Saturday, July 22, 2006

A Life Legitimate

I just went to the dentist for the first time in almost 2 years and it feels so good. It feels good to be insured again. It's something I will no longer take for granted. Does anyone else enjoy visiting their dentist so much? It also helps that my dentist is pretty cool. She has traveled the world and knows Chinese and Spanish and hacks at your teeth like a true pro. My grandma was my first dentist. My worst experience was throwing up a bag of sour cream and onion potato chips while my grandma worked on my teeth. To this day I avoid that flavor--it tastes like dental bile. I also associate the taste of Bernie's famous teriyaki chicken after a good teeth cleaning with the taste of tooth. Yes, when I can truly taste my teeth they taste like roast chicken. What do your teeth taste like?
When my grandma was still practicing (she retired at the ripe old age of 75 or so) I had so many good times in her dental office. My first paid job was filing paperwork in her office. My brothers and cousins and I had water and air fights with the little tools for your teeth. My grandma and her coworkers made little animal figurines out of plaster of paris for their children patients, and I collected them. I don't have any in my possesion now, regretfully. I would take naps in the chairs on slow days, adjusting my position with the cool controls. I feel asleep to the easy listening channel that was on (which could explain why I get random Kenny G songs stuck in my head sometimes). Her assistant at the time was an awesome person. She once gave me a glass mickey mouse piggy bank with my name etched on it. In fact, that piggy bank is in the room with me now, and it's been full of coins for probably 8 years. She was the first person I knew personally to die. She had cancer, but she didn't suffer long.
My teeth are so clean. Let's make the feeling last.

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