Wednesday, March 10, 2004 But can he bake a pineapple upside-down cake?
The ex-mate called today to let me know the people at Hopkins were lonely or something and trying to reach me at his number. He's on the way to Reno, Nevada to begin a new life as something like a mail-order bride. He's getting a free room in an apartment, and his lucky hostess is getting an activity partner.
It is wrong to laugh. At either of them. I mean, if it works, that's cool. I guess.
I'm writing this from the basement of my parents' house. I spent many childhood hours here, because I'd been brainwashed at an early age into thinking the sun would kill me within a few minutes. At day camp, I had to explain to the others that I wasn't wearing a shirt in the pool because I was an idiot, but because I was fragile. They didn't believe me.
I'm here to tell you, though, that today it all paid off. I was at the dentist's office this afternoon, and during the phase of smalltalk with the hygenist, she said I had nice skin. Then she went on to compare it to her own sun-baked skin.
As awkward as that was, it was a nice respite from trying to explain what I've been doing with my life for the past several years. The lady with her hands in my mouth, like the rest of the staff at that office, remembers exactly what I told her I was planning to do two or three years ago, when she was last sluicing things things along my gumline. "Weren't you going to take time off school and go on a roadtrip?"
"Um, yes?"
"Where'd you go?"
(I have no idea what lies I've told this woman in the past, and I kind of resent having to remember them.) "Uh, Florida? Maybe?"
Then she berated me for not replying in more detail. Then for not flossing deeply enough.
Years ago, I found out that the boy I was dating at the time went to the same dentist. We decided that we could never tell them the connection, because if we ever broke up, it would kill them. I think this is what people mean when they talk about the sense of community you get in the South. I think it is also what people mean when they talk about former KGB agents who are still trying to stay in practice.
posted by Frenz | 3/10/2004 01:46:00 AM
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