"It's not like you killed someone" OR Killing me softly from the inside out
Here's the rest of last week... hopefully finally catching up.
Monday: I drove up to BR. I had a lot of time to think about what was about to happen. I also drove up to the B Rizzle without stopping, which is something I don't think I've done since I moved here. I was going to be late.
"But late for what John?" you ask. Oh, dear reader, the greatest thing that ever happened to me: a Root Canal. Yeah. I needed a root canal, and I was gonna get it. It was on molar #13 if you're keeping score at home (that's the upper left side). To be honest, this was a long time coming, and I was kind of excited for it to happen. Am I psychotic? Partially. But here's my story. Right before I graduated, I had some dental work done on the upper left side of my mouth. It was just a filling, but it made that side of my mouth feel weird. So weird, in fact, that I stopped chewing on that side of my mouth. I had thought it was just that the filling was done "wrong," making that weird feeling. Turns out, that dentist probably accidentally cracked another filling, allowing decay to get into an already weak tooth. The OTHER tooth was what was causing that weird feeling, and it's the one on which I needed the root canal. Make sense? So I was excited to be able to eat on the left side of my mouth again. Plus, I kind of wanted it to hurt. I'm not gonna lie. Something inside of me wanted to prove to myself that I could put up with that amount of pain. The most terrifying story my dad has ever told me involves his first (yes, I said "first") root canal. It happened in the 70s and it sounded like that dentist used the most archaic tools available to a dentist. And my dad made it sound like he sat in that chair longing for his own swift death. I was prepared for a lot of pain. Little did my father tell me that a lot of innovations have happened since the 70s... and a root canal now hurts very little. The only part that hurt was after he had "opened" the tooth up, but before he gave novocaine to the inside of the tooth... That's when I felt it (briefly... for less than a minute). I can't imagine how horrible that would have been without novocaine. I got just a taste of it... and it was shockingly painful.
Fear not, dear reader... for I wasn't in that pain for long. The doctor gave me novocaine inside my tooth and I wasn't feeling anything after about a minute. And in the "too cute for real life, this shit should only be in movies" category, both my parents took some time off work to be in the waiting room for me when I came out. They just wanted to be there, I guess. Yeah... too cute for real life. We all then headed home... and my mom went and got some stuff from Taco Bell (soft enough for me to chew). Then, after dinner, both my parents went back to work, and I took a nap. I must have been stressed out that whole day because my eyes were KILLING me. I've never felt an eye strain like that. My mouth was still numb, so that was fine, but my eyes hurt so bad that I had to sleep it off. Weird, huh?
Tuesday: Morning I woke up with my folks before they went to work (we're talking like 6:45 my time) and ate breakfast with them. Not to say I was disappointed, but this was the first time I've been home when my folks didn't at least give me twenty bucks just for making the trip. I guess they figured they paid for my damn root canal, or something. But I was counting on some money to go treat myself for enduring the oral procedure. Yeah, I was going to go to Best Buy. I didn't get any money from them, but I still went to spend it. I stopped at a Best Buy just West of the 196/94 interchange. I actually don't know what the town was called. But I do know I went in there for one thing, but ended up getting three (I'm such an American). I wanted one certain CD: Mar De Noms by A Perfect Circle. But I ended up seeing another CD I've wanted for a long time, Songs for the Deaf by Queens Of The Stone Age, that was on sale. Then, after stupidly checking the XBox section, I saw that Red Dead Revolver (a game I LOVE) was also on sale for $20. Most XBox games that I like, I'll purchase for $20... that's pretty much as cheap as a new copy will get. Isn't that just like me? Going into a store to buy one thing and coming out with three?
The drive back to Chicago seemed pretty long, even though I had a fun stop for Best Buy craziness. I started thinking about something the dental assistant said to me about what a root canal really does. It is, effectively, a surgery to kill a tooth that would otherwise be too painful to bear. You are killing a part of yourself because it's too painful. And I thought to myself, "Wow... what doesn't kill me doesn't necessarily make me stronger." My tooth will no longer receive blood and the nerve will die... all in an effort to make my dental health progress possible. I think this is a very human response to pain. There are thoughts, memories, even people perhaps that we simply cut off from ourselves, just to move forward. It's the "easy" way out... and I'm always one to take the hard way if I can (something about thinking it makes me stronger in the end), but sometimes that's not just an option: the hard way is too hard. There was a time, recently, when I was prepared to cut someone and all the memories attached to that person from my mind, because I was unable to move forward. Fortunately for myself (and her, I hope), that wasn't necessary... and I'm better for it. But I finally allowed myself to understand that amputating a part of yourself is possible if it's necessary for progress... and all this from a root canal. Who says proper dental hygiene doesn't pay off?
