I hesitate to complain about laundry. Every time I do, my mom or a friend will quickly point out to me that I only have to do laundry for myself and not the "___" other people living in the house. While I accept the premise of the argument, I counter that doing laundry for one has it's own challenges. Especially one the one is me.
For starters, I wait until almost everything that I own is in need of laundry before I put the first load of clothes into the washer. This is a bad habit developed in college when one had to trek three floors over and down for the laundry room. (This is also the reason that I happen to own a month's worth of underwear.)
Laundry not being my favorite past time, I then vow to accomplish the entire backlog all in one day. Not the most exciting way to spend a Saturday I must point out. It also inevitably leads to a late night of ironing because I also refuse to put clothes back into my closet unless ready to wear. (Starting to see my problem?)
Last and certainly not least, I have a strange need to have completely empty laundry baskets. I have been known to pull off the clothes I am wearing and put on my bath robe so that for a moment in time, everything I own is clean. For unclear (but clearly in need of therapy) reasons this makes me extremely happy.
Bet you can't guess what I did this weekend?
Monday, December 12, 2016
Thursday, December 8, 2016
One of THOSE days
Ever had a day start and within a very short time realize that is was not going to be your best? Today is that for me. It started with a 6:45 meeting. Why anyone wants to meet that early is beyond me. It is also one of those meetings where one actually has to be awake and interactive. Hence my first stop of the day.
Suspected it was going to be as bad as it is turning out to be so went straight for Venti with an extra shot. Another meeting followed and now clinic.
In the meantime, my partner wants to rework the next three months call schedule which we both approved just last week. A call schedule already made difficult by holidays and four weeks of personal time off (for him) to accommodate his girlfriend's work schedule. Are you kidding me????? I have a "mood" calendar on my desk. Today's forecast . .
Suspected it was going to be as bad as it is turning out to be so went straight for Venti with an extra shot. Another meeting followed and now clinic.
In the meantime, my partner wants to rework the next three months call schedule which we both approved just last week. A call schedule already made difficult by holidays and four weeks of personal time off (for him) to accommodate his girlfriend's work schedule. Are you kidding me????? I have a "mood" calendar on my desk. Today's forecast . .
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Faux Christmas?
To me part of what makes Christmas so special is that it engages all of the senses.
- The sight of lights twinkling. (Warm white of course.)
- The sounds of Christmas Carols. (Hark the Herald Angels on repeat.)
- The taste of Williams and Sonoma Peppermint bark. (What do they put in there that makes it soooo good?)
- The feel of glitter - everywhere . . . (what? there is more glitter on my face, but I wiped it away already, now it's on my shirt - oh wait I don't necessarily love that one as much.)
- The smell of a freshly cut Christmas. (For me that is a beautiful Douglas Fir.)
Growing up we always had an artificial tree - my mom hated vacuuming needles. So I determined at a very young age, that I would always have a real tree when I grew up, and the biggest tree I could find. (Fit being a factor you will see has unfortunately never been high on my priority list.) I have kept this promise to young me every year except for the time I spent in Miami. I gave myself a pass there because South Florida is not really conducive to Douglas Firs or any evergreen. The only trees that do well there give rise to coconuts not cones.
My first Christmas in my new house I skipped a tree. (If it had not been for Christmas Elf Kris, I would have also skipped any decorations that year.) I had only been in my house for a month and still had more boxes than furniture. Therefore, last year I was excited to go on a tree search. The Friday after Thanksgiving, I forced my family to Home Depot where we proceed to purchase the largest tree we could find. I have 20 foot ceilings in my living room - I felt there was nothing to hold me back. It took four of us to bring the tree into the house, an 8 ft ladder for me to decorate it, and I never was able to reach the pinnacle for a topper. I had to completely rearrange my living room to accommodate the tree's breadth, and Coco (to my great dismay) enjoyed nothing more than playing on the tree skirt watching needles rain down on top of her.
All of this I could handle because I had a huge gorgeous tree with the most amazing smell. But then Christmas was over, and the tree needed to go. Now it was just me and dad and a HUGE dead Douglas Fir. The tree eventually made it to the curb for pick up, but it was neither easy nor pretty. I decided then and there that I needed to switch to artificial. I told my dad who laughed and said he would believe it when he saw it. Where dad, here it is. . .
