Had my first visit to a Taiwanese dentist yesterday. Had been hesitant to visit one previously but felt it important to go more than the one time when we go back to ours in Seattle. Was reluctant to go basically due to prejudism as the term 'Chinese dentist' offers a sense of confidence on the same scale as would UN Peacekeeper or Iranian kosher hot dog. I guess only English dentist would be worse. I do see a lot of them around and the kids at school have as many braces as you'd see in the west, so had prepared myself mentally for the experience. I met a super-enthusiastic mom at school whose husband is one and operates a clinic downtown. She said he did his graduate work at Northwestern so his familiarity with dentistry that we are accustomed was calming.
Looked up their website and everything seemed sufficiently modern. Going in, the office was well appointed and charming in a Japanese style. The enthusiastic mom was there and gave me the royal treatment, even joining me in the x-ray room and during the exam, which was a bit over the top, but she obviously meant well and am sure she wanted to make sure I had a great experience so I would recommend to friends. And I totally do. As far as I could tell, their equipment was all new and state of the art. They took this 360 degree 3D image of my mouth from this rotating X-ray machine that I'd never seen before that showed all of my fillings, bone and gum lines, jaw symmetry, all displayed for us to review on a massive flat screen sitting in the chair. They were very proud of the machine saying that it was 'the best from Japan'. After the Turks telling us how much of their high end architecture projects were Japanese built, feel that I have been underestimating their manufacturing strength recently. The chair itself was deluxe...the funny thing about it was that it had a spit sink. Our dentist, who we have been going to for the last 18 years, had done away with them long ago and now only uses that suction thingy. I mentioned it to the mom and her dentist husband, and they laughed, saying that they knew that they are less common in the States these days, then said, "but you know how much the Chinese love spitting." We all had a chuckle at that.
After the exam, and the apparently universal recommendation that we use Sonic Care toothbrushes, admonishments about my problem plaque areas, and the raised eyebrow when I claimed to floss everyday, got a clean bill of health. Basic dental care is covered under National Health Insurance (TW's Obamacare), and from what I can tell, that includes cavity filling and scaling. Not covered was cleaning/polishing, and they "recommended" their three-step process of French design that included polishing with another cool new machine called air-flow, a fluoride layer and something else I can't remember. While the stereotype of the French is that they like it hairy and have a bathing regimen famously different than the States, their dental hygiene is considered neutral. Whatever, it was $90 bucks, figured at this stage that it was worth trying out, and appreciate that they have to make a few bucks outside the government subsidized part of the exam. By law, there are no hygenists and that work must be done by the DDS themselves. Was pleasantly surprised by the minimal amount of time he spent using that horrible metal hook thing to scrape off the plaque. I walked out feeling very clean and fresh and was super impressed overall. Maybe the best part was it was located downtown in a neighborhood I had never visited that was really cool. Got there early so took a stroll around and saw a bunch of interesting shops and tasty looking restaurants, including a Canadian place next door that sells poutine (gross, but so great with a couple of cocktails) and a Spanish joint with paella on the menu. We will be going back soon (next Friday actually).
Moving along...evvvvvvvryone seems to be doing the Facebook movie thing this week. Guess this is the internet generations 'do you want to see the slides from our summer vacation?' What's even more annoying are the sickening comments from friends about 'how beautiful you are', 'what a special family', etc. Yuck. You know you can create those so only you can see it? Of course, I've been leaving a snarky comment here and there, like comparing their movie to Paranormal Activity or A Clockwork Orange, etc...Betty says I won't have any friends left pretty soon. Then got to wondering, when did I turn into the 'get off my lawn' old man?
Thought about that for a couple minutes and then it hit me...at 42 years old. I remember the day precisely. Was at a Mariner game taking a leak and this little kid saddles up next to me at the trough and lets loose a stream that could blast moss off the sidewalk (very NW euphemism). As I looked down at my camp shower power output I thought to myself, I used to pee like that, what the hell happened? At Chinese New Year dinner last week, we're sitting around the table with Betty's uncles (getting wasted on some fine Single Malt) and there was a good 5-10 minute stretch where we were comparing notes as to how many times we wake up and have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Add to that, this week I had another bout of diverticulits (look it up if you dare, it's gross). It seems hardly a week goes by without hearing about a friend that has some bizarre disease (or worse) or that their kids are applying to/graduating from college (or worse). I can recall the days when it seemed like there was a friends wedding every other month, and out of nowhere, I have turned into my dad, complete with sagging earlobes. Fuck.
One thing that was able to cheer me up in a nostalgic kinda way is that I've been consciously thinking about lately is music. I got one of the mega memory iPods last Fall, the kind that holds 30,000 songs, and have dumped every note of music I have onto it. It is awesome...anything I want to hear in the palm of my hand and by hitting shuffle all songs, stuff pops up that I hadn't heard in ages or from an album that I bought and only liked a couple tracks, but in the shuffle format, come to newly appreciate. This week, spent some time creating a playlist...needed one to play in the car/home with the family around that was sufficiently groovy for me, but leaves out the abrasive stuff that everyone else hates. To do so, you have to go through the library, sampling things here and there to make sure they fit the mood. What I have always felt, but was overwhelming as I sifted through the background music of my life, was how a song can evoke such vivid memories of people, places or times in life. Most are wonderful, a few are sad, some just are, with a few kinky ones in there for good measure. I have over 10k songs in my player and was overwhelmed with these rememberances. Smells will do that too, and foods can evoke a memory from time to time, but something about music does it big time for me. When the memory loss starts to settle in, and judging from some of the other recent events mentioned above, that could be pretty soon, am hoping that these little flashbacks are so ingrained in the neural network that my minds photo album is worth reviewing. As these thoughts are running through my mind, I'm listening to the Adam Carolla podcast on Tuesday and he goes on a jag about the Michael Martin Murphy classic Wildfire. Has to be close to 40 years since I heard it, and was immediately transported to the Mayfield carpool in 1975. I was about 10ish, and one of the girls in the carpool, Lisa Jeffries, who was in high school at the time, used to ride horses. Some days she'd get in the car wearing her jodhpurs and riding boots. That look was a slight underdog to win the Oscar in the Classic Hotness category, but edged out Catholic School Girl uniform in a minor upset (the rest of the nominees were Nerdy/Hot Librarian, 6-foot Asian Nurse, and Mary Kay Letourneau). Wildfire was super popular on the AM dial at the time and I always associated her in that outfit whenever it came on. When Carolla played it the other day...I could see her galloping down to the car like it was yesterday. Giddy-up
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