Tuesday, October 17, 2006
I don't know about you, but I happen to think that I am a pretty good tooth brusher. Everyday, twice a day, and thorough. Maybe I'm a lazy flosser, but who isn't? But today, after my first cleaning in too long, I realized that I'm not as good a brusher as I thought I was. It was hell. I remember the last time I went to the dentist and that was hell too. I wonder if it has something to do with Finnish dentists - whose skill level is elite, but whose compassion and demeanor leaves a little left on the table.
Maybe it has something to do with the fact that my Finnish isn't up to "going to the dentist" level and the fact that the dentist's English wasn't up to the speaking English level that I prefer, so as I looked into the vacuum tube that is almost gagging me because it is so far down my throat, as I looked and saw a whole lotta red, I was thinking that this is one of the most miserable experiences I've had in quite some time (well, since the last time I went to the dentist a couple of weeks ago) and the worst part is I have to go back to the f--king place in a couple of weeks for the redo on my cavity.
And logic tells me that, if I were to go to the dentist more frequently, the visits wouldn't be nearly as bad. They would be more like a visit to Dr. Hamby when I was young. Although I do remember one time Tricia made a lot of fun of me because the nurse had said something like Ewww when she was cleaning my teeth. However, truthfully, I always thought that the nurse said something else and one of my older sisters was just giving me a hard time as they were want to do. But Dr. Hamby had cartoons, and toys and laughing gas. All the tricks necessary to make someone forget how completely miserable a trip to the dentist really is.
Okay, I had to get that off my chest. Onto other things. At this very moment, Karoliina is bowling with some celebrities. Two of the most popular gay men in Finland. One came out of the closet just this year and the other is still in, but the closet is made of glass kind of thing. Well, my point is that, Karoliina is a really bad bowler. But she's so bad, that she's fun to play with because she doesn't want to be bad, but there's not really anything that she can do to fix it. Everyone should bowl with my wife at least once, you won't regret it. But! That's the point here! She's so bad, that she's sure to make friends. And gay friends. We haven't had gay friends since we left New York. We miss gay friends. They're fun. In New York we may have had more gay friends than straight and we had a good amount of straight friends.
Other topics of note. I was invited to the Rokumentti Film Festival, www.rokumentti.com, in Joensuu in November. It's the second year of the festival and it's gained some notoriety. This year there will be a couple of American filmmakers at the festival. They have a movie, American Hardcore - about the heavy metal scene between 1980-86. The organizers invited me to help host them and to mediate a discussion or two. I'm pretty excited about it. It's always fun to go back to J-town, and even more fun when the reason is for a Rock n' Roll Film Festival. And even more fun when someone else is paying my travel and putting me up in a hotel, and maybe a wage.
Other than that I can officially say that the winter is at the doorstep. It hasn't come in yet, but most of the leaves are already on the ground. The sun hasn't come out in weeks, and when it does it's only to peek around the corner. And it's getting dark pretty early. 6:30 was darkness falls on Helsinki. November looms ominously. I hate November almost as much as I hate going to the dentist.
Maybe it has something to do with the fact that my Finnish isn't up to "going to the dentist" level and the fact that the dentist's English wasn't up to the speaking English level that I prefer, so as I looked into the vacuum tube that is almost gagging me because it is so far down my throat, as I looked and saw a whole lotta red, I was thinking that this is one of the most miserable experiences I've had in quite some time (well, since the last time I went to the dentist a couple of weeks ago) and the worst part is I have to go back to the f--king place in a couple of weeks for the redo on my cavity.
And logic tells me that, if I were to go to the dentist more frequently, the visits wouldn't be nearly as bad. They would be more like a visit to Dr. Hamby when I was young. Although I do remember one time Tricia made a lot of fun of me because the nurse had said something like Ewww when she was cleaning my teeth. However, truthfully, I always thought that the nurse said something else and one of my older sisters was just giving me a hard time as they were want to do. But Dr. Hamby had cartoons, and toys and laughing gas. All the tricks necessary to make someone forget how completely miserable a trip to the dentist really is.
Okay, I had to get that off my chest. Onto other things. At this very moment, Karoliina is bowling with some celebrities. Two of the most popular gay men in Finland. One came out of the closet just this year and the other is still in, but the closet is made of glass kind of thing. Well, my point is that, Karoliina is a really bad bowler. But she's so bad, that she's fun to play with because she doesn't want to be bad, but there's not really anything that she can do to fix it. Everyone should bowl with my wife at least once, you won't regret it. But! That's the point here! She's so bad, that she's sure to make friends. And gay friends. We haven't had gay friends since we left New York. We miss gay friends. They're fun. In New York we may have had more gay friends than straight and we had a good amount of straight friends.
Other topics of note. I was invited to the Rokumentti Film Festival, www.rokumentti.com, in Joensuu in November. It's the second year of the festival and it's gained some notoriety. This year there will be a couple of American filmmakers at the festival. They have a movie, American Hardcore - about the heavy metal scene between 1980-86. The organizers invited me to help host them and to mediate a discussion or two. I'm pretty excited about it. It's always fun to go back to J-town, and even more fun when the reason is for a Rock n' Roll Film Festival. And even more fun when someone else is paying my travel and putting me up in a hotel, and maybe a wage.
Other than that I can officially say that the winter is at the doorstep. It hasn't come in yet, but most of the leaves are already on the ground. The sun hasn't come out in weeks, and when it does it's only to peek around the corner. And it's getting dark pretty early. 6:30 was darkness falls on Helsinki. November looms ominously. I hate November almost as much as I hate going to the dentist.
// posted by Howard @ 8:17 PM 
