ran into a pt on the train. first time encountering in public (besides the diner across the street). kinda weird to interact out of the clinic context. still trying to figure out how to combat awkwardness. -__-

chinatown is smelly. maybe it's a deterrence for criminals to lurk around here.

6 and 7 are some of the funnest ages.

6 y.o. robert:
"i'm robert. my sister's name is angel. you know, like those things that fly in the sky."

7 y.o. angel:
"i like chris brown, trey songz, and justin bieber. i love justin bieber."

6 y.o. robert:
"i like eminem. justin bieber sucks. wait, i like eminem and michael jackson. michael jackson is the best. i hate justin bieber. he sucks."
"i wouldn't have ever known that michael jackson was my favourite singer if he never died!"

weirdos on the subway asking me to check their teeth

can't wear dental/tooth tshirts in public anymore.

gotta love septa:

dude: "so you work at the dental clinic?"
me: "yeah"
dude: "you a dental assistant or a student?"
me: "i'm a dentist."
dude: "and now you drinking a bottle of 40?" (pointing to my kleen kanteen)
me: "yeah"
dude: "how long you gotta go to school to be a dentist?"
me: "eight years man"
dude: "can you look at my teeth? what do you think about them?"
me: "you're wearing a partial denture."
dude: "that's amazing! i'm wearing a partial! how did you know?" [high five]
me: "coz i went to school for eight years"
dude: "i got my teeth knocked out coz i was sitting on a newsstand next to the bus stop. the effin' bus driver was flirting with some girls, and wasn't looking where he was pulling in, then opened the door, and the door slammed into my face, knocked my teeth out. then he drove off and ran over my foot."
me: "that's awful."
dude: "how long do partials last?"
me: "if you take care of the rest of your teeth, then they can last a long time. that's why you need to floss."
dude: "okay. and where are you from?"
me: "detroit area" (you betta recognize!!!!)
dude: "oh, i didn't know there were pretty girls in detroit."
me: "DON'T BE KNOCKIN' ON DETROIT WHEN YOU'VE NEVER EVEN BEEN THERE! YOU DON'T KNOW JACK!"

so, we've established some boundaries here. obviously i'm not from the community. word may have gotten around that there is a confused-looking 'dentista chinita' working in kensington. i'm not sure if he's bought my semi-fake story that i'm a 'city girl' from a badass city like the D. it seems he was trying to test me by seeing if i would buy into his friendliness, but now he really knows not to mess with me. now we know that we don't need to exchange names.

he recuperates and continues.

dude: "i'm a barber and i knew some people from detroit with ugly hair."
me: "yeah. whatevs."
dude: "so you're gonna go home to your husband?"
me: "yeah" (i hate lying, but, roommies, husband... close enough!)
dude: "he's very lucky."
me: "yeah"

finally we arrive at 8th street.

me: "i get off here. take care."

it's hot. i always think of 'do the right thing'. hehe.

things i've learned about the streets here:

-if your car is stolen and you ask the neighbours if they saw anything suspicious, no one is gonna snitch. it's too risky.

-kids can put a slip'n'slide on the pavement.

-little girls know how to booty dance when running through the 'sprinkler'. (sprinkler = hose from the fire hydrant; no lawns means no need for sprinklers)

-grateful for air con

-there's this network of peeps who steal cars called 'chop chop' and they'll use tow trucks. then they can take the car to a warehouse, dismantle and sell all the parts, and no chance of getting yer car back.
me: "can't the cops find these things? come on!"
coworker: "there are parts of philly where NO ONE goes. come on!"

-pt DR told me that his teeth are jacked coz he got beat a lot, trying to stay out of trouble (off the streets), but had difficulty, having been born into trouble. gave me a little history about the bloods, crips, zulu, latin kings... etc. fascinating!

got paid to play soccer with my co-workers in the sun today. got smoked. i only learned to enjoy soccer for ministry's sake and fulfill co-ed intramural quotas. i was kinda regretting not playing softball instead because i love to hit things with bats. but, in honour of world cup season, soccer it was.

love staff retreats!

after play time, we talked about racial reconciliation, cross cultural communication and working together.

in other news, my coworkers got their car stolen (they're married) yesterday in the staff parking lot. i lent them my car until another solution can be found.
they have three kids 5 and under.

i think i can manage on septa for a while.

we spy on a street from our 6th floor window. today we saw 8 kids in a little kiddie pool all morning.
meanwhile, 20% show-rate today for our patients.

it's hot and humid in philly.

philly parking authority is pretty ruthless.

