Hello friend,
Hope you’re keeping warm in these short wintry days and long chilly nights. I know I’ve been leaning a little on the red wine to warm my heart lately. But I have a good excuse for my indulgence. Not that I need one.
I haven’t been able to drink red wine for about a year while I got my teeth straightened. (I also haven’t been able to have much turmeric, but that was marginally less of a challenge.) And now, behold, I have straight teeth!
While I didn’t have bad teeth, thanks to my parents intervening on my massive overbite and crowded jaw when I was quite young, a retainer left behind on an honour band trip in Terrace had left me with some serious snaggleteeth downlow and a questionably clicky/locking jaw.
Between that and simple vanity on my part, I’d been saving for Invisalign the way other people save for down payments. I dreamed about the day I could take a bite out of something and the shape left behind wouldn’t look like the line work in Guernica. The steep price tag didn’t seem unreasonable when the outcome would be social acceptance.
Because if you’ve got good teeth, you probably haven’t even noticed this, but the world treats you different if you don’t have straight teeth.
The shame of bad teeth in a good teeth world, even when they’re not that bad, still sucks. People treat you differently. Because it’s not covered under our healthcare (though it should be), your smile is one of the easiest signifiers of the level of wealth you grew up in, and if you think people aren’t judging you by your teeth, think again. I felt like I was waving a flag that said, “yes sirree I am a hillbilly - how could you tell?!”
On a more superficial level, it would appear I no longer have an excuse as to why I am not a celebrity or working in film and television. My lack of stardom is clearly inexplicable now that what was clearly my ONLY barrier has now been removed.
I will say, it was validating to find a lot of people on reddit sharing their adult ortho journeys. There’s a whole subreddit of people sharing their toothy journeys, and they’re the most welcoming people I’ve ever met. Something about the pain of a tightening day and having trouble with solid food really bonds people together.
The best thing I’ve heard lately
A friend of mine admitted to starting a popsicle on a hot day, then casually hopping into the shower without thinking too much about it. When the popsicle did what popsicles do in showers, she panicked and ate the popsicle as quickly as she could while still showering.
It’s the commitment for me. Did the mental image make you laugh, too? Then why not:
Writing recap
In the last month and a bit, I’ve had a good run of luck with freelance writing. While none of it has my name in the byline, it feels good to get paid to write words. I’ve written about the ins and outs of common law relationships in Ontario, BC and Alberta (which seemed to have a kissing cousins clause?") and the pitfalls of reactive maintenance for small fleets (clearly my area of expertise).
As none of these are publicly attributed to me, if you’d like to read one of them, send me an email and I’ll pass along the link. (I know you’re dying to know about whether or not your common law partner has rights to half your shit.)
Also, and perhaps most importantly to my heart and ego, I finished the first draft of the novel I’ve been thinking about for literal years. Every year, my resolution list had ‘finish manuscript’ right up top, and 2021 was the year I made it happen. Underemployment wasn’t all bad!
I’m reading
On accepting things as they are, for now, by the inimitable Kristin Warkentin. Where are the Latin women in music production? This podcast on the history of reggaeton is LOUD. The Finnish prime minister missed a text telling her to quarantine because she was out clubbing and I’m not mad.
The (incidentally Canadian) good stuff
ICYMI Shad has a new album out! You may know him as the guy who briefly hosted q in that interlude between Jian ‘Teddy Bear’ Ghomeshi and lovable Newfie Tom Power, and I may think of him as the guy I’m pretty sure I saw in the Highland pub once or twice, he’s a Juno-award winning rapper whose new album, TAO, is fantastic.
While the album was largely written before the pandemic - and everything that came with it - TAO feels entirely of this time; like its October 1st release date was preordained.
“The consequences of the pandemic are sort of the logical endpoint of where these trajectories were already headed,” Shad told the Globe and Mail. “We just kind of hit fast-forward on that stuff. So it makes sense that the pandemic would highlight themes that I was thinking about.”
With the kind of razor-sharp lyrics you’d expect and the flow I first fell in love with after his collaboration with A Tribe Called Red, it’s really the kind of album I think you hear once, then listen to for the next twenty years. Check it out on Spotify and let me know what you think.
Coming soon to the Trish Sessions: A pretty big life announcement and a look back at the year that was. Tell me, what would make your best of 2021 list? What CANCON do you think the world is sleeping on?
Have a great weekend, friends!