THE SIMPLE LIFE

I'm sitting at work right now mind-numbingly bored. Clinic starts @ 8:30am and since it takes b/w 20mins - 1/2 hr to get to work, I usually leave the house around 8am. Today I had to wake up at 7am just cuz I usually wash my hair in the mornings rather than at night.

(As an aside, I notice that when I wash my hair at night and sleep on it, it gets greasier than when I wash it in the morning. It's still every other day so that doesn't make sense to me. Does anyone else notice this problem?)

Any way, the first patient had called to cancel so really, there was nothing for the students to do until 11am. Seriously. We were present and accounted for - for 2 1/2 hrs. As an attending, I guess my job should have been to teach them something but seriously, they're 4th years. This is their last day in my clinic. I could've told them practical aspects of optometry but that early in the morning, no one wants to be lectured to. And I especially don't want to lecture. We chatted for 10 mins and then I spent the rest of the morning working on my spreadsheets for home budgeting.

We've worked out this routine where we sit down once a month to go over our expenses and review our spending habits. We both agree that it's good and necessary, yet we both hate doing it. That's cuz to get us to the point of great communication and mutual understanding we must first always go through the process of being frustrated at each other cuz the other party doesn't get/agree with what we're saying. *laughs* His way is good too, I'm just more detail-oriented so his big-picture method doesn't answer my questions. And he thinks my method takes too long and is inefficient =P So we've each been doing separate budgets - exactly as we had when we were single. Hence the discussions. It's taken a year, but I finally got Alex to say that my way is better - Booyah! Although to be fair, I did make certain adjustments so as to not waste so much time.

Actually, I really shouldn't complain about being bored at work. i appreciate this down time where I can surf the net and catch up on my CE readings/reflections. Yesterday was super busy and I left work feeling emotionally and mentally drained. I had a 67 y/o patient tell me she thought her exam was a waste of time and couldn't understand why she had to come at all. It was particularly maddening because I had gone out of my way to speak directly to her referring doctor. Argh! I know I need to learn to let things roll off my back more, to have a tougher skin but this was one of those situations where, even looking back, everything was done correctly. Perhaps she just came with the wrong expectations.

So today's Gord's birthday and their house-closing day. Congrats on both counts and I'm super excited for you guys. I hope everything goes smoothly cuz I know unexpected things can pop up. *huggs*