It even comes with a remote control which allows me to not only turn off and on the lights, but to pick white, colored or both. I purposely picked a slender version so that I would not have to rearrange my furniture completely, and capped myself at 11 feet so that I could decorate it without having to rent a crane. The only thing missing is the smell. And I must say that I do miss the smell.
I have a lovely "Christmas Tree" Aspen Bay candle which does smell nice, but it is just not quite the same. So the question I have is does a faux tree mean that there will be faux gifts underneath it?
- The sight of lights twinkling. (Warm white of course.)
- The sounds of Christmas Carols. (Hark the Herald Angels on repeat.)
- The taste of Williams and Sonoma Peppermint bark. (What do they put in there that makes it soooo good?)
- The feel of glitter - everywhere . . . (what? there is more glitter on my face, but I wiped it away already, now it's on my shirt - oh wait I don't necessarily love that one as much.)
- The smell of a freshly cut Christmas. (For me that is a beautiful Douglas Fir.)
Growing up we always had an artificial tree - my mom hated vacuuming needles. So I determined at a very young age, that I would always have a real tree when I grew up, and the biggest tree I could find. (Fit being a factor you will see has unfortunately never been high on my priority list.) I have kept this promise to young me every year except for the time I spent in Miami. I gave myself a pass there because South Florida is not really conducive to Douglas Firs or any evergreen. The only trees that do well there give rise to coconuts not cones.
My first Christmas in my new house I skipped a tree. (If it had not been for Christmas Elf Kris, I would have also skipped any decorations that year.) I had only been in my house for a month and still had more boxes than furniture. Therefore, last year I was excited to go on a tree search. The Friday after Thanksgiving, I forced my family to Home Depot where we proceed to purchase the largest tree we could find. I have 20 foot ceilings in my living room - I felt there was nothing to hold me back. It took four of us to bring the tree into the house, an 8 ft ladder for me to decorate it, and I never was able to reach the pinnacle for a topper. I had to completely rearrange my living room to accommodate the tree's breadth, and Coco (to my great dismay) enjoyed nothing more than playing on the tree skirt watching needles rain down on top of her.
All of this I could handle because I had a huge gorgeous tree with the most amazing smell. But then Christmas was over, and the tree needed to go. Now it was just me and dad and a HUGE dead Douglas Fir. The tree eventually made it to the curb for pick up, but it was neither easy nor pretty. I decided then and there that I needed to switch to artificial. I told my dad who laughed and said he would believe it when he saw it. Where dad, here it is. . .
It even comes with a remote control which allows me to not only turn off and on the lights, but to pick white, colored or both. I purposely picked a slender version so that I would not have to rearrange my furniture completely, and capped myself at 11 feet so that I could decorate it without having to rent a crane. The only thing missing is the smell. And I must say that I do miss the smell.
I have a lovely "Christmas Tree" Aspen Bay candle which does smell nice, but it is just not quite the same. So the question I have is does a faux tree mean that there will be faux gifts underneath it?
Tuesday, December 6, 2016
Elusiveness of Time and Perspective
Have you ever noticed how often you hear people talking about time? Time is now Public Enemy No.1. We are always trying to acquire more of it, outsmart it or out run it. Our lives revolve around a clock. If you took my Outlook calendar away, I am not certain that I could continue to exist. It is the only reason that my smart phone always wins in our perpetual love/hate relationship.
It is unfortunately common knowledge that if you put something on my Outlook calendar, I will show up at the designated place fairly close to the designated time - no questions asked. (Which has me on quite a large number of committees, boards and at way more conferences that I knew could exist in addition to an ever increasing operative load.) While at the designated place, I will be keeping a close eye on the clock to make sure that I make it to the next entry appropriately. This has become the framework of my days. . . A series of Outlook calendar entries.
This is not unique to doctors, although we seem to have a unique perspective on it - more on that later. All of my friends seem to be racing to see who can cram the most into 24 hours. From stay at home moms, attorneys, executives at companies big and small, we are all scheduling our lives away. We are now so needy for schedules that we plan every minute of our vacations and even our "down time". When we find ourselves with that rare blank spot in our day or an unexpected cancellation it creates in itself a small crisis as to how best to fill the time, because we certainly can not let it "go to waste."