BUT, the employees are people after all.

-paid a meter until 5:18.
-had a little delay and allegedly arrived at 5:19.
-ppa man was in the process of taking down my plate number.
-he was in my way, so i said, "excuse me, i'm going to leave now."
-he gets riled up and says, "YOU'RE GOING TO DRIVE AWAY AS I'M IN THE PROCESS OF GIVING YOU A TICKET?"
-puzzled, i reply, "yeah?"
-he gives me a look of "don't you dare!"
-"what? it says 5:18!"
-"and what time is it now?"
-"it's 5:18!"
-"no way, go check the time on the kiosk."
-"5:20! and we've been talking for TWO minutes!"
-"no, we've been talking for one. meaning, you got here at 5:19"
-"yeah right! my cell phone says 5:18!" (i totally lied, coz i didn't even have my phone on me)
-"do you want me to give you a rescision?"
-"i have no idea what that is, but you're not giving me a ticket!"
-"basically fill out this form..." blah blah blah.
-so i'm filling out a slip of paper saying that the ticket has been rescinded because i got to the car before the ticket was completed. i'm smirking, and he goes, "WUT?!"
-"you know, people told me that philadelphians were REALLY MEAN. but i will tell them otherwise."
-cancels my ticket and chides, "are you HAPPY now?"
-"yup! and you know, i would TOTALLY have done the same for you. hmmph!"

-love turner's bakery.

-watched about 50 cell phone photos from raul. "este es mi amor", "este es mi amor cuando era joven", "este es mi nieto", "este est mi otro nieto", "este es yo con una de mis nenas", "este es mi presidente" (he took a photo of a photo of barack and had it on his phone in the line up with all his family members). hahaha.
anyway, he shared that he tells his wife of 46 years that she is beautiful every single day, and that when he is sad she erases all his sadness. or something like that. my spanish comprehension of old men is not so great.
lastly, his 92 y o father passed away last week and they will have the funeral next wednesday. he was choking up. and we paused in silence and remembrance and celebration.

-j came in for a filling. and then told us his life story. laid off 5 mos ago and it's been difficult. haven't seen dad for 12 years. dad had been imprisoned and then deported to home country. sentenced on drug charges. sentence has been prolonged due to fighting in prison. deported after fabricating story that he was married to his cousin, only to get into the states on her visa. oops. dad thinks kids are still little kids, has no idea his kids are grown adults now. he's trying to get tix to travel to see dad, but financially things are tight. these are hard times.

had my first philly water ice (wudder ice) from happy donut during break today.
it was good but i can no longer fathom how people eat more than 8 oz coz my sugar tolerance has gone weaksauce.
calvin described it as "you're pretty much eating a cup of frozen sugar and high fructose corn syrup"... "but that's why it's so amazing."

blogworthy moments of the day

-jake shared at devotions about having a balanced prayer life. "just like having a balanced diet, you can't not eat enough salad, but then have too many milkshakes!" and my first thought was, "yumm.... milkshakes". anyway, i need a more balanced prayer life - being able to pray aloud, not just to prove to others that i can pray eloquently, but to share my prayers w/ others. and being able to pray in my prayer closet, for an audience of ONE.

-got a $2 milkshake at turner's bakery during lunch! marvin turner is cool.

-l came for her final fillings and brought her little tykes, j and j again. the first few visits were def stressful. and i journal-ed about how the military should do training exercises with sounds of crying babies in the background. anyway, today was easier, or i'm just numb to it all. girl j cried for the first 20 minutes of the appointment. so i got a late start. but we try to be accommodating here in the name of christ. ay dios mio!

-my first month here, i kept a running list of interesting patients, so that i could capture the immense diversity of humans in this city. anyway, i had an entry about "35 year old grandmother". but today the record has been beaten. and my patient mc, became a grandmother at age 33, because she had her first daughter at age 13. now her children range from age 5 through 20-something. her 17 year old has a 6-month bun in the oven. she's hot too.

-an aside, yesterday ada's 8 yr old patient was wearing a bra. i guess i had seen that during my lifetime before, so i shouldn't have been so taken aback. but it had been awhile.

-another aside, mc's entire family comes to our clinic because she's our biggest fan after we helped her overcome her years of dental fears. although she still likes to moan and groan during the entire time that she's here. so mc's mom came for some exts and monin recognized the family's name. mc's sister was the 'talk of the school' during monin's high school years, coz she ended up marrying the gym teacher. i guess she was a mature junior. and he was a young gym teacher. 20 years later they're still married and in puerto rico.

