The day after Day 1 of the Democratic National Convention, I was in the dentist's chair at NYU College of Dentistry. Once the student dentist completed my examination she informed me that she'd bring in a faculty member (any one that she could find that was free) so they could examine me and determine whether or not they agreed with her course of action.
My student dentist is a young Nigerian woman. The faculty member she found is a Black woman of about 50. The DDS lowered my chair, and reclined the back, so now I was practically lying flat on my back. She examined my tooth in question and the rest of my teeth -- commenting that I have nice teeth and I obviously take care of them -- and agreed with the student dentist's findings and treatment plan and signed off on it.
I mention her commenting on my nice teeth because she did so more than once -- to me and to the student dentist then asked, "Did you watch the Michelle Obama's speech last night?" I answered as best I could with her hands in my mouth. The student said she watched the following morning online.
The DDS said she watched Michelle Obama with tears in her eyes. I chimed in with my 2 cents on how proud I was of the FLOTUS. The student was very grateful that she had a break that morning to watch the speech online. I didn't realize how proud I was until I got around those two women. It felt great listening to Michelle Obama talk about her husband, the father of her children, her president. Since they moved into the White House, I've always had my own thoughts of what the relationship is like between Barack and Michelle.
The three of us gushed over our First Lady for a while, DDS on my right, student dentist on my left, me still laying supine in the dentist chair. We also commented on the energy of the Democratic National Convention that night and the racial mix of the delegates in attendance.
"Well, I was watching and I noticed she has really nice teeth. Her lipstick wasn't even coming off." The DDS laughed. "I saw how nice your teeth are and it reminded me of Michelle. I'm a dentist, I notice those things." Then she put her "professional hat" back on, gave some instruction to the student and left the examination nook.
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