Fear Factor and Q-tips

i have to say, as a reality tv junkie, i was so stoked to learn that fear factor was returning.  it had been 10 years since it was first on the air and it was back!  i got 2 full episodes last night and soaked up every minute of it.  it still has the same old formula, stunt-gross thing-stunt.  i must say my favorite is the gross thing and especially when it involves eating something gross!  i was instantly transported back to my youth.  yea, right, i was in my 30s the first go round!  but it still brought back memories of what i was going thru in my life when i first discovered fear factor and what a difference now that fear factor is back!  not that things are better or worse or way different, just that i am a different age, a decade older, and am having different experiences.  its so easy to see a show or hear a song and immediately remember where you were working or who you were dating or some other momentous occasion from that time.  weird how memory works.

now i know not everyone is cut out for fear factor, either to participate or to watch and to be honest sometimes life is just too much like a fear factor.  yesterday i went to see an ear nose and throat doctor.  for about two years i have had the sound of like water crackling in my right ear, it comes and goes and sometimes is so annoying i want to rip my ear off!  so, my original plan of ignoring it until it went away was not working out too well for me so i plunked down the $45 co-pay for a specialist and went to see the ENT.  so this matter of fact guy looks in my ear and says he doesnt think it is being caused by whatever is stuck to my ear drum but he would get rid of it and see.  ok, that alone is like................what?  what is on my eardrum and how are you going to remove it?  without any explanation he takes this metal funnel and sticks it in my ear and then i feel something go in there and move around and i was like.................what?  he did ask me if i used q-tips to clean my ear and i figure i probably shouldnt lie so i say yes, i am really fastidious about cleaning out my ears, its part of my daily routine!  so then he goes back in and is digging around in my ear again but this time he shows me the tweezers he was using to pick this cotton looking fiber off my eardrum!  i have to admit i was both mortified and transfixed, i really wanted to ask to take it with me to show everyone but was afraid he would think i was weird.  and yes, last night after my shower, i did stick a q-tip in my ear, clean ears outweigh fiber stuck to my eardrum, guess i will just plan an annual appointment to have my ears defuzzed!  on the bright side, i asked and he did assure me that there were no bugs in my ear!  ;0)-