habits of highly successful older people...

Apparently, all it took to make me feel older, older than the vague twenty-something, is regularly wearing a set of matching pajamas and brushing and flossing my teeth every night.

The pajamas were bought in a TJ Maxx in Florida, during the vacation that revolved around the bathroom and the amazing amount of Doritos everywhere. They are supposed to feel like silk, but they are just polyester. Cheap. But, on the other hand, polyester washes well. And they are great pajamas for only twenty bucks.

The brushing and flossing was always hit or miss with me, for various reasons. About three weeks ago, my friend Laura had oral surgery. She had a build-up of plaque and bits under her teeth from not flossing, and these were rotting her teeth from underneath her gums. So they cut a line along the inside of her gum line, from the right back molar to the left back molar (with no anethesia, I might add), peeled back her gums and scraped out the pockets of plaque and then stitched it all back up. That was just the bottom...she's still got the top to do. After detailing this horrific event and showing me her purplish gums, the black stitches, the swollen jaw, she intoned, "Save yourself some trouble and floss."

I must operate well with scare tactics, because I've only missed one or two days at the most since.

Maybe also, it's that I've got less than six months til I turn thirty....