ofadam.com

Chapters maybe? Let’s try.

Chapter One: “Converting time to money.” A rather boring chapter, so I won’t go into it.

Chapter Two: “Geriatric pizza.” This was somewhat unnerving. My family first went to Cici’s Pizza, but this was extremely full. We went to Talliano’s instead. None of us been there before; and it was the elderly hang-out of west Wichita. Over half of the customers there were greying.

Chapter Three: “Definitely American.” I built and watched “American Wedding” today. As you might know, it’s the 3rd movie in the “American Pie” line. The first two were alright, but I think this one might have been unnecessary. The characters, especially Stiffler’s, are getting trite and just too damn predictable. That’s the best way I can describe the movie… sometimes funny, but predictable.

Chapter Four: “We have too much money.” While watching TV this evening, I heard noises outside. I went outside, and saw a huge fireworks display in my backyard. It looked to be coming from the clubhouse in our neighborhood, and I could also hear music and cheering. I’m assuming it was a wedding, but good grief, that must have been expensive. This show was just as good as the fireworks downtown, so it must have cost a freaking lot. Very strange.

Chapter Five: “Ahhh.” After the sneak, I noticed lightning on the horizon. Driving just north of Wichita, I parked my car in an open area and tried taking photos of the lightning. Using digital for this is not great at all, but it was all that I had at the time. The fresh air was wonderful, and I wish I could have shared it with someone. Alas.

Hard to believe it’s August.
Celebrate the good month of July with a new photo gallery!

Listening to: Beulah – Landslide Baby

I sit down in the dentist chair. The assistant makes small-talk, while we wait for Dr. Dold to come and fill the cavities. He comes, decides to just fill the good-sized one on my upper right molar, leaving the one on my wisdom tooth for some later date (if at all). He swabs some juice onto my gums. Then we wait; dentist, assistant and I. It was comical in some ways, all of us just thinking of other things we’d rather be doing. Then it was time for the fun.

When I was young, I would imagine the needle being smallish. One time, I decided to turn around and look. It’s not small. In fact, it’s amazing that the needle doesn’t poke right through your gums. The “novocaine”, or lidocaine/marcaine/articaine used by most dentists, is injected in several spots to block certain nerves in your gumline. All of these different anesthetics are members of the cocaine family. Meanwhile, I sit very still, while the dentist shoves a needle into my gum, over and over and over. Then it’s time for the other side, with the same process repeated. He used two different needles, most likely with two different drugs. I’ve heard that it’s better to do it slow, as the anesthetic has more time to take effect while the needle goes in… and I think this might be right. I do have to thank my dentist’s steady hands.

The right side of my mouth, and parts of my face start going numb, and he begins drilling. He can usually use the KCP (or Kinetic Cavity Preparation) machine, but he couldn’t this time. I feel nothing, but there is something much worse. The smell. I don’t know for sure, but I believe that the drill spins so fast that it starts burning the tooth material as it drills, creating this stench that just isn’t right. The smell of teeth burning. He uses two different drill bits, and after a few minutes of this, stops to check his work. He seemed to have drilled quite a large part of my tooth away, then rubbed some material on the tooth with a swab. Green, blue, and maybe even red goo was applied to the surface, and a strange “light-wand” was used to harden the tooth-colored filling. After several rounds of goo and curing, I was done.

Honestly, this much be a million times better than my parents had it when they were little. After all, they didn’t have “light-wands” and special goo that hardens into a tooth-like substance. And this was certainly not my first painful dentist procedure. But I still get the impression that dentistry is behind the other medical fields. Maybe the teeth are just not as advanced as other areas of the body, requiring less technology to do the job well.

My mouth, including my cheek and even half of my nose, was numb for a few hours afterwards. I’m just glad I wasn’t supposed to smile at work, or flare my nostrils; both impossible.

My wisdom teeth have another 6 month lease. Good for them.

Jerod came upstairs at work today and told me I had a visitor. The older man from this entry came to give me my money back. He seemed just as flighty as before, and it was actually attracting a crowd of half a dozen people in the lobby. He gave me 5 dollars, placed in the palm of my hand during the handshake. Then he was gone.

