Tuesday evening, I popped in at my instructor’s new bartending class and gave him a CD-ROM on which I’d burned his edited manual. He handed me two salt and sugar margarita rimmers, one for me and the other for Gym Trainee. Since I happened to walk in just as the class went on break, we had time to chat for a bit. He asked me how the bartending competition went and which students showed up, and then he asked where I’m looking to apply for bartending jobs. I told him I wasn’t sure yet, it depended on where we’re moving to. He said that after we settle down into our new home, to contact him and he’ll help me out on the job hunt, as in, he knows people, nudge nudge. NICE!

I also had a lengthy conversation with childhood dentist pal Andy (bridesmaid Sandy’s brother), who said he knows about the overpriced dentist office I’d gone to and that he has a patient who walked into his office with a $11K dental plan from the overpriced office, and pricing the exact same dental work item for item, in Andy’s office (which doesn’t even take insurance), the same plan came out to be about $4K. Now that’s just ridiculous! He then explained to me how doctors’ offices which are under HMO insurance plans find ways to charge patients as much out-of-pocket as possible and to turn out as many patients as quickly as possible, in order to make money because the insurance doesn’t pay doctors enough to cover the actual cost of the patient. So many doctors will sell the patient unnecessary and expensive upgrades, especially upgrades and services not covered by insurance so they can charge whatever they want for it (i.e. the $1275 porcelain filling). He said you see the aggressive upselling most commonly from Asian and Persian dentists. Well, the dentist I saw is Vietnamese and her partner is Persian, what a coincidence. As for my undescended wisdom tooth sitting in my sinus cavity? He said he wouldn’t touch it with a 10-foot pole and can’t believe this dentist tried to talk me into oral surgery to dig it out. Andy told me to pick up my x-rays from the overpriced dentist’s office, come see him in his office, and he’ll price his services affordably even without insurance. I told him I can change my insurance to a PPO for next year, so he’s going to check me to see what needs to be done now and what can wait until I get out of my current dental HMO. I picked up my x-rays Wednesday morning (the dental office receptionist was professional about it and didn’t give me any problems) and have an appointment to see Andy next week. Yay!