Wam's World

The Bone Doctor, and Offended Dates

I went to see a bone doctor with Ma yesterday at Cardinal Santos hospital. She went to check up on her bone density readings while I wanted my bad knee looked at. We saw a father-son pair of doctors, though the father has his office on the ground floor while sonny has his on the second, and it was decidedly more crowded. (That's a paradox to me. You'd think more people would like to see the older, wiser doctor. Maybe they think the younger one's more up-to-date with technology and whatever the ailment du jour popped up while the elders weren't paying attention. Oh, well.)

After almost 2 hours of waiting (with a brief interlude of Ma seeing the father doc and both of us reading almost of the Time magazines in the waiting room) the son doc finally saw us. Within 3 minutes of talking to Ma and reading her bone density report he immediately scribbled away a couple of prescriptions for her. Like she wasn't much of a pill-popper now. Then again, what am I complaining about? Isn't this a sign of scientific progress? No physical therapy, no surgery. Oh, wait, the doc said her bone density had nowhere to go but down, so this popping of painkillers and calcium, vitamin D and anti-fat absorption pills might just be delaying the inevitable. (Oh, and she's sixty. How embarrassing: I didn't know what year my own mother was born 'til the doc asked her. May this piece of information now make it easier for me to shop for presents.)

Then the doc checked out my knees. Good news is he says I can run and do aerobics if I wanted to. ('Bout time. I've been feeling the "annual bulge" creep in since I stopped after the accident.) The tender, slightly numb portion of my bad knee is a callous, the biggest I've ever seen. Worse case scenario: x-ray and physical therapy. WorST case: prodding and surgery. Right now he has me taking the same painkillers he prescribed to Ma.

On the way out of the hospital Ma shared some interesting information about the Sunday night dinner with Che's friends. Turns out they (including Che) were offended by some of the stuff I said (all in jest, I assure you), my teasing Jeannie about taking the restaurant coasters among them. (Hey, she brought that quirk up.) For someone who takes criticism well (or at least with civility) that revelation bugged me the entire day. I just couldn't understand. I was being myself. I was under the impression the evening went fairly well. They were laughing sincerely (or so I thought), for God's sake. Save for that one almost foot-in-mouth moment with Jeannie for which I said, "Biro lang," surely they didn't expect me to end every sentence that way? I wasn't even wearing my serious face. How could they not tell I was kidding? I'm not sure what ticks me off more: that fact that they gave fake laughs or that I sort of ruined an evening in which it wasn't "my" date to begin with. Also, Ma said I was the only one they complained about. Evett and Oti? Nothing. Well, at least I made an impression.

Note to women: If you are offended by what your date says, PLEASE GIVE US A HINT. Don't give a convincing laugh then complain about it later. Christ. And they wonder why men find them hard to read and understand.

To get some further insight into the matter I called up Tina. After postponing our movie plans for today I asked her if I was offensive. As expected, since she knew me long enough and was used to my attitude she said not really. What did irritate her about me (or at least about our phone conversations) was that I don't let her get a word in edgewise at times. Sadly, this was true. When we chat a dozen topics sometimes go through my head and I feel the need to interrupt her train of thought, 'lest I forget them, in complete disregard for her own train of thought. It was amusing back then but now when I think about it, it was just plain rude. Lesson learned, I apologized to her and promised not to do it again.

Maybe I should stop wondering why it's so hard for me to get a date. "Sense of humor," my ass...

Well, according to the Microsoft Word's spell-check function my typing skills are improving. Either that or my proofreading.