Class Tuesday night went by quickly. I had to pitch an idea for an episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond" to my entire class. Afterward, my instructor (Mary Scruggs) said "Good story... good story" as she was collecting her thoughts to give me feedback. She said I really captured the domesticity of the show... and the fact that Debra is an outsider to the rest of the family... AND I was able to take something small and blow it out of proportion (like they do in that show quite often). She did give me some criticism about it, but nothing too devastating. All-in-all a pretty good class.
Wednesday: I went over to Adam's. We were going to write some sketches but, like we always do, we got more interested in doing something else. This time, we started off talking about how annoying it is to get friend invites from bands on MySpace. We were both so annoyed by it, that we decided to do something about it. We were going to create a band with shitty music and try to add all the bands that tried to add us (and piss off a whole bunch of other bands too). We went about "composing" some music using a program he has on his Mac called "GarageBand." I have already linked our shit to this blog, so go check out two of our songs. We're actually going along so quickly that we hope to have a full album of this shit by April. We're awesome. My favorite songs are "Gargling Arugala," an unnamed track that I pretty much wrote while Adam was doing other things, and a track called "Karen." The "Karen" track is, basically a guitar lick that Adam laid down for two minutes and a half minutes, and he handed me a mic and said "Sing something magic." So I improvised the lyrics to the song in two takes. It's called Karen because she was the first one to hear it after we finished it (she called me and just happened to be the first one besides us to hear it. "What are you going to call it?" she asked. "I don't know, what do you think?" I responded. "Name it after me," she said laughing. "Done." And done).
While we were lying down some phat tracks (but before "Karen" was written) I got a phone call from Mr. Mike Bohne. Long story short, The Euphonics are short one vocal percussionist for the recording of their new album... so guess who they called? This is a very easy game, because I basically already told you. But what a thrill to be able to record with the Euphonics again. It's going to mean missing one of my Conservatory classes... but poop happens. And, if I say "I'm not going to be in class because I'll be recording an album" I think people will understand. If not, fornicate them. I'm really excited... but hesitant to not make a complete ass of myself. It's going to take some extra work on my part, as I'm probably a little rusty (even though I warm up for shows by doing a little vocal perc [it loosens up the mouth, what?]). Exciting!
Oh... also on Wednesday night I had my first forty. I drank it all by myself... and it tasted like poo water. And then I went wee wee wee all the way home.
Thursday: Saint Patrick's Day started with a trip to Hooters. Yeah, I went there to meet Adam, his roommate Chip, and their friend Dave. I know all those guys pretty well... so it was really fun. It was my first taste of green beer; which Chip said looked like green Kool Aid. It was Miller Lite... and I probably would have preferred it to be green Kool Aid, because that stuff is delicious and Miller Lite is not. We then consumed a heaping mound of "three mile island" wings. It was the second time I've had the huge fifty wing thing from Hooters. The first time was when I was still working out (remember when I looked good for a month? That was that)... and it was hard to eat the wings because they were all fattening and I was used to eating stuff that's good for you. This time... much easier to stomach the mound of fattening lard-covered "chicken" wings. Mmmm... lardy chicken.
Thursday night I had class. It wasn't as exciting and awesome as the first class... but I got my Fernando back, so that was happy. It's odd that, after only a few weeks with someone who makes you laugh, you can get some kind of chemical reaction to seeing them... like it releases happy endorphins because you know you're about to laugh. I described that terribly... but you get the point. It's like how I felt after a few weeks with Keith... whenever I see him, I know I'm going to have a good time and laugh. So it was good to see Fernando again. And I was able to hit on his roommate through him (she's just this girl I met once... she seemed nice). Regardless, I did something in class I've wanted to try for a long time, but didn't feel comfortable enough doing until this class: I did a scene with an Irish accent. I figured, "St. Patty's Day... what the hell?" right? I actually think I did a pretty good job. I watched Boondock Saints earlier in the day... and I was ready for the accent. The scene sucked... but that wasn't the accent's fault. And I might have even impressed a couple people in the class. Fair play to me!