The Old Man That Sang Some Beach

The alarm vibrated to some obnoxious song I’d pre-selected on my cell phone the night before. I had a theory about horrible songs waking me up, because there would be no way on earth I would sleep through some Big Band Tune banging next to my pillow at the crack of dawn.

Remember … the girl is not such an early bird, and fears oversleeping. Especially on important days, like the morning of her brand new job, for instance. And it was with such a wake-up call, I pulled myself together | grabbed a cup of coffee from my wonderful Daddy who got up just for me and shivered my way down the sidewalk to heat up my car.

Almost an hour later, I smoothed immaginary wrinkles from my Cranberry-colored scrubs {I have a feeling I was born to be anal about such things} and took a deep breath. I had buried myself beneath a stack of Dental Assistant books over the last few days, and had only a smidgen of an idea of what might await me.

The glass door clicked shut behind me, my shoes bringing in a scattering of golden brown leaves. I walked down the length of the hall until I found Johnna. Johnna is my self-proclaimed go-to lady, the one who tells me whats what or isn't and promised to help me find my way around. She threw me a big smile, and a hearty "G'morning lady! How are you?"

Within minutes, I had hung my coat | silenced the pitifully shattered phone | donned a bright blue pair of gloves {which would only be my first of a zillion pair through out the day} and had been given the grand tour of half a dozen rooms. There was the dark room - which I simplified as the stock room in my pea-pod of a brain, there was the sanitizer room which I unconsciously named the washroom, and so it went from 7:45 to somewhere around 5 o'clock this evening.

You've heard that not everyone learns the same way, well the girl is a perfect example. * smiles *

We had a steady stream of patients all morning. Johnna worked with Dr. Jay, and I shadowed up until the latter part of the morning, when Johnna turned to me mid set-up and asked "You think you can handle the next one?"

I inwardly recoiled, and then dug out my permanent smile {you know? the one that tells the world I'm not nervous when I'm ridiculously out of my element}. And nodded, "Um ... sure. Yeah, lets do it!"

It all started with me almost flying out of Johnna's chair. Somehow we'd forgotten to lock the arm in place when we'd adjusted, so as I'm sitting there swapping out this tool for that, the arm gives way and I have a maximum .3 seconds to hold on and save face right in the middle of a procedure. But alas, the chair was fixed and we moved on lickety split.

My favorite patient of the day was an older man who had such a cute sense of humor. He had broken a tooth, so I asked him what had happened. He grinned up at me from the chair as I snapped the cloth over his chest. His eyes sparkled unashamedly, "I was eatin' own ah cookieee. Bout one of the best dang cookies I ever ate, 'ceptin' when I broke mah tooth here."

I laughed. "Oh yeah? Well I don't guess you'll be eating them anytime soon, hmm?"

"Oh lawwdy, I might go get me some soon as I leave. I share about fiver 'er six of 'em with mah dog anyways. Other day, she done went and snatched a whole package. Got real good taste in cookies, she does."

So Johnna and I are prepping for Dr. Jay to come in and numb him for the precedure, and the man starts to cackling in a contagious sort of way. Johnna asked him what was so funny, and he shook his head with a smirk. "Puts me to mind, that song ...

Oh," His face momentarily clouded. "What's the name of that song 'bout a beach, honey?"

We shook our heads, not following. Then suddenly, he remembered and began to sing in a funny little sing-songy voice " ...Well, I sat in that waiting room seemed like all afternoon. Nurse came in said Doc's ready for you, not gonna feel a thang. I'll give ya sum noveeecain ... some beach, some whar ... Music, dancing ... something, something."

About this time, Johnna and I are busting up entirely. Nothing could help, not even when he stopped muttering the last of it, and perked up like he remembered we were there and said, "Ya'll ever hear it? It's a real good 'un."

Ah, it was a long day but such a good one. Currently, I'm snuggled up in my sissy's big arm chair | traded scrubs for my pjs and I'm sipping on hot tea with every intention of getting more studying done, but one thing at a time and it was bound to get jumbled in my head anyways.

Still though ... I hear the whir of that dental drill ringing in my ears, and it weren't for this cold I've somehow been * blessed * with, I'm sure I'd smell the funny dental smells too. * winks *