The pain was excruciating. All I could think about was how to end it, but what would work.

Ice. That was the answer. If I crunch on enough ice cubes, that will numb my mouth and make the pain go away. One fascinating thing about pain is that it really does turn off the rational part of the mind... all that matters is that emotional satisfaction of escaping the pain.

Even though crunching ice is more likely to complicate a toothache.

However in this case, I was crunching the ice cubes, but nothing was happening. I could feel the texture of them (or lack thereof), and I could feel how wet and cold they were... but when I crunch them?

Nothing.

No cold sensation. No numbing. Just pain.

Odd.

Finally, the pain got so bad that I...

woke up. Not only did I wake up, but I woke up with a phantom toothache. I didn't really have a toothache, which made for a really weird dream. And disturbing. After two hours of sleep, now I'm sitting bolt upright awakened by a toothache that doesn't exist.

Bollocks! As if insomnia isn't already a problem for me... sheesh!

So, I'm up... I do some reading, some rehearsing of my lines, watch some television, and I answer a couple of emails. Then I go back to bed.

This time dreamland isn't so willing to let me go. Making appearances in my dream are: a high school girl friend, our unborn child, Ronald Weasley, an auditorium full of people, and... the rest is starting to slip away from me.

Hi, M!

Anyway, the dream was an indicator of a fantastic night of sleep... that only made me a few hours late this morning. Ugh!

Then there's the hangnail. Don't you just hate those? Especially when you don't have a pair of nippers, so you bite it... and it peels off of your finger like a banana?

Ow!

Anyway, sucking on my damaged finger last night before class turned out to be my opener with a lovely brunette... actually, she opened me! Later, we spent the entire break talking. No details worth mentioning here... yet. ;^)

And finally, thanks to my late start, I wasn't in the best mood... so I decided to test something. It's true what they say, the best way to get out of a bad mood is to open a couple of sets.

Perhaps the "overload" is doing me some good... at least some of this is finally drilled in, I do without thinking about it. I'm finally getting out of my head and into the game!