the tufts dental periodontal resident named kim called me exactly at 9am this morning, to schedule an appointment. at the same time somebody was texting me on my phone, which i ignored for the time being. all was going well, until the resident tossed some numbers at me. confused at first, i quickly realized he was telling me how much it'd cost, $181 for the consultation. my mother had already paid $159 yesterday to spend an hour traveling from floor to floor just to take an x-ray and for the dentist to tell her she couldn't do anything until my mother spoke with a periodontist first. but i thought the referral was free, and i even asked the receptionist yesterday, who told me the same. "aren't referrals free?" i asked this resident. he said they changed the rules this april, and now they charge for inter-department referrals. confused and feeling a little bit like we were getting fleeced, i agreed to the appointment time (in 3 weeks), knowing we'd most likely cancel it if in fact we needed to pay again.

there would be more bad news this morning, when i finally checked the text. it was from my sister, telling me that my parents had a big fight, my father smashed some bowls, and then he closed the cafe and went home. i'm too old to mediate, and my parents too old that they showed know better. i couldn't really do anything, but later my mother opened up the cafe again and asked me to go to belmont to see what my father was doing. so i went, first watering the backyard garden before asking my father what happened. he wouldn't say anything, and i didn't really care to listen anyway, so i grabbed my mother's ipad (which my father confiscated from her) and returned to the cafe to return it before going home. i stopped by the community garden to water my plants.

i called tufts dental school billing to ask them about referral charges. the man i spoke to said there shouldn't be any charges, but also he wasn't sure, because they could've changed the rules. i then called the dental implant department, and the reception told me yes in fact they do charge if you consult with a different department. she asked if i'd like the dentist we spoke to yesterday to call me back to explain. i said yes.

i ate the seaweed wrapped pastry my mother bought yesterday in chinatown. it wasn't bad, would definitely eat it again. later in the afternoon i biked to market basket on my fuji with my backpack to pick up a few things (kleenex, condensed clam chowder, oyster crackers). the sky was a jumbo of exotic clouds. a rather annoying cyclist was waiting for me to leave so he could lock his bike on the end, when in fact there were plenty of empty spots.

for dinner i cooked up the canned clam chowder, shared some with GC, who was eating his leftover lunch because he and a coworker went out to lunch today. he asked me if he could get a receipt for the time he spent here, because he might be able to get some reimbursement from his alabama university. he told me he would be leaving for amherst tomorrow afternoon. later, after he checked the bus schedule leaving amherst for boston, he realized he made a mistake with his plane ticket; leaving at 9am on a saturday, there was no bus that could arrive in time. he didn't ask but i knew what he wanted, so i said sure, he could stay here an additional night on the friday before he was to leave. but in the back of my mind i knew i was being more than generous, because he'd decided to just pay me 3 weeks rent for the last month he stayed here (since he figured he was leaving that final week), when in fact he should've paid me the full amount because he'd actually stayed 8 weeks total.