Ash Wednesday
“A patient of yours just checked in, has no appointment for today, and axiUm says the chart is checked out to you.”
This was not the voicemail I wanted to hear this morning during breakfast. I sighed, closed my laptop, and hurriedly biked down the hill to school to see the patient.
“I want you to know, I’m not mad at you, but the previous dean was not enough of a man to renew my contract. So, when I recently got a new contract to work here at the school, I explicitly put in the contract (it’s a numbered item!) that I would have a cube available. How did you end up in that cube?”
That was not the impression I wanted to give our very good oral path instructor. Luckily, my appointment went well, I cleaned up, and evacuated the professor’s cube as soon as possible.
“We would really really prefer you get the radiographs before the day of boards, but if you have to do it, you have to do it. We’ll have a spot on 8th floor open for you to take x-rays.”
I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing I could update the day-of. It was time to go home.
As a general rule, I get home mid-afternoon and Mykala gets home late in the evening (9, 10pm-ish). However, Mykala didn’t have her evening class, so we went to Chipotle and had a great conversation about her career. (Takeaway point: you can go in two different directions trying to “do what you love”. Direction 1: You seek to meet your own needs. Direction 2: You seek to meet a need out in the world. The trick is to balance the two.)
We came home, and Mykala made vegan hot chocolate with chocolate salt. A few grains of salt are plenty for me, I think. I’m still adjusting to the “sweet salty” thing — I’d still prefer “all sweet”. We went to church for Ash Wednesday. Lit candles for loved ones who’ve passed. Came home and watched television shows on the couch. Nothing can be that bad when I have my health and some time to spend with my wife when we’re home in the evening.