Ghost of myself

Last night I had my second acupuncture session. The acupuncture guy (aka Dan) stuck needles in the left side of my neck, the lower left side of my back and my left ankle. He put a burning piece of charcoal on one of the needles in my lower back. It felt strange to be laying there in a small room with needles sticking out my back as I answered questions about my diet (sweet cravings should be denied, hot drinks in the morning rather than cold water, more hot lunches). Sometimes I find myself in situations where I have voluntarily chosen to something that suddenly strikes me as comical, for instance I can distinctly remember sitting in the dentist's chair getting 2 of my wisdom teeth pulled and thinking, as I opened my eyes for a second and saw blood that had spurted out of my mouth, "Holy Christ, I am paying these people to hurt me!" And it was hard not to laugh around the mouth guards, fingers and dental tools filling my mouth.

I also had a strange Simpsons moment that day when as they were using the laser to cut my gums and all I could hear in my head was Ralph Wiggum saying "It tastes like burning." Because, honestly, it did taste like burning.

Last night was similar. I couldn't stop thinking that I was paying someone to do something that really sounds quite sinister to me. What would 14 year old me think of such a situation? She would likely be aghast. Just like she would think I was a crackpot for going into raptures about cheeses, art and Tropicalia (not too mention Leonard Cohen, 14 year old me thought LC was lamesville, don't even get her started on Willie Nelson).

Sometimes I think I can see 14 year old me sitting on the floor in the corner watching almost 31 year old me with looks of horror. She wears a pair of too big Converse All Stars and over sized sweatshirts (occasionally, foolishly tucked into her jeans, oh 14 year old me why do you never learn?) and she has no idea why I find joy in these thing. She still like Wilson Phillipps and TGIF on ABC and she has an unfortunate crush on a geeky boy who wears over large glasses. Oh wait, that didn't change

At least Jeremy's were vintage and therefore ironic and cool.

Do you ever wonder about things like this? What younger you would think of the situation when you do something so patently adult and boring (ie spend all day Saturday looking at bathroom tiles and then getting excited over them, choosing to stay in on a Friday night to read a book and drink a glass of wine, ranting about high level of legging sightings in your neighborhood, etc)? What would past tense you think of present tense you?

I'm pretty sure that past tense me would be a little surprised, occasionally impressed but mostly bored with present tense me. Not that that's a bad thing, past tense wasn't always an especially bright kid, it's just that times like these (birthday times) put me in the mood to think of think of these things, especially the day after I spent an hour getting stuck with needles.