Less Wise

A week ago my top right wisdom tooth began to give me trouble. It was growing in the direction of my cheek and was causing bleeding and inflammations. I did not know this at the time, but when the dentist checked it out that's what he said. It was a painful week, I couldn't chew, I couldn't yawn, I couldn't brush my teeth properly because my mouth would not open without hurting. It was a very humbling experience, when you deal something as basic as your body.

I was reluctant to go back to my old dentist to pull it out. First, because he is too far (in Vancouver, I live in Richmond. Anything requires me to go over a bridge or highway I consider too far). Secondly when I had my one wisdom tooth taken out by him it was kind of traumatic. He yanked at it so hard that my head was bouncing in the chair. Not a good experience to have.

Luckily, a coworker recommended her dentist in Steveston. Close enough I thought, and made an appointment. So two days ago I went in for a check up. It was evening time and the dentist office was quiet. The place was wide and spacious and the people were nice. I filled a form, and was trying to figure out how much the Starbucks dental plan would cover. The front desk lady helped me out by looking up other people using the same plan, and it turned out to be 100%. So the doctor checked it out, took 2 xrays to make sure it is only the wisdom tooth that's giving me trouble, and I made an appointment for extraction on Saturday.

I went in Saturday, really really nervous because I was fearing the same thing would happen. I was given anesthesia and the doctor began working on the tooth. It was a success. There was no pulling, no yanking, no bouncing of the head. I was deliriously happy (and drooling, not very used to the numbed half-face thing). I am so grateful for the extraction and the dentist's superior skills. When the last two are out I'll be the least wise of them all. Amen.

The Darjeeling Limited

The movie Darjeeling Limited is about the three brothers reunited in India for a spiritual journey after their father died. The three brothers are played by Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, and Jason Schwartzman. It is directed by Wes Anderson, who also directed Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaum. The movie is very stylized in the way that the Westerners see the mystique of the Eastern world. India is portrayed by its faded colonialism and crowdedness. How does this play into the relationship of the brothers I am not sure.

There is a short film before The Darjeeling Limited, called Hotel Chevalier. It is like a prequel to The Darjeeling Limited, with Jason Schwartzman and Natalie Portman. In a way, it solidified Jason Schwartzman's character, but throughout the actual film, Natalie Portman's character became like a whiff of smoke, neither here nor there.

I like how Owen Wilson's big brother character kept on making "agreements" to control his little brothers, only to have them break the agreement almost immediately. Also how Anjelica Huston turned out to be the mother who ran away from everything (no wonder the boys were confused). It's a film about family, I think, more than about brotherhood. Sure, they reached an understanding at the end of their spiritual journey, but that seemed really slapped on at the end for effects.

Generally speaking I did not dislike the movie, but it was hard for me to get through, that's for sure. I liked The Royal Tenenbaums better.

Javier & Natalie

But most importantly, Stellan Skarsgard was brilliant as Francisco Goya, a Spanish painter who lived through the Spanish Inquisition and the French Revolution. Using his obsession with Ines, played by Natalie Portman, I thought Milos Forman did a fantastic job illustrating this particular period of time at this particular place (excuse the pun).

Personally I have never heard Goya the artist before, but his work is really amazing and has such raw power coming out of it. I loved Javier Bardem's Lorenzo, who struggled and shifted from one ideal to another in the movie.

Can I just say I really liked this movie? Just thought I should make a record of it. Too bad it was not widely released in Vancouver, otherwise it would have been really tempting. However, considering my track records (ie. La Vie en Rose), I probably would have waited till the DVD came out anyways.

Interesting... speaking of DVD's, I still haven't seen Todd Hayne's I'm Not There at my local video store yet. Pity, I really wanted to figure out what Ben Whishaw was saying in the movie.

Passive-aggressiveness

Tolstoy wrote, "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." I don't know how long it took him to go from that line to the rest of Anna Karenina, but that's a pretty goddamn impressive first line for a novel. What is brilliant about it is that its truthfulness and universality. Happiness is obtainable when a few simple criteria are met: financial stability, good health, and good humor of all involved. Unhappiness, on the other hand, is an infinite combination of the unfulfilled void in the lives of all involved. The precision of the unhappiness in families is what makes it unique in every situation.

I hate to write about my family problems, but this is the only safe place I can vent. I have written ad nauseam about the financial problems, the delinquency problems, and so on and so forth. However, all these is compounded by the fact that my mother, like so many other sensitive and proud kinds, takes everything so personally and have no allowance for random lapse of filial piety from us to her. Let me illustrate by what happened last night, and how our entire family is still suffering the consequences:

Yesterday, she decided to get to the bottom of her visa bill, which showed a $218 item for Fido cellphone. Obviously, it would be my brother's cellphone, because he is the only one that uses Fido. The question is, how did Fido get paid, as she did not authorize the payment. Therefore, I spent an hour talking to Visa, then talking to Fido, then relaying the bad news to her. No, Fido did not just take the money, someone took her card to Fido and made payment on it. I can figure out with my big toe that that someone is my brother. So she confronted him when he came home late (12am) and started a screaming match. I will spare the nauseating details (seriously, both me and my sister wanted to puke), but the fight consisted of: my mother yelling at my brother, my brother screaming back, my mother forbade my brother cellphone usage, my brother taking out his sim card and throwing it at his desk, my mother yelling at me, I spoke loudly at her. Then she cried a little and decided to sleep on the floors in the living room because us kids are "all the same" (she sleeps in the same room as my sister and I, we have very tight quarters).

Now she is giving us the silent treatment, which I really could not give a damn about. First of all, she has pulled this before, and I was so terrified then. It was over something minuscule, too; she got mad at me because I told her flat out that I don't tell her how much I am making because I don't want to. That lasted for about 3 days. She gave all three of us kids attitude then, refusing to get into the car when we go pick her up at work, refusing to talk to us. Then finally she bought a bathroom rack and we installed it together, that's when she talked. So now, I really don't care anymore. She is the adult here, and she is still pulling this silent treatment stunt. My sister is still scared as hell, my brother just don't care, like he usually does. I know I am supposed to be more thoughtful and sensitive, but I am just not that kind of person. I don't snuggle up to my mom and ask her how her day is.

Now for the second night in a row she is sleeping on the floor. Yes, we should all be so horrified at such treatment of my own mother. But she is the one who made the decision, and she is going to live with it, not me. We even changed her bed sheets and made it all nice, she just said,"Put that bed in the other room, I won't be sleeping here anymore." To that I say fine, be that way. Why should I be dealing with this anyway?

-geez, always something to rant about. my life is one big rant.

Last time

This is going to be that last time I'm going to obsess about being 25, I promise.

So the other day, I was browsing this high school friend's blog. And he wrote that one of our mutual friend is engaged. Now, I've known this engaged guy since I was in elementary school, and I suppose it was a bit shocking for me to hear that.

To add to the list, a friend who also works at the bucks got engaged in December to my former boss, another old time coworker got engaged recently, and just then on facebook yvette announced her own engagement.

All I'm saying is, are we at that age already?

The age to be grown up, to settle down, to carve out a place for your own family and life? What's the rush? What's the incentive for marrying early? Combined assets and tax benefits? Someone else's last name after your own? Or God forbid, because of love?

Give me a break.

I suppose for someone's been single forever it's hard to comprehend the kind of commitment a person can have with another. So benefit of the doubt is necessary. However, seeing how the marriage is between my parents, I can't help but dread the "m" word, and its extention, the "e" word.