I dreamt that after work, I was talking to a couple of coworkers, one of whom told me that another coworker had gotten his teeth whitened at a dental office across the street for really cheap. She encouraged me to go and check it out, ask some questions, maybe set up an appointment. She said the Brite-Smile teeth whitening system normally costs like $3000 (to which I asked whether it was $3K per row of teeth, or $3K total, as if it were a boob job or laser eye surgery), but right now it’s a few hundred dollars on a special. So I walked across the street to a run-down looking dental office. Since it was after work hours, I assumed no dentist would be in, but I asked the receptionist anyway. To my surprise, she nodded and opened an old wooden sliding door to reveal a cluttered standard office, like a paper-pusher’s office, with a female Asian dentist sitting at the paper-laden desk with her head in her arms, presumably asleep. I apologized for intruding, she looked tired but said it’s okay, and then I asked if there were available appointment times. She pulled out a large appointment ledger and wrote me in. Then she took my disposable water bottle and poured some solution in it that I was supposed to rinse with. We chatted about random stuff, such as my noting that a piece of paper with Chinese writing on it sort of looked like my handwriting and had the middle and last character of my Chinese name on it, and I wondered if I’d written it in my childhood and given it to her, like maybe we were friends once upon a time and I didn’t recognize her now. At my request, she cut out the piece of paper, which was taped by the borders onto her binder or something, and turned it over. It was her friend’s note and not mine. Coincidentally, we had the same name but different last names. I rinsed and then spit. And then I realized she had charged me $4000 for the treatment, and altho I think I handed over my credit card, I was upset that now my funds are depleted for one unnecessary purchase that I hadn’t even been planning to make. I tried to remember if I’d signed some credit card receipt, and I don’t think I did, so I thought maybe she screwed up and I wouldn’t be charged for this, after all. I questioned her about the price but she just pointed to some other patient names in the appointment book and at some numbers written after those names, with a verbal explanation I didn’t understand. I think it was that if someone canceled and I took their spot, I’d get a discount. After some time, it appeared I was done with this treatment, so I took the water bottle and left the office.
I was walking around with this weird dry and wrinkled sensation in my mouth, probably due to the solution, so I rinsed again. The mirror reflected gooey but slightly whiter teeth, but only up to a certain height in my upper front teeth, as if the solution didn’t go all the way up to my gums. So I rinsed and spit again. And then I thought, maybe I’m supposed to keep the solution in my mouth longer? Cuz the ads for Brite-Smile all say that the treatment is a few hours in the dental office. So right when I swigged a mouthful and retained it, I realized this is the time that the Disneyland Half-Marathon was about to start. It was like 11:22 or something. It was something-22. People in running jerseys were running past me to the start point, and I somehow knew they were doing the Family 5K run. I tried to ask an official-looking coach whether the half-marathon was going to start, too, except I couldn’t talk with the stuff in my mouth, so I was trying to gesture “half” while making “mmph” sounds that I hoped would resemble the tones of words. She didn’t understand me. I started getting more stressed out that not only am I in the hole for this stupid whitening thing that I’m not even sure I’m doing correctly, but I was about to be late for the half-marathon. I hoped that they clock you from the point you cross the start line to begin the race, and not from the gunfire.
With this dream, you’d think I’m worried about my finances and my run, but I’m not.
