Metal mouth, tin grin, railroad tracks. I can't think of any others.

I'm starting an experiment tonight. For the next two weeks, I'm going to wear my retainers to bed every single night. I don't plan on this being a pleasant experience. Right after I got my braces off, my orthodontist told me I should wear the retainers all the time for the first six months and then just at night for a year after that. He also said most orthodontists are starting to recommend that former braces-wearers just wear their retainers for the rest of their life.

Ha, I said. We'll see how that goes.

I've hardly worn them every night since that day, much less all the time. My longest streak of consecutive nights wearing the retainers is probably four days. And I can always tell that it helps keep my teeth together, mainly because the mornings after I wear them to bed, my teeth are in excruciating pain. I can hardly chomp on my Golden Maple Quaker Oat Squares.

So hopefully these two weeks won't be awful for me. But they probably will be.

-Jon

P.S. Remember that time that UNI upset the best team in the nation for a school-record breaking NCAA tournament run? That was pretty awesome.