Wisdom and Loss

It has been over a week now since I visited the dentist, or rather 'oral surgeon', that my regular dentist referred me to. I was there for the dreaded process of having a wisdom tooth removed, which would go on to throw the few plans I had for the rest of the week into disarray.

[caption id="attachment_141" align="alignnone" width="655" caption="Dentist: crappy, Snow the next day: cool"][/caption]

To understand the level of disruption caused you must first hear of the terrible competition/war of attrition I have been waging (even now I am still mid-wage) with one LolaLollipop, and with my own being. The terms of her surrender and my victory are clear: I need only lose more weight than her, faster than her. Weight loss is no easy task, but the sweet motivation of smiting one's enemies, like hunger, is good sauce. All the book-learning in the world is useless without some form of motivation to take the path of greater resistance.

Gaelle (her username in 'real life') left for France, land where it is acceptable to mix butter and chocolate, the day before my appointment (She wrote about it at her blog). This presented a golden opportunity to open up a new front, cut a swath through enemy ranks by intensifying my exercise routine, combined with my already restricted diet. A plan worthy of the likes of Patton, I'm sure you agree, and my most pressing concern for the week. Oh and I trust next time you see Gaelle you'll tell her she may as well stop trying to lose weight (or you know, give her an entire chocolate cake :P)

Back to the oral surgeon. I waited in the entirely drab and cold waiting room until I was called by the young nurse (noticing her braces may have skewed my perception of her age). As with any new dentist the woman examining my teeth felt the need to dispense the same advice you get for each of them, and have already started following. The tooth caused no pain but as much as some dentists seem zealous about wisdom tooth removal, was to be removed for a reason; because it was damaged, leaving a sharp edge for me to tongue endlessly. She dosed me with anesthetic, I notified her it that it wasn't enough and she gave more. I felt odd, and a little out of it. FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper may use Zen to access his subconscious and catch killers, but if anything I do could be considered Zen it's the calm I take on during dentist visits. It's a sort of bizarre detachment I can't fully explain but an entirely grateful for, like a sort of defensive astral projection. Leaving the dentist the anesthetic had started to circulated and I felt drowsy and weird. They gave me a little 'so you lost a wisdom tooth card' which informed me, among other things, that I shouldn't exercise for about 10 days or the wound would probably start bleeding again. New front of war closed due to bad weather :(

This was also the week of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival. I had bought tickets to see three of the films showing at the festival (which had an excellent selection), the first of these was mere hours after the surgery. I hadn't rescheduled because I just wanted to be done with the whole dentist bit, and expected to pay heavily in lucidity-coinage. I met Lisa outside the cinema and we went to see 'Mother', a Korean film by the director of 'The Host' about a mother fighting to prove her intellectually disabled son is innocent of a murder. It was an excellent film, well put together with some really interesting characters, which I managed to enjoy fully since my hazy condition seemed more physical than mental. Over the week also saw 'Hansel and Gretel', a Korean film influenced by the fairytale that was enjoyably odd, and 'Eyes Without a Face'. 'Eyes' is a film that blends 'arthouse' and 'horror' very well, excellently shot and at times genuinely creepy, with the disfigured Christine wandering her father's villa in a white mask as he and his assistant search for women to act as face transplant victims. There was some unintentional comedy to be had ("Smile. Smile! Not too much!", and a dove peeing on a character 'goof') but it was very well done, and an item on our horror marathon list. Our first film festival was odd, with lots of people coming to see the films alone, and a lot of chatter about film-making and the like. Felt very grown-up.

[caption id="attachment_140" align="alignnone" width="424" caption="The mask looks especially chilling, b&w means it blends well."][/caption]

I've otherwise had an excellent week. In work I came up with some experiments to do that gave my work to this point purpose (huzzah!), and I worked insanely to bring them to fruition :) I get an odd buzz when I complete a feature or fix a bug that has been bothering me, doubly so now that I feel I'm actually doing something meaningful and useful.

Looking back on this post I see I clearly under-stocked it with wisdom, I highly suggest to drink deeply of the reserve supplied by Twistedlilkitty's latest on life lessons, wisdom I have, unfortunately, yet to learn for myself. I hope that when it comes I won't have lost too much earning it.