When I was traveling through the Isle of Skye, I slept in a tent, barely safe from the midgies. One night, as I stretched out to rest on my back, I felt the dreaded drop. The ball that once had screwed the bar tightly through my tongue had come loose. It dropped to the back of my throat where I felt it rest in that precarious spot where, if I was not careful, I could either inhale it, swallow it, or if I was lucky, hack it back out.

I was not lucky.

Fortunately I did not inhale it, but I did swallow it. Short of making myself vomit, there was nothing I could do. Not without some tears, I removed the remaining bar, and slipped it into the tent pocket hanging from the ceiling.

My tongue felt oddly naked, as though someone else's tongue had taken its place. It was weird. Empty. Even the taste in my mouth had changed. There was more spit. It was not my tongue.

Of course I grew accustomed to the lack of accoutrement and now, five years later, don't remember the feel it once produced.

The question is, now, shall I do it again? I am going tomorrow morning with Brett to the parlour, he wants to see carnage. I do want it back, but there are a few concerns.

1. I have two days to heal enough to talk without problem, as I go back to school on Monday. I speak a lot in my classes, I'm a vocal participant, not to mention Latin is a lot of reading aloud and translating aloud. Latin should not sound like this:

"pfashther n pfee (sleurpn) pfeelieesh"

2. It's almost an image thing. I don't judge people with tongue rings, I don't really think other people are going to judge me, but in a way, I wonder what my instructors would think. (she's 30 for crying out loud, what is that? some kind of pathetic attempt to reclaim her teenage years? is she trying to fit in with the young kids here?) While I'm sure this reason is not really one that would stop me, it does cross my mind.

3. I made a promise to myself that if I didn't do the film studies program at Langara, I would then endeavour to be a working actor. In the spring, get an agent and prepare myself and him/her for the end of my term and the beginning of the summer season of acting, extra work and other things on set. I can't have a tongue ring doing auditions. I could maybe have a clear bar on hand for just such an occasion, but inevitably, I will have to take it out.

So there are two quite good reasons and one crappy one to not go ahead with it, despite my desire to do it.

The other option is this:

I also used to have a hood ring. It's a private place, for all you men scratching your heads. And if you're scratching your heads, SHAME on you, you have some reading to do. Anyway, this piercing still exists, but there is a thin skin grown over the aperture. I could, in lieu of the tongue piercing, and to appease the god of poking holes in things, AKA Brett, I could get my hood re-pierced. Then all are none the wiser, and I have a new ornament, which I also miss.

I've also tossed around the idea of having my nipples pierced, but I think that would hurt just WAY too much.

In other news. I saw Lemony Snickett's A Series of Unfortunate Events today. I have read a couple of the books, and I found the movie quite good. There were some actors in it that felt wrong and out of place, but the children were wonderful, and Jim Carrey (despite my fears that he would camp it up ridiculously) did a fantastic job. On the whole, visually a GORGEOUS movie and the end credits were amazing. I would also like to brag about recognising the voice of Lemony Snickett right off the bat.

Also: Brother's birthday tomorrow, hung out with mum and her husband tonight for little man's birthday dinner. I now understand that I do not want to hang out with her with her husband any more, I just don't LIKE HIM. He's infuriating and I find him nigh unbearable sometimes, the things that come out of his mouth. He does nothing but complain about other people and how prisoners are this, and gay people are that, and this and that and it's a sin to spend money on animals when there are people starving in the world. (I don't see him giving money to poor people, just to Charles Stanley. Charles Stanley better give some of that money to poor people ...)

That pissed me off royally. He brought this up after I mentioned that it cost quite a bit to take my cats to the vet. So he basically sat there and in a flowery manner called me a sinner. And then he has the smug condescendingness (?? s'at a word?) to say that he loves all people equally, and that everyone has a right to their opinion and it doesn't change that we love our family etc. He's basically excusing his own bullshit attitude by saying "Everyone has a right to their own opinion", even if that opinion is neither kind nor compassionate.

AUGHCSAKJRNCR.

Full day, I'd say. What about you? And any thoughts on the tongue/hood situation?