I was watching the Today Show this morning when I suddenly heard Katie Couric say "We'll have tips on how to cope with what's been coined 'the new normal'."

I coined it the new normal! I'm certain that about 500,000 other people coined it as well, I have no illusions that I was the only one who thought that one up, but it was pretty cool hearing a phrase that I thought up in my head on the Today Show.

It would be like hearing Matt Lauer say, "That is bad and wrong!"

So, did I tell you that Mom is getting a computer? Well, she is! She found this great Gateway laptop that costs a thousand bucks less than mine did, but is so much better, with a 20 gig hard drive! "Can I have one, too?" I asked, but no.

"How big a hard drive do you have?"
"Four gigs."
"O, you poor thing!"

Out-technologied by my own mother! She couldn't fill up a 20 gig hard drive if she tried for the rest of her life.

So now mom will be online, and instead of calling me and not being able to reach me because I'm online, she can email me and say, "Get off the phone!" Not to mention the fact that she can now read my page. I told her that she could read it if she wanted, but if I wrote an entry about being sad or something and I didn't mention it to her, she is not allowed to talk about it to me!

Maybe I will discover what everyone else is talking about, censoring yourself because your family is reading. But I am 37 years old (or 32, rather), so I think I can just about manage to be myself even if my mother is reading. One hopes.

Another thing I never mentioned was that my tooth broke last week.

Not a new tooth, but the one I had root-canaled, the hollowed-out tooth. You see, I had run out of insurance for the year, so he couldn't make the crown, he could only put a temporary filling in it. Well, last week the thinnest of the four sides just crumbled, not even when I was eating something hard, just a french fry or something.

I called the dentist and asked if something could be done now and they could bill me next year, but to no avail. If I want something done, it will cost $650. I think I'm going to try to wait until after the first--the other three sides of the tooth seem fairly solid, and I'm trying not to chew too much on that side.

And, of course, since the root was already removed, it neither hurts not is likely to start hurting. It's only nine weeks.

Do you want to see something that is just about the coolest thing ever? You know, if you're me or related to me or something. Go here!

I don't know what's more exciting, the fact that somebody was selling my father's autograph, or that two people got into a bidding war about it!

Today's horoscope:
When people around you are into "looking good," don't get overwhelmed. Actuality is still more important than appearances.

One year ago today:
I have a feeling that the real sign of adulthood is not going "Hooray, I can sleep an extra hour!" but instead saying "Hooray, I have an extra hour to be awake in!"

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Last Updated Thurs 1 November 23:02:09 2001