For Three Minutes, Forty-Five Seconds
She bends over the bathroom sink for the entire three minutes, forty-five seconds she allots to the task of brushing her teeth. Scrubbing her central and lateral incisors, she holds the toothbrush still and shakes her head vigorously from side to side. Her eyes stay fixed, as much as possible, on the grimaced reflection of herself in the mirror. Note how she enjoys this furious cranial oscillation. It makes her dizzy; sets her stomach on the cusp of tossing up last night’s salmon burger. It even gives her a “touch” of whiplash. As she later explains over cocktails, this “process” provides the little “bump” she no longer gets from a fourth shot of expresso.