chicago '08

I saw a new dentist last night, who is clearly an east coast native. he speaks like an upper-class bostonian and referred to sailing on more than one occasion. he bears a striking resemblance to the senior senator from massachusetts and even seemed a little tipsy. most concerning was the dentist's appalling disregard for OSHA regulations. at one point, when describing implanted false teeth, he gestured to his own mouth and tapped his teeth with his latex-gloved hand. when he pulled his hand away, a trail of saliva followed it. said hand was returned to my mouth mere seconds later.

by itself, the Ted Kennedy dentist is not that remarkable, but when it's consdered alongside the shock wave of yankee culture that continues to overwhelm me, it's worth talking about. for example, when I was up to bat at softball last week, I could actually see a polo match in progress. the kids across the street are outside playing lacrosse right now. we're on our way to an afternoon party, and the directions to the home were "pass the marina and look for the white colonial". it's like a yuppie overload that my working class system is not prepared to handle. I want to act like a robot and say "does not compute" the next time some parent tries to talk to me about prep schools.

one of my 3 favorite grad school friends of all time, ChimChim, just told me that she got a kickass clinical faculty position at columbia!! (and I promptly called the other 2 favorite friends and shouted the news into their voicemail before ChimChim could do so herself). columbia is a short train ride from my house!! it's all very exciting.

ChimChim's real name is remarkably similar to that of another grad school friend, so Hugsband dubbed them "ChimChim" and "JoJo" to better differentiate. amazingly, neither protested, and I continue to use these monkey-sounding names to this day.