Donna in Hollywoodland

Mondays Suck - No Sleep and The Dentist

3 am, I am sound asleep. And when I am sound asleep, I am out. Its gonna take me a while to get my head together. I jump up from bed with a start, my heart is pounding. I swear I heard my door bell. But I can't even gather my thoughts to make sense of anything. I just stand there - dazed.

I run to the door "Who Is It?" No answer.
I look out the Peep Hole. No one there.
I am embarrassed - wonder if I woke the neighbors my shouting "Who Is It" so late.

At 5 pm, and at least one other time during the night. I jump up because I think I hear the doorbell.
My heart is pounding, I think I could have a heart attack from being jolted out of sleep.
Each time I think the door bell rings, I look out the Peep Hole. There is no one there.

"I must be having nightmares. I am dreaming this". Its all to weird.

I usually wake up between 7:30 and 8 am.
At 7 am ... another doorbell. I jump and yell "Who Is It?'
No answer.
I look out the Peep Hole, and see a woman standing there.
I open the door. It is my elderly neighbor.

She starts to talk to me like we were already in the middle of a conversation.
"Well, I never did find a locksmith to help me get in my apartment" she says.
Did we talk sometime last night... because it slowly sinks in that this was the cause of my doorbell. But I don't remember ever opening the door.

I am not in a good mood. "Are you locked out? Why didn't you talk to the manager ?"

The lady says "Oh, the manager changed the keys to my apartment and forgot to make keys for himself"
This makes no sense.
I say "But they have keys, they can let you back in"
The elderly lady says "No, their daughter just slammed the door in my face and refused to help me. If you can call a locksmith, I just need them to come and open my door".

I shut the door, and I grab my phone. I am so out of it, I can't find the telephone book. I call the landlord.
"Why aren't you helping this little old lady? She is locked out"
My landlady swears she has already called the locksmith and is helping her.
I say "You better come down here. I don't know why I have to be involved in this. She's at my door. She's been waking me up all night."

The elderly lady tells me which locksmith to call. It turns out she knows the name. And the locksmith already knows the address.
I am not very nice, because after being woken up at least three times, I am exhausted and completely in a fog.

Later, I call the Landlady, and tell her off "Why didn't you help this poor lady?"
It turns out they had been helping her, and they did call a locksmith. But this poor woman is going senile or has Alzheimers. Plus she has no living relatives. And it is she who changed the locks, not the landlord. She has at least three extra deadbolts on her apartment door. As a matter of fact, there are 3 locksmiths who will no longer come out to our building because she is always calling them. She keeps forgetting where she put her keys.
When she doesn't call the locksmiths, she calls the Police.. She reports that someone keeps getting into her apartment. She changed the locks because she told the police someone stole her cat food, and another time someone stole a fork.
At twice a week there are either the Police or a Locksmith there because she has called them. And she doesn't remember anything the next day.
Oh, and guess what else ? When she rings your doorbell - then she runs and hides. Thats why whenever I looked out my Peep Hole, there was no one there last night.

The landlords don't know what to do. They don't want to evict her and risk having her become homeless. They keep calling Social Services, but I guess it really takes alot to get Social Services to take over a situation. I tell my landlord, I will write out what happened last night, so that they have it in writing for Social Services.

When I get to work, I email my boss : "I don't think I will last all day, I may have to leave early to go home and get some sleep. Plus I have a dentist appointment".

The dentist sees me at 1:00. This is not a good appointment. They have to take impressions of my mouth because my Bridge has to be sent out to a Lab. I tell the Dental Assistant "Impressions ? It would be easier if you were going to drill for a filing."
At least they let me sit up during the impressions. One Assistant held the mold in place. Another Assistant talked to me, reminded me to breath through my nose, and did all the little tricks to get me to concentrate on anything other than the big glob of goop on a steel plate in my mouth. Yuck, I am getting nauseous just typing this ....

After its all done, I tell the Dental Assistants my Dentist horror story from about 10 years back. This other Dentist had to take impressions. Her assistants held me down, lying down in the dental chair - and stuck a bucket under me. I just threw up while they held me down and held the goop in my mouth. By the time we were done, there was vomit every where. This same terrible dentist gave me a root canal. They used a laser light on the tooth. She rested the burning hot metal of the instrument against my lower lip. I had all this cotton and stuff in my mouth, and was trying
to scream and motion that I was in pain. The awful Dentist just kept saying "Its only a light". When we were done, I was screaming at her and showed her the big burn on my lip. She kind of laughed "Oh, it burned you, ha, ha." I never went back to her after that. And it took me quite a few years to even think about going back to any other dentist.

Once my new Nice Dental Assistants are done with these new impressions - there is very little damage. My eyes are watery. And I have some of the mold goop on my face and in my hair. I am calm enough to make a joke "Oh, you could have given me a face mask at the same time."

I decide to pay an extra $50 to put a Rush on the Bridgework. The bridge is right in the front, and I will be without a certain number of teeth for 24 hours. An actress in Los Angeles without teeth - with my luck, this will be the day that Steven Spielberg wants to audition me.

After the dentist, I stop off at Carl's Jr. A Western Bacon Cheeseburger and Onion Rings. I feel I deserve it.
Then, its straight to bed by 3 in the afternoon. To catch up on all the sleep I missed last night.