Monday, August 14, 2006

I’ve been tired: a partial week in review (part 2)

Last Tuesday I went out in the afternoon to my doctor’s office in Long Island City in order to get my amber-colored teeth cleaned. I arrived quite early and decided to wait until it was time for my appointment rather than roam around.

The dentist who cleans me teeth is the polar opposite of Dr. Szell from “Marathon Man”: female, young, pretty, delightful, and effervescent. She is a treat to be around before the cleaning and she’s one of the best people to engage in small talk.

Unfortunately her lone similarity with Dr. Szell is her uncanny ability to work without Novocain and treat my teeth as she were drilling for diamonds. Thus, there is no small talk except for my yelping like a dog and her sternly telling me to “keep your tongue still”.

By the time it’s done I’m spitting out blood and gums into the sink while she regales my with tales of her moving to Long Island and her difficult commute. But I appreciate a job well done so I don’t complain to her. Rather I flirt lightly with her by noticing that she’s changed her hairstyle or asking where she gets her make-up (which accentuates her facial features instead of making her look like a clown). Thankfully the gleam in her eyes and pouting in her lips shows that she likes what I say; she’ll even play along and gets a kick out of seeing me blush.

Pity I don’t have the courage to ask if she’s single and that my next cleaning is three months away.

Nevertheless after the cleaning I had some time to spare so I took several photos:

Manhattan-bound 7 train leaving from the 40th Street/Queens Boulevard station.

Who need Payless when one can enjoy the bargain boxes of sandals at the 99 cent store.

It had been a few weeks since the blackout debacle in northeastern Queens and a week after an intense heat wave which was why this butcher's shop off Queens Bouelvard rented such a large generator.

Queens Boulevard and 38th Street towards Manhattan.

World War II-era fighter plane next to Aviation High School.

Flushing Meadows Park along Jewel Avenue while returning home on the Access-A-Ride.

(The rest of the photos I took that day will be put under a Flickr account very soon).

With that I had one more day out to go, Thursday; it would be the craziest day of the week.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Give it up. There is never, ever, anything normal about a dentist. You'd wake up one morning with fangs or something. Still, a boy is allowed to dream. Miss you!

Erwin C. said...

Hey now! Just because you're an "anti-dentite" doesn't mean I have to be one. (Get the reference?)

Besides, I enjoy way too much the opportunity to flirt with my dentist (even if she leaves my teeth bloodier than Dracula's)!

Thanks for reading (even if it's on a laptop, ha ha!)

Miss you too, and hope you're havin' a blast in South Korea!