Recently I was a participant in three separate conversations with colleagues of mine. All were complaining regarding significant others or friends or non-MD colleagues in their lives who "didn't really know what busy or tired was". It is a commonly held belief among doctors (and perhaps surgeons worst of all) that no one else on the planet has as much on their plate or as stressful of a job as we do. (Yes most of us would compare and declare ourselves the schedule victor even up against POTUS - especially since most of us have never had time for Tweeting in our lives. I'm looking at you President-elect Trump.) However, I found myself playing devil's advocate in all of these "our time is more precious" conversations. My position was that it all comes down to perspective and life experience. It is impossible to judge how "busy" a friend or colleague is in his/her daily life, because I have no frame of reference. Their perception of their day may have them feeling way more stressed about their ability to fit it all in than my stress level at a full, but planned day of two esophageal resections, three meetings and an evening women's work event. Perception is reality and who am I to define someone else's reality.
Besides, I want off the time is of the essence train. While it is not realistic for me to live without a calendar (see above note about cessation of existence). I can let go of having to have an accounting of every minute of every day. It's winter so there will be no smelling of the roses, but perhaps I will be able to start observing the "little things" again. Starting to realize as I get older that perhaps it is the little things that I want to define my life, not a time schedule.
It is unfortunately common knowledge that if you put something on my Outlook calendar, I will show up at the designated place fairly close to the designated time - no questions asked. (Which has me on quite a large number of committees, boards and at way more conferences that I knew could exist in addition to an ever increasing operative load.) While at the designated place, I will be keeping a close eye on the clock to make sure that I make it to the next entry appropriately. This has become the framework of my days. . . A series of Outlook calendar entries.
This is not unique to doctors, although we seem to have a unique perspective on it - more on that later. All of my friends seem to be racing to see who can cram the most into 24 hours. From stay at home moms, attorneys, executives at companies big and small, we are all scheduling our lives away. We are now so needy for schedules that we plan every minute of our vacations and even our "down time". When we find ourselves with that rare blank spot in our day or an unexpected cancellation it creates in itself a small crisis as to how best to fill the time, because we certainly can not let it "go to waste."
Recently I was a participant in three separate conversations with colleagues of mine. All were complaining regarding significant others or friends or non-MD colleagues in their lives who "didn't really know what busy or tired was". It is a commonly held belief among doctors (and perhaps surgeons worst of all) that no one else on the planet has as much on their plate or as stressful of a job as we do. (Yes most of us would compare and declare ourselves the schedule victor even up against POTUS - especially since most of us have never had time for Tweeting in our lives. I'm looking at you President-elect Trump.) However, I found myself playing devil's advocate in all of these "our time is more precious" conversations. My position was that it all comes down to perspective and life experience. It is impossible to judge how "busy" a friend or colleague is in his/her daily life, because I have no frame of reference. Their perception of their day may have them feeling way more stressed about their ability to fit it all in than my stress level at a full, but planned day of two esophageal resections, three meetings and an evening women's work event. Perception is reality and who am I to define someone else's reality.
Besides, I want off the time is of the essence train. While it is not realistic for me to live without a calendar (see above note about cessation of existence). I can let go of having to have an accounting of every minute of every day. It's winter so there will be no smelling of the roses, but perhaps I will be able to start observing the "little things" again. Starting to realize as I get older that perhaps it is the little things that I want to define my life, not a time schedule.
Monday, December 5, 2016
Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder?
Since my last post was over 18 months ago, one would think that I would have much to tell. Sadly, one would be mistaken. Unless tales of work, more work and time spent comatose on a couch excites you, I do not have much to show for my long absence.
However, this brings me to the motivation of my post. Perhaps if I have to semi-regularly detail the happenings of my life, it willembarrass / encourage me into getting details of a life. I can not promise the details of this post to rival an episode of Sex and the City, but perhaps it can get me to put off catching the next episode of Game of Thrones and go out some where to do something.
Of course that being said, the following sums up my weekend. . .
However, this brings me to the motivation of my post. Perhaps if I have to semi-regularly detail the happenings of my life, it will
Of course that being said, the following sums up my weekend. . .
It is my shadow you see taking the picture of my lonely car. This was the doctor's parking garage this weekend. Although usually quiet, I don't ever recall it being this lonely.
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