As if this wasn’t enough strangeness, I was eating a late dinner in the food court. Out of the corner of my eye, I spot Krister and Amber walking around in the mall. I rush over to them, and gave Amber her original $2 investment in the old man, plus $3 “in interest.” Life is interesting.

At work, I trained a new projectionist. I don’t mind training people, and I honestly think I have a knack for making things simple to understand. I also finally got my own pair of 3D glasses.

What do I see?

P.S. Dentist appointment tomorrow, to fill two cavities. I’m sure he’ll pester me about my wisdom teeth also. This means war.

I did some secret shopping with Steve today… and a big happy birthday to his woman Camille. I also picked up a boxed set of Onion books for extremely cheap.

Carrie and Leslie came to Wichita… we ate and shopped. It was good…. and they brought me a present from Vincent. He had his parents mail him stuff from France, and then gave them as presents when it was time for him to return there. Bonjour Vince!

(apologies… I was lazy and used my webcam)

I thought I had more to say… but there is an enormous amount of caffeine surging in my body right now. All blamed on the TEA from Starbucks… I got the largest size.

P.S. Tell me what I should be doing here…. long stories or smaller, more frequent entries? And do we like the daily photos? Speak now, or forever hold your peace.

I wanted to see “Chicago” very much, so I made phone calls to several people trying to organize something. Krister and Amber agreed to see the show with me, and he headed downtown to try to buy half-price tickets 2 hours before showtime. It was sold-out. WHAT?! This was the 7th performance, and it had been sold out since last Wednesday. Dejected, Krister met me at the mall, where I had just gotten a haircut. I know, it sounds rather mean to make him to the dirty work, but it really was for everyone’s good.

You see, my hair had begun to develop an “early mullet.” So promptly after work, I ran over to the haircut place in the mall, where I got it cut. The hairstylist at first seemed to be a bitch, and at the end, I realized that this was fairly accurate. The important thing is that she was cute, my age, a free-spirit (was from Oklahoma, but ended up in Wichita via a random roadtrip), and cut my hair in 10 minutes.

Krister, Amber and I managed to rush downtown in time for the ticket lottery at 6:30pm, in which several hundred people wait and listen for their numbers to be called. Number 005 was not lucky at all, leaving us to wait 40 minutes with no tickets. We did meet an older man, who I will now discuss.

This man was nice enough, waiting along with the rest of us for extra tickets. He stayed until the very end, hopeful that he would be able to see the show. He was eventually given the chance to purchase a $34 ticket (a good deal), but he desperately told the ticket man that he had only $32, and that if the ticket man could loan him 2 dollars, he would buy the ticket. Amber felt really bad about it, so she handed him two dollars. The older man was ecstatic. He told us how he was a piano player at a hotel piano bar in Old Town, and that we could come there to collect our money. “I’ll buy you an Ovaltine, dear, but not everyone,” pointing to Krister and I. Ovaltine is, as everyone knows, expensive. But by this time, a crass middle-aged woman stepped in front of him and gobbled up the rest of the free tickets. The older man didn’t realize this until it had happened, and he seemed heartbroken. He gave us our money back, and we were getting ready to leave. But the older man stayed put, still not giving up hope. We handed him the two dollars again as we left, with him giving us numerous promises of visiting me at work the next day to give me my money back. Too bad it wasn’t my money, and too bad I won’t be working tomorrow. I hope he got in.

Defeated, I drove us around for a while, finally settling upon IHOP for food. Stuffed to the brim, we managed to make it back to Amber’s, where we watched TV and dozed. Thank you to both of you; we should do that more often.

Katie Ludlow called, and I met her and her boyfriend Rob at Starbucks. Over black iced tea, I enjoyed talking to both of them… we sat outside. I hadn’t seen her in such an awfully long time… what a mistake that was. What do I have to show for today besides words? Two photos:

Krister playing with his favorite toy. My hanger.

Haircut! What the crap am I doing?!

P.S. Krister, don’t worry about the older man saying the phrase “retarded old folks like me.” Even though you made fun of the elderly.