Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Now I Don't Like You Anymore

I left work a couple of minutes early in order to get to the dentist on time.
When I went in for my check-up on Friday my regular dentist wasn't there, so another dentist was filling in for him. She was the one who decided that I needed to get a crown, but apparently nobody made any note of which tooth it was supposed to be for. When I got there today my regular dentist was back, and his assistant took an an x-ray of the tooth that they thought was the one.
After looking at the x-ray, the dentist asked if I knew which one it was supposed to be, as the one that was x-rayed apparently was not it. I said which one I thought it was, he checked it out, and another x-ray later my mouth was numbed (mostly; more on that in a bit), some impressions were taken, and he was hard at work grinding down the tooth I suggested.
My mouth was mostly numbed because after having had so much dental work done over the years I've built up something of a tolerance for/immunity to novacaine. I get all of the unpleasant aspects, like losing feeling in my face and lips, but the tooth being worked on never gets fully numb. Fortunately I've also got a pretty high threshold of pain, so while the experience was unpleasant it wasn't unbearably agonizing.
After getting the temporary crown put on I made the appointment to get the permanent one put in, and was on my not-so merry way.
On the way home I stopped at Best Buy to pick up Sin City on Blu-ray. The cute-ish and altogether too young girl who rang me up was totally on auto-pilot as she went through the motions of being pleasant and asked all of the required questions (Do you have a Rewards Zone card, credit or debit, etc.). It reminded me a little of working in the call center when I would just shut off my brain and unthinkingly repeat my opening script (Thank you for choosing America Online, high-speed technical support. My name is Jon. Before we get started I'm going to ask you a few questions. Let's start with your screen name. Will you spell it for me please? Thank you. And may I have your first and last name please?) over and over again.
After finishing things up she explained about the online survey listed at the bottom of the receipt and how filling it out could win me a $5,000 shopping spree, and circled the information with a marker.
When I got home I glanced at the receipt on the table and noticed that she'd circled the information with a little heart. I said, "Aww, how cute." Then I looked at it again and saw that it wasn't a heart, it had just looked like one from an angle, so I said, "Okay, fine; don't circle it with a heart. Now I don't like you anymore."
Then I laughed.
Then I laughted some more.
Then I questioned my sanity.
Then I concluded that there's really no need to question my sanity, as at this point I already know the answer.

1 comment:

Merlin T Wizard said...

The mere act of questioning one's sanity seems like an answer in itself.

Also, word verification: "slash"

Once upon a time that would have been innocent, at the most reminding me of the ex-guitarist of GNR. Now, thanks to the Intarwebs and TR's FFF, that word is forever tainted.