i had a restless night of sleep, kept waking up to check the time. i finally set my alarm to 9am, but got out of bed by 8:30am to get ready. i left the house by 9:30am, cutting across harvard square to get to allston. i got there a few minutes early, and hung out outside to cool off before heading into the dentist office.
i chatted with doctor huang and his wife before lying back on the examination seat. he took a look, and said something about the tooth "moving" which didn't sound good. "what do you mean when you saying moving?" i asked. what i thought was normal is actually not a good thing. when a tooth moves that much, it means the roots have receded and the tooth is liable to fall out. that's what was causing the nerve pain. the solution: pull the tooth. doctor huang said it so matter-of-factly, at first i didn't think he was serious. but then he started getting his tools. "i want to think about this before you remove the tooth," i told him. he said i could eat without that last molar. the other option would be to do an implant. getting a root canal done on the tooth and then a crown would fix it temporarily, but over time the tooth would fall out on its own.
so whatever option i picked, the tooth would have to be pulled at some point. i asked doctor huang for a referral to the implant dentist. i wanted to speak with them before pulling out the tooth, that is if i can hang on that long. also the pain seemed to be lessening, i might have time to call a few other dentists. in the meantime, doctor huang gave me a teeth cleaning (paid for by the insurance).
i left by 10:50am. it took me 17 minutes to ride to the cafe for work. with my sister not working this week, it was a peaceful day. when my 2nd aunt showed up, it was another set of helping hands. today was busy but it didn't feel busy because customers were spread out across the whole day. i had some leftover beef noodle soup for lunch: i was afraid to eat it, but there was no pain from chewing or temperature, felt like thing were back to normal, though i could still feel a tinge in the tooth. i made a new batch of tea eggs followed by a new batch of taiwanese paocai. my 2nd aunt made some grass jelly soup and i had some after it chilled in the fridge.
close to 4pm it didn't seem very busy so my parents told me i could go home. but they needed a few things (baby cucumbers) from trader joe's so i rode to the fresh pond store and back in just under 15 minutes. only then did i finally go home.
when i got back i called boston oral & facial surgery. this was the same doctor i used back in 2015 when i had my first implant. implants are expensive, and i estimate this is going to set me back $4000-5000. implants also take time, adding bone dust, securing the implant, allowing it to heal, then having a crown down as the final step. anyway, i called and got an answering machine message. just my luck i call on the only day they're not open (but even if they were open, they close by 4pm).
i turned on the AC. not so much to lower the temperature, but rather to reduce the humidity. i turned it back off after about 1-1/2 hours.
lauryn came home today at 5:50pm. she didn't make dinner, but grabbed stuff from the fridge (probably a yogurt). i myself had an icelandic skyr for dinner around 10pm. even though my tooth doesn't hurt that much that i can eat solid food, yogurt was still the way to go, and i wasn't that hungry anyway. i ate while watching the world cup game between the US and the netherlands. the dutch scored first, i was rooting for them. US came back to score in the second half, and the game ended in a draw. portugal faces off against vietnam later tonight (3:30am), i expect them to win. that means the third game in their group stage will be decisive, especially for the US which will face portugal next. winner of that game will advance to the next round. netherlands will face vietnam, and not many expect vietnam to win.
i found out today that sinead o'connor had passed away. i can remember the exact moment in my life when i discovered her: it was january 24th, 1988, and her video "mandinka" premiered on 120 minutes. i was in my parents' living room and their tv was tuned to MTV. time basically stopped as i watched the video and thought to myself, "who is this woman?" bald yet pretty, strumming a shiny metallic guitar to a catchy beat. i didn't know what she was singing but it didn't matter, i was mesmerized. i'd end up getting her album "the lion and cobra" on tape. my 2nd favorite song from that album is "i want your (hands on me)". when she reached brief super stardom with "nothing compares 2 U", it didn't surprise me in the least. another favorite song of hers is "the emperor's new clothes." i haven't followed her career after that, but i can still recall down to the details the day i discovered her music.