noah and jeremiah!
noah went first. he's from the bronx, which is why he's a ny jets fan. brother jeremiah is from philly, which is why he roots for the eagles.
noah did well. he wants to be a dentist when he grows up. afterwards i gave him a sticker. now he thinks being a dentist is just about distributing stickers. coz after jeremiah went, he was like, 'here, i'll help you with the stickers!'

every time i gotta inject a screaming kid i feel like my flesh is wasting away. hopefully my spirit is simultaneously being renewed in christ jesus our Lord.
anyway, we had to ext some babies, and i had to do this LA thing. but i had to hold my laugh in coz JJ's yelling wasn't a "i'm in pain - how dare you do this to me?!! - i am so scared!" type of scream that most kids do. it was a "omg! this is so weird that i gotta yell like i'm on a roller coaster!!!" shout. then we told him how strong he was and how he's got big muscles. and then he flexed for us, even though he's 5. and then his brother, equally ham-like, flexed for us from his seat in the corner.
"look! i got biceps too!"
mwah!

i don't care if our assistant thinks he's sexy,
bloody tooth chip that snapped and flicked me in the eyelid was pretty gross.

sometimes i feel like working life stifles my creativity. this is what i realized when i went back to aa for easter weekend and attended good friday service at hmcc. aa was a place where the thoughts and ideas were flowin'. philly life has been - trying to get used to work, catching up w/ tv shows.

on tv: madonna says she doesn't let her kids watch a lot of tv coz it's all passive input. she wants her kids to be creative with active output. okay, she didn't use 'passive input' or 'active output'. i can't remember what she said exactly, but i like the way i coined it just now.

anyway, just went to this 1040 movie screening at penn. and i totally miss being on a college campus and receiving all this brain and soul stimulation. things in the urbs and the burbs are just a little crazy and mundane (respectively). the campus is where it's at!

i had no idea what this movie thingy was, but really, i just wanted to hang out w/ my friend Rita, because i haven't seen her in a month. and she seemed really compelled to attend this movie. i also happened to be supernaturally compelled to attend this movie because i was determined to finish my work no matter how long it took, but ended up not finishing it and hopping on a train, getting off at a upenn stop, not knowing how i would get back home afterwards, and then heading for the movie.

this thingy turned into a prayer/revival service, which my soul was missing and craving coz i haven't been to something like this in a while. i'm happy to praise the Lord that my left thenar muscle was touched by the Spirit and healed from an ache. (very important muscle for dentists).

today's 3 y.o. girl was screaaaming for dear life in the waiting room. wasn't sure if she'd make it to the dental chair. miraculously she calmed down and walked in, sat in the chair and seemed very curious. i asked her how old she was and she can only count to two so far. so 'dos!' it is!
her face was super feisty and it was kind of like dealing with combustibles. she was super cute with chubby cheeks and braids and cavities free teeth. but there was this tension in the air, as if at any moment she could burst into tears and not allow our dental visit to continue.
somehow i'm pretty sure that she was very aware that she had this kind of power. that she knew she could get her way. that she could manipulate the circumstances by playing her cry.
after the appointment i saw her reunited with big brother, who was just absolutely tormenting her. of course, he was having fun. she was totally annoyed and squeamish. little sister, my heart goes out to you!

patient who found christ in prison. he was labelled a 'career criminal', which he explained that once a person commits 3 felonies, they are considered a 'menace to society' and then have to do 25 years without parole. so he was in and out of jail. miraculously his 25 years was decreased and now he is taking bible classes and living/sharing the gospel. ptl!
he didn't know we were a christian clinic and we started talking about jesus. so he asked me if i was 'saved' and i said, 'yeah'. and elaborated, 'umm... i think everyone here is "saved". hehe.' and he concluded, 'ooooh, that must be why the lord led me here.'
anyway, next time he's going to bring me sermon cassettes from his church. cassettes? what's a cassette?

tv gave a tour to a group of westminster students today. it was like asian man invasion! threw me off guard coz i barely ever see that many of my peoples @ k and a!

