Well
wasn't I a jerk today... I was at the dentist and the new crown just
back from the lab didn't quite fit, there was a little gap, so it needed
to be recalibrated. The dentist is a perfectionist... I get the
feeling that a different dentist might have said, 'It's good enough',
but this woman was looking into the future and she wanted it to be
perfect. But this entailed some picking and poking
and remeasuring and even though she had offered an injection, I said,
no it's OK. (I didn't need one for the other tooth, right?). But it
was taking a long time and at one point the pain kept building and
building and I made a noise, threw up my hands, she pulled back and I
sat up and cursed a little, expressed some anger and frustration, not
at her of course, but how was she to know that. I sat back, looked at
her, said I was sorry and she started to cry, had to leave the room for a
minute or two. I felt like such a moron, ugly american child. When
she came back, I apologized profusely as did she. But more importantly,
I think that I got to the end of the period where I'll allow myself to
let off steam like that. It's too self indulgent, and I've had enough
of it. Lesson learned... let's not have to learn it again. We left on
fine terms, but I'm chagrined.
In other news, I played 2 and 1/2 hours without a break at the restaurant last night, I love it so much. The most interesting encounter was with a table in front of me, where I overheard something about winning a race. Since there was a marathon in town this past weekend, I asked if that's what they were talking about, and sure enough, one of the women had won the half marathon. Her name is Brooke Wells, she used to run for Cal in the early 2000s, then switched to the marathon and is right up there as an Olympic Trials qualifier. Hey, i'm a track groupie, so it was interesting to talk with her. And naturally I had to sing my song, 'Track Town USA' for her party. And I also embarrassed her by announcing into the mic that we have the half marathon winner here, Brooke Wells from the USA. Meetings with semi famous people...
Tweaked my shoulder a bit between the yoga class and the working out in the swimming pool... gonna skip a day and relax. Not a bad idea since I hardly slept last night, got just a few hours for some reason... so maybe just give myself a day to chill out, get a massage and not accomplish anything. (but I do want to work on some music, so I will). And this evening there is a birthday party for Noi, who owns Dash Restaurant and I think I'm invited to play for the party. I'm gonna offer to play for free and happily so, I owe her. (and of course if she insists on paying me, I'll refuse.. (once). Ah yes the subtleties. Sure there is a part of me that wants to keep getting paid. In the past week I have actually earned all of my keep on the road. That's quite a good feeling to be here without having to go to the bank and extract money. Some kind of accomplishment. (and Dash is the reason why this is so, by and large).
And in the category of 'interesting people', I'm pretty intrigued with this 42 year old guitarist named Pavel. For one, he's a great player, plays a stratocaster, can rock, can swing great soloist, is funny at the microphone etc, but what's interesting is his history, which I know only the outline of. Born in Chile in 1972, parents were communists, and on the wrong side of history, as the Allende regime was overthrown by the CIA backed Pinochet thugs in 1973, and the communists were the ones who got 'disappeared'. There was something about them hiding out in the French Embassy and eventually making their way to Moscow. Pavel grew up in Sweden after that, so here's this Chileno musician with a Russian name who speaks Spanish, Swedish and English. And he's nice. He's been jamming with a dour French bassist, Cristof, who is apparently leaving town soon, and I think I might want to make some music with him when he's freed up. He would kill on my tunes. We've played some already, and it's a good fit.
OK, I hung out writing long enough to definitely miss the yoga class... yay, feels like the right choice. Back to the dentist at 2:30 and yes, I'll take the injection thank you, and I apologize again for my immaturity. And on we go...
