, and I think she's a really great person, but I'm getting a little tired of the fact that every time I talk to her lately, she's all concerned about Keith finding a job. It's not like we're struggling financially. I mean, it would be NICE to have a second income, but it's certainly not necessary, and frankly I don't think it's any of her business.

I came to this conclusion after I got off the phone with her. While I was talking to her it seemed perfectly reasonable that I should (as per her suggestion) set some kind of deadline for him to find a job and finish his program that he's been working on. I was all set to talk to him about it once he got out of the shower.

Then I came to my senses. Keith and me have talked about the job situation, and I'm perfectly happy with what we worked out, which is that he's going to get his best program to the point that he thinks it's good enough to show to prospective employers, and then he will start applying to places. I agreed with this and thought it was a good idea. I'm not about to go demanding things and setting deadlines now.

At any rate, last night he told me he thinks he's only about a week or two from finishing up his work on his program, so he might be starting the job search soon.

I'm half-happy and half-sad about this turn of events. It's nice having him at home to call during the day, and to make me lunch, and take care of things around the house. I like it that he's home every day when I get there, and I can run upstairs and hug him. I like that he can go to the grocery store while I'm at work so that sometimes (not always) dinner is waiting when I get there. I'll miss it once he has a job. Of course, it will be nice to have the extra cash.

Let's face it, I'm just spoiled.

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