5 y.o. D said 'bye' and then looked up at me like this:

8==== ( ^ ___ ^ ) ====8

so cute! so i picked him up and gave him a hug.

3 y.o. little brother X saw big brother and monkey see, monkey do, so he also said 'bye' and then:

8=== ( O __ O ) ===8

so i picked him up and gave him a hug.

and for a moment i wanted to take one with me. but then in an instant all 4 siblings were going off the wall. then i returned them to mom and said 'phew!' and went home.

new crush

he does what i say.
i hurt him and he endures to the point of numbness,
yet he still gives me a high five.
he laughs at my jokes.
he listens to me.
he perseveres.
he is unafraid to cry.
he contributes to my paycheque.
all women gush at him, but he knows that
i am the only one behind his million dollar smile.
i think this is love.

-----------------

stats:
single latino male.
age 7.
wears air jordan's.
likes sponge bob.

went out to pick up a slice of pizza for lunch. the thing i'm most scared of at k&a...

birds.

i've overcome fear of traffic, strangers, street violence, bad weather, panhandlers, large packs of teenagers.

it's gonna take some time to heal from getting pooped on.

of course, mentally, i know that it's silly.

but VISCERALLY, there's a cringe that occurs when stepping outside and i can't help but twitch my head back and forth scanning the skies and overpass for the avian enemy.

danger zone

people tell me to be cautious in north philly coz crime rate averages are higher.

so far the most pelligroso things that have happened:

-i tripped on the stairs at the subway.
-i got pooped on by a bird in front of the office.

coupla cute scenes from the train:

6 or 7 year old girl telling mom about school: "i'm not sure if i should play with josie. she told me if i don't play with her tomorrow, then she won't play with me for the next three days."
mom: "that's called blackmail, [matter-of-factly] sweetie, when she gives you an ultimatum so that she can get what she wants and feel like she has power over you."

--------------

old couple (maybe late 60s) hops on. we're still above ground at this point and are travelling alongside one of the main highways.
wife goes: "haha! i was right. look at the traffic, honey! i TOLD YOU we should take the train!"
husband: [slaps the wife on the arm] "volkswagen! i got you good."

love my new church even though i sometimes miss my old church.
sat next to a mom and daughter (prolly a teenager) today. they started coming out because they got a flyer as we were preparing to move into the new building. mom is an artist and had multi-coloured hair w/ nose ring.
wondered how differently i would have turned out if my mommy were a funky hipster artist.

maria g (among a million maria's) shared her testimony during friday's staff devotional. in a nutshell - father was an alcoholic, uncle was praying for family, father was drunk at a bar, heard a voice to leave, got freaked out, finally left, ran to uncle's house where a church prayer meeting was going on, father felt power of the Spirit, fell on his knees, mother saw that father fell on knees and followed just to stand by her man, family starts going to church, someone prophecies that father will go through difficult trial in life, at age 7 three of maria's brothers and mother are killed in a house fire.

maria wanted to share that she could have grown bitter and shaken after seeing 4 family members wheeled away in d.o.a. bags at the hospital. but she wanted to testify that by losing every thing, she gained more of Christ.

so after the entire room stopped crying, she praised the Lord for His faithfulness and purposes, we prayed for one another and the day, and then we went to work.

coming from behind me on the septa, i suddenly hear tupac's rhymes and beats, only to be interrupted by a "hi, mama!" by the 35+ year old man in the baggy jeans and phillies' baseball cap. wonder what everyone else hears when their momma calls.

today had the cutest 7 year old, from very very very very very difficult circumstances, but has a committed mother to raise her boys with the utmost propriety, like a ben carson story but with more difficult life circumstance. i asked him a series of questions and he replied with a series of uh-huh's. his mama gently corrected him by saying, 'honey, please use real words'. then he switched to a series of yes's. two minutes later i caught myself saying 'mm-hmm' and felt sheepish. heh.
eh.
wah.

today's devotion on peter's interaction with jesus. he denies him after following him from afar. we can't follow from afar.