What fun we might have had

Today I spent two and a quarter hours at the dentist, getting prepped for a crown. I have a cracked tooth that started to hurt. I haven't had a dental procedure other than a cleaning in something like 20 years, so this was a rude awakening. Novocaine, grinding, impressions, something involving a nauseating pressure to my gums, more impressions, and finally the temporary crown, while I wait 2 weeks for the official one to be made.

Then the really awful part. The bill. I was expecting a lot. Like, say a hundred and twenty, maybe a hundred and fifty bucks.

Oh, no, grasshopper.

Welcome to the wonderful world of 21st-century dentistry.

Four.
Hundred.
Dollars.

And that's after my insurance covered nearly half of it.

Four hundred bucks.

That's two plane tickets to visit my grandma.

That's two nights in a sweetposh hotel.

That's three incredibly awesome dinners (for two) at Higgins.

That's three weeks of part-time daycare for the wee tot.

Oh, well. It could be worse. I could have just lost the tooth altogether, and had to spend the rest of my life with a hole in my mouth. At least this way I get to eat.

But yikes. I really was not expecting that.