gold diggin' [Part Two]

(continued from part One below)

I seriously considered option #1. Let's just forget about the whole matter and call it a day... But after some pushy encouragement from my bf ('Alice, you've sliced through human cadavers before. You can do this'), I realized the only rational and responsible thing was, well... It was time to go gold diggin'!

So for five days, I dug through my "waste," hoping to find gold. With an exception of one time when I was in a very public place, I dug very consistently (to put it tersely), triple glove-ing up and making use of lots of aluminum foil (go watch House if you want to know how I did it). After five days of meticulous hunting, I came out disappointed and still poor. On the sixth day, it dawned on me that my crown had passed at the one time I couldn't possibly dig around for it.

So I could say that I walked away pissed and feeling dejected upon such good efforts to "salvage" the circumstances. I ended up with a ton of lemons, so to speak. However, looking back (now 3 weeks ago), here is the lemonade to it all:

• Whenever crisis (even the most minor ones) hits, your relationships become stronger. It was serendipitous that my friend M was there to assist during the appointment. What could have been frazzled K and freaked-out and bloody me was saved by M taking the best care of me. She even took me out for dinner to make sure I ate something and dropped me off at my car (which is a ways away from the dental school). I realized that my friendship with this girl was not just as some acquaintance, but as someone who would care enough to stick with me through it all and then some. Lucky me, right?

• Throughout the year, I've had the chance not to only learn under one of the most skilled seniors in my program, but also to become a good friend with K. In spite of the chaos of the appointment and how I traumatized poor K, he still told me everything would be okay and that it wasn't my fault. Albeit I've been constantly teased about getting a metal detector and black-marketing my gold by K and his buddies, I would say it's worth the price for forging a new friendship. Although I will always be MOD-gold-onlay girl to him, he will always be my favorite and most valuable senior friend.

• So the icing on the cake: K found a way to get the second crown under USC's tab. I don't know what strings he pulled to make it happen, but he convinced the school's Dean to pay for it. Lucky me, I know.

So here's to making lemonade. Regardless of whether M & K ever read this, thank you. This is definitely a dental school memory I will never forget.