-now i feel like a tabloid.

-i met l for the first time. he came powerade in hand. and a ton of cavities. go figure. his eyebrows were nicely arched. he plucks them himself. of course i only know these things because i asked him about who does his brows. for some reason i think being a dentist and looking at people's mouths makes me privy to all sorts of personal info, like, people's fav tattoos, relationship drama, gang affiliations, and the answers to a lot of "why?".

-i'm, like, an unsolicited therapist.

-last patient of the day seemed like a normal-looking little boy with generic black features, but then at the very end when he took off his sunglasses, i noticed that his eyes sparkled and he had curly eyelashes. and i wanted to oogle at the adorable-ness. but instead i lectured him about eating too much candy.

-now i feel like a party pooper.

-chris came to k&a today. he's in jennie and john's small group at renewal, just finished m1 year at jeff and part of the smi team in philly. smi is tenth presby's 'summer medical institute' that trains pre-health and health professions students for medical ministry.

-kyungmin went on smi in texas a few years back and i must have sent her something like $20. as a result i've been on smi and tenth presby's mailing list for years. i didn't realize that all these things were based in philly until way after i moved here. the world is too small.

-backed out of my parking space and because my FL tire has been leaking the car lowered onto the parking block. so the bumper caught onto the block and the L side totally got dismantled. i was about to leave but decided i should get out of the car and check it out. indeed, the L side was dismantled. i was hoping that i could bend and snap (ooh, 'bend and snap!'...) it back into place and hopefully NOT have to do something like tie it together with string. within a couple of minutes 3 neighbourhood kids (prolly ages 7-9) came over to take a look.
little girl 1: "your bumper is falling off."
little boy 1: "looks like your bumper is loose. you should say that someone else caused it."
little girl 1: "do you know how to fix cars?"
me: "nope. do you?"
little girl 1: "nope. but my grandpa does. except he's in the house playing video games right now."
me: "okay. i think i can just bend it back together."
little boy 1: "it's loose on this side, but it won't fall off or anything coz it's tight on this side."
i wonder how many times little boy 1 has seen cars fall apart in 'the ghetto'. enough to know which bumpers will fall off and which ones won't!
little girl 1 and little girl 2 exchange secrets.
little girl 1 helps me push the bumper into place.
all 3 kids run off.

-i'm pretty unfazed by the situation. no one jumped me. no one harassed me. my car is still running by God's grace.

-during micronesia missions training my car was broken into (despite being parked in the michigan blue lot next door to DPS). bastard stole my clothes, vitamins and cell phone charger - prolly threw them away. and then [prolly unintentionally] put our missions puppet face down into the pile of shattered glass in the back seat. needless to say it was frustrating and an inconvenience. God challenged me with the thought that i was thinking of doing inner city work, but i had a freak out moment because someone broke the window of my car. i needed to let go. and then hold loosely.

-sometimes i confuse holding loosely with not holding at all, and it gives me an excuse to be lazy and skirt stewardship responsibilities.

-at any rate, this is a wake-up call to finally get all 4 tires replaced (i've been filling up the air on the front tires every other month since early 2009)... hahaha. woe is me and my money. and woe is my car.

-whoa.

saw prostitute for the first time walking to the parking lot after work today.

every time i'm in the security line at the airport i think "THEY are winning the war on terror."
THEY have us so terrorized that we are paying money for TSA posters and informational videos, and extra staff and imaging machines, and extra protocols and policies, not to mention people to research these protocols and policies and then evaluate them, and then consultants to make pretty powerpoint presentations about them.

anyway, i refuse to be terrorized. and i will spitefully say that i like this - travelling light, having clothes and toothbrush waiting for me wherever i go, and not having a lot of


baggage.

drove through hunting park on saturday morning for the first time. starting to get to know north philly a little better. thankfully roberto and lauren are taking care of my car this week while i'm in michigan.

went to guh's graduation this afternoon. the speaker was the surgeon general - dr. benjamin. i had read about her in reader's digest a few years ago. i was hoping to be very inspired. she wasn't a very engaging speaker. but it's nice to hear all these people say things like, 'give back to the community' and 'think about the people'. so hope i can go back to work on friday a little more motivated, almost typed mortivated - like mortified and motivated, or something - and a little more compassionate.

