Earache

I've had an earache the last few days so I looked up an ENT and made an appointment for this afternoon. Turns out my doctor's office is in Chinatown, next door to Ash and Diego's favorite dim sum place, New Asia. (It's actually St. Frances's and my favorite place too, but A & D are Asian, so we defer to them on these kinds of things.)

I'll warn you that this next part gets a little graphic.

I had to have my ear cleaned out and then the doc prescribed these antibiotic eardrops. Great. I should feel better soon. But – and they try to hide this from you as much as possible – getting your ear cleaned out means they stick a long metal spike in your ear canal and scoop out anything they can. It's Kafka-esque. I was told to hold very still, and I did, but the whole time only one thought was going through my mind: "What if there's an earthquake?"

"What if there's an earthquake?"

I made it out alive, but take it from me, when you read that little warning on the back of the Q-tips, about not sticking it in your ear? Listen to them. You don't want to end up in that chair in Chinatown.