Freaky Friday
Now on to my rather eventful Friday:
Just had my dental appointment on Fri afternoon, with my very cute dentist (if you're into the rugged, unshaven-Josh-Halloway sort of guy). He was as nice (and busy) as ever, although the session turned out to be even brutal than I expected. After the customary hellos and how're-you-doing, I sheepishly admitted, "The top bracket fell out too. The one directly above the usual." And his reply was a sigh, "Again?". "Yeah, the same one, plus the one above." To which he went "Alright then, let's have a look." You see, the last bracket attached to my second last left molar has this nasty habit of dropping off every single time after my monthly dental appointments. It could be one afternoon, or one week, or I think the longest it ever lasted was three weeks, but it invariably always comes off, either when I'm brushing my teeth or chomping down merrily on some snack. Which means that for every single month ever since I got my braces on (last July), he has had to re-bond back that very same bracket. Poor guy, I know.
So it turns out that he decided enough was enough, and commanded the assistant "Ok I think we should try bending. Get me the --- (whatever it is, I don't recall since I'm not well acquainted with dental terminology)." In layman terms, what the poor victim gets is lots of metal plates and cylindrical thingeys and cement-like glue stuck and wrapped all around the problematic teeth, on all four sides. In visual terms, just imagine the tooth being surrounded by metal plates all around and white cement used to fill in all the gaps and on top of the crown, pretty much like a boxed-in oval. The process itself was nerve-wrecking -- I couldn't see a damn thing since the action was taking place in my buccal cavity (i.e. the mouth), but what I'm guessing from the feel is a metal plate being shoved between the problematic tooth and the preceding one and then bended to wrap around the tooth, before securing the plate with glue and what-nots. I use the term "shoved" very literally too -- the plate is definitely thicker than the gap between teeth, so Mr. Dentist was supporting both my head and jaw and wedging the plate in all the way till it hits the gum -- if it doesn't go through by brute force, he'll make you bite down on the pellet to force it through. So imagine the victim (in this case, the dear 'fortunate' me) going through the same process twice on both the upper and lower jaw. Talk about double whammy! To top it off, the process causes a significant height difference between the processed side of the jaw, and the unprocessed side (i.e. chewing becomes a bitch since your upper and lower jaws can't fit together evenly).
The only 'comfort' (sort of) was that Mr. Dentist was very sweet throughout it all and kept giving apologetic "sorry, sorry"s every time he did something particularly unpleasant. I couldn't help wincing a few times during the process, and probably let out a couple of pained 'owwws' along the way (so much for trying to be a big girl about the pain, huh?). But ok, no accusing glares or anything because I am honestly very grateful to him for fixing my teeth, despite the numerous torture devices he has subjected me to. ;-)
Sis was supposed to show up at the clinic for moral support, but didn't even though I'd messaged her twice. So I figured she was probably too caught up in patient overload to reply, and decided to pay for dental and pop off to Vivo for a shopping trip. Turns out I was right, because she called me on the bus trip there to find out where I was, and started ranting about incompetent colleagues and having to guide her trainee noobie juniors through 1.5h of surgery (a process which she claims would not have taken her more than 10mins -- awww c'mon, the poor chap's only done one phaco before, whaddya expect?). I guess I really don't envy her job sometimes, despite the obvious side perks. Though it's cool for me since I get to hear lots of work stories and familiarise myself with all the medical jargon. ;-)
Anyway. Solo shopping was completely so-not-fun (I missed my sis, who makes the best shopping kaki ever -- we share the same unconventional interests, can read each other's minds, and get this: she pays for everything -- cool huh? =P), though I must say it has its admitted perks. Like the fact that I cater only to my and my own whims (sounds selfish, but it's true). So my (main) post-mortem of said trip is as follows:
- Mintmark & Co (Tried on the ring I was eyeing, but even the smallest ring size fell off my thumb, and they don't do customisation, so... that tells you how successful the ring-buying went. Guess I really have to go back and get the real deal from Tiffany & Co after all, except they are going to charge me a bomb for it. Ouch. Come to think of it, the curly-haired Tiffany saleswoman is probably real sick of seeing my face too.)
- Daiso (Got a pile of cheap Japanese snacks as usual. The crowd inside was unbelievable -- all bratty little secondary school kids who were browsing and lounging around and taking up unnecessary space but not buying! Rawrrr.)
- Nichii, Warehouse, Levi's, etc. (Customary clothes shopping. But since it's GSS, there wasn't much to buy and the sizes left were all HUGE, like size 16. ?!!! In the end I got a couple of tops and a pair of denim shorts.)
- Hypermart (For all the sushi goodness. Yum.)
- Pat's Oven (Wanted to get mixed nuts for my dad, but decided that he still had enough at home to last him a while more.)
- San Bookshop (One of my guilty pleasures, where I bought up a storm of trashy books as usual. No, I'm a romantic cynic, really...)
- Bakerzin (What else can I say? My sis loveeees the strawberry shortcake.)
By which time it was already 5pm plus, so I decided to call it a day and head home, bags and all. Initially the bus was empty (for which I was infinitely thankful), so I heaved a sigh of relief and chucked all my shopping bags (6 huge ones) onto the seat beside. Then the bus got progressively more crowded, and I was mentally preparing myself to have to (gulp) balance everything on my lap (no small feat, I tell ya). But what I wasn't expecting was for this total creep to insist on sitting next to me. There were still other available seats when he got on, but oh no, he had to gesture and plonk his butt down on the inner seat beside me. That's strike 1. Then he started fidgeting non-stop, stretching his arm out against the window, and leant his entire body sideways so that he could alternate between staring at me and looking behind him. That's strike 2. Then he started staring harder. Like, up and down and back again and repeat process countless times. I don't know whether he was trying to leer at my non-existent boobs or what (nice try you retard, I was wearing a tank top + a jacket over + my hair was covering the upper half of my body), but seriously, it got super uncomfortable for me. I was totally ignoring him, but it's kind of hard to ignore someone who makes your skin creep, you know? Arrrgh. That's strike 3. Aaaaand... guess what? He stank of stale rice. Strike 4.
(If only this were a case of three-strikes-and-you're-out. I'd have him booted off the bus faster than he can go "mummy".)
Doesn't he sound remarkably like a deranged lunatic who'd just escaped from a mental institution? He does strike me remarkably as one. And all the while my mind was going "You freaking creep. Shoots. Where's an escape when you need one?!!" -- the bus by then had gotten so crowded I couldn't even stand, let alone move to another seat. So it was a torturous process, waiting and praying and waiting for the bus to move faster towards my destination or for the creep to get off (it's just my luck that he refused to budge). Finally a good 8 stops down the road when passengers miraculously started getting off, I made a lucky escape and darted off top-speed towards an empty seat, pointedly sat down with my back towards the creep, chucked every bag down again to deter any potential seat-sharers, and whipped out my cell to call my sis. You can't imagine how relieved I felt when the bus reached my stop and I hurriedly hopped off, feeling a pair of eyes boring down my back. Phewww!
Thankfully night time was pleasantly uneventful (mundaneness never felt sooo good) -- grocery shopping with sis, dinner, games, and pillow talks. =) So that thereby concludes my diary of a freaky Friday.