murder around nolibs/fishtown yesterday. makes people a little more antsy and on edge. people recommend i carry around some mace or other defense. when i witnessed the live fight on monday, it was pretty nauseating. ufc on tv doesn't quite give me that same visceral feeling.

koolae 2

went to koolae again for lunch, and ordered the same exact thing coz nothing else seemed all that appealing. stuck around to talk to soo, and introduced myself, so now we can be friends. learned why no one sits in there and goes back to work. because i smelled of greasy diner food the entire afternoon.

koolae

koolae is the diner across the street from work. it's run by a korean lady named Soo or Sue. dunno how she spells it. i went over for lunch today and while i was waiting the non-korean man next to me finished up his food and then on his way out exclaimed "kam sah ham nee dah!" i was impressed.

and chuckled to myself.

coz i remembered how a lot of koreans like to teach non-koreans how to speak korean even if no one asks them.

eventful weekend:

-friday went to julie's. she made chili and corn bread. she has two kittens so kinda had a sniffly visit. julie, rachel, katie, susie, kelly and i watched 'the blind side'. it's my 2nd time this month. first time i watched while snoozing in and out on a plane, with no audio. then the first real time was with roger and pauline, and all three of us are talkers. so we had lots of commentary. these girls were not talkers, so i felt awkward if i ever said anything during the movie. i guess it was good to process things in my head and catch some subtleties that i didn't catch the previous times.

-saturday went to play in nyc with joanna and we walked the bklyn bridge. arrived in the morning and had my quiet time at dunkin donuts. met up w/ jo and ate at grey dog's cafe for lunch. it's run by michigan folks. i was wearing a michigan shirt and hoped to get a discount. i sort of did. we caught up w/ funglin and frank for a brief moment at shake shack. then went to bklyn for this flea market in williamsburg. sat around the bklyn public library, people-watched at a park, then fish for dinner. 6 fresh oysters and a glass of house wine for $8. sante! then ran to the bus back to philly.

-sunday church at liberti. talked about... this is taking me a second to recall... healing the blind man on a sabbath! we need spiritual healing. had to think about jesus' statement "if you are blind then you will have life" or something along those lines. took me a while to GET IT. still dunno if i REALLY get it yet. basically i must acknowledge my blindness in order to be saved. because i need to acknowledge my need for a saviour.

-sunday afternoon sort of got more packing done.

-sunday evening i went to OCTO with alice and met her friend aphrodite but sounds like efrediti, as they were visiting their peeps clay and lisa, which turned into a large party w/ rob, henry, kobe, catherine and another dude whose name i didn't catch. anyway, it was awesome coz it was right on the water (delaware river) near the ben franklin bridge. so you can say hello to new jersey. and all the boats. but it was cool because i hadn't seen alice in 5 years. so we got to catch up now that she's a lawyer and working for the state department in d.c. travelling the world. and people call me doctor sometimes. lots of changes in 5 years! the 2nd best part was that it was a dance party with house music (a little funk music) and there were bboys and dancing babies.

-monday morning finished packing. had my quiet time at caffeination. said goodbye to rittenhouse. said goodbye to mimi and walter. moved to chinatown. went to penn's treaty park for a picnic w/ rachel, katie, melanie, scott, john, julie, shea, erica, aaron. got way too much sun.

-got back to chinatown and parked in the catholic school/church parking lot. i got out of my car. there was a latino man and a black man arguing. it looked like the latino man was there with some of his family selling produce out of a van. the black man was really angry and then punched the other guy in the face, who fell down, and then he started kicking him. out of, like, nowhere, three latino men came running and chased the assaulter away. he walked away and cussed at them for a while. i was assessing the situation, as to whether or not i should call the cops. but then the guy on the ground got up. i started walking back home and talked to one of the dudes and asked if they needed any help. he said, 'nah, he's straight'. so that was that.

-the reason why i had gotten way too much sun was because i went back to new apartment, picked up some food around the corner, ate a little and then vomited. not like food poisoning, i don't think. but prolly heat stroke or some kind of sun exertion. it was one of those keeling over/fetal position nights where ya just want to crawl into a hole and disappear. i thought i would have called in sick the next day for work, but woke up in time to move the car and felt okay.

-tried the closest chinese bakery this morning. she asked me if i just wanted ONE bun. and i said yes. somehow i ended up with THREE. my plan is to learn enough mandarin and canto in order to order food. maybe i can practice spanish with all the cooks. -_-

-went to work. was queasy all day. felt better after dinner. stomach problems, go away!

-this post is way too long.