I got a new tube of toothpaste a few weeks ago. I wanted to use it for a while before posting a report. This is another flavor of Tom’s of Maine toothpaste. It’s called Wintermint. What’s different about this flavor is that it is sweetened. It makes such a difference in flavor! The Wintermint has a strong minty taste. It is exactly like regular toothpastes. Except for the sweetener. It uses xylitol.
I’ve been doing a little reading about xylitol. It is not calorie free. That must be why there are no diet soft drinks that are sweetened with it. If most of the world is okay drinking sucralose and aspartame, which have zero calories, why introduce a diet drink that actually has calories? I wish someone would. There seems to be a host of other reasons why a person might want to use xylitol though. How come I haven’t heard more about it? Is there a “sucralose mob” or an “aspartame consortium” that are suppressing information? …or is it because in large amounts xylitol has a laxative effect?
Whatever the case, here are the results of my experiment: After weeks of use, I think I can pretty confidently say that xylitol does not leave a funny taste in my mouth. The toothpaste tastes good, and leaves me with no regrets.
My odometer hit 15,000 miles. It looks like it’s been taking about eight months to travel 5,000 miles. This time, I was on my way home from school. I had left fairly quickly after school was out so I could get home. I wanted a little nap. I’ve been so sleepy since going off the study medication. I guess I usually build up a tolerance for the sleepiness or something, but suddenly going off the medicine has been a little harder.
Anway, I didn’t want to cause a traffic jam, so I didn’t pull over. It was hard to get a non-blurry shot of the odometer because the truck was moving.
I was on Perring Parkway this time. It’s my regular route home. There are many ways to get from school to my house, but they all seem to take the same amount of time. This route is not the shortest in distance, but it is the highest in speed limits. 
I sent my Carnation Instant Breakfast survey in on Tuesday night. Yesterday, Katie sent confirmation that she received it. It was kind of fun to do. I was to take several pictures: Of me, of my kitchen cabinet and refrigerator contents, of my morning routine, and of my Carnation. I sent twenty-one pictures total. I won’t post them all, because that would use too much bandwidth, but I’ll give a sample.
I also had to answer some survey questions. I was glad to be able to say this to someone:
What do you like least about Carnation Instant Breakfast? What would you change about it if you could?
It took me a little while to get used to the new formulation of “Rich Milk Chocolate†that came out a couple years ago. I always feel a little betrayed when the flavor of a favorite product is changed. But now that I’m used to the new formulation, I wouldn’t want it to change back.
Monday I visited the medical study doctor. I had to go in the morning because they wanted to do a fasting blood draw. I hadn’t taken my pills for the day because you’re supposed to take them with food. After the blood draw, the assistant said it was up to me whether or not I took the pills. I took them. Then she said it was up to me because I was done with the study. Wha? I guess I wasn’t keeping track of the weeks very well. I go back one more time for a follow-up, at which time the doctor said he could prescribe something for me if I wanted.
So before I get too far away from it, I wanted to describe what it was like to be on this medicine, just for my memory archive. It did suppress my appetite and it did keep me from falling asleep all the time, so that part of the study was successful. But I didn’t like how it made me feel otherwise. My neck and back ached because they were tensed all the time, and my eyes were “jiggly”. I felt jittery most of the time, and didn’t feel rested even after a night of sleep. At the higher dose, I had extreme attention deficit problems.
Yesterday was my first day without the medicine, and wouldn’t you know it, we had a meeting after school. I promptly fell asleep, to the amusement of all in the room. Good thing, too, because it was a serious meeting. Hopefully I won’t be fired for sleeping. If I am fired, I’ll let you know.
I went to a barber yesterday. Actually, it was a salon or whatever. I thought I should go to a fancy place because I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted and I thought maybe the hairdresser person could help. She couldn’t.
I went to a place in White Marsh Mall. I didn’t really know what I was asking for, so I said stuff like “just a trim” and “clean it up” and “make it neat”. When I first sat in her barber chair she asked me how I wore my hair. I was a little confused. I pointed at my head and said, “Like this.” Then she scared me with talk of cutting a lot off. I reiterated my desire just to have my neck shaved and my sideburns trimmed.
She did know who Alton Brown was. She said she watched Food Network all the time. But she said she didn’t notice what his hair looked like. I was scared again because hair is her business, right? My career as a teacher continuously colors my observations of the world. Shouldn’t she always notice peoples’ hair?
In the end, she cut off about a centimeter of hair. I figure that’s a couple weeks of growth, but at least I don’t have a hairy neck any more. She didn’t trim my sideburns much, so they’re going to be crazy-long in another couple of weeks. I don’t think I’ll go back to her then.
