The good and the bad at breakfast

I awoke this morning when my husband pulled my big toe.

Believe me when I tell you that's an act of absolute love and affection. Pull my big toes, and they pop, giving me all sorts of relief in my fore foot. It's something I often don't have adequate leverage to do for myself. It's not quite as nice as awakening in the middle of a rousing blow job, but it runs a close second. (Ok, a distant second, but still....)

After taking my morning meds, I pulled on a robe and padded of to the kitchen to make breakfast. I sliced up a very ripe mango with some cottage cheese, made toast for LJ, put a pot of tea up to brew, washed a handful of cherries and then a slice of toast for myself (topped with, cream cheese, peach napalm, thinly slice red onion and tomato, and some smoked salmon - alright, so I can be self indulgent in the morning, but damn it was good!). Then I padded back to the sitting room to eat.

I was greeted by the image of Bush on the tube addressing a meeting of the American Legion in KC, MO, urging the country to stay the course in Iraq. So much for my civilized morning.

Ugh.

How to tell if you really like what you do for a living.....

So at lunchtime today my office manager walked into the break room (which incidentally also doubles as our kitchen & the physician's assistant's office) and announced the girls at the front desk (i.e. the entire office staff except for Ron and I) have each thrown in two dollars to pool for lottery tickets. Did the two of us want to join in? Two dollars for some five or so minutes of fantasy and daydream? Sure, why not? The super Lotto is up to 74 million, while the multistate mega millions is somewhere north of 140 million. Simultaneously the three of us said, "hey, we could all retire!" "Yeah, right!" It was all followed by giggles and laughter.

An hour later Oana came back with a photocopy of the Lotto tickets we purchased as a group. She and I looked at each other and asked (again simultaneously), "so, what do you want to when you retire?" More spontaneous laughter. "Well, I think I want to drop down to just a couple of days a week here," I said. "Would be nice to not have to charge for services." "Oh wow," she wondered, "we could turn this into a nonprofit!" We then looked at each other and laughed.

Last Friday, was the last day for one of my staff people. Nancy started working for me and just before she turned 18. She's 25 now and starting nursing school this fall. She's the third staff person over the years that done just that. She's gone from being the gum chewing teenager, replete with facial piercings and too much very dark makeup, to being the relatively confident young woman who wants to do something both for herself and for the community at large. Leaving work here however is a little bit like leaving the nest for her and her going away dinner was not without a fair number of tears on her part. During dinner, after a couple of good sized margaritas, I suddenly found her head on my shoulder as I picked up my fish tacos. She was crying. I put my arm around her and asked what was wrong.

"I'm going to miss working here." I hugged her tightly, awkward though it was, both of us still sitting at the dinner table.
"You're going to be just fine," I assured her.
"Don't you have mixed feelings about my leaving?" Her mascara was starting to run.
"This practice and the work we do here, has been my dream. You've been a part of it, but it's come time for you to pursue some dreams of your own. Every last one of us who comes from that immigrant/ethnic/minority background who gets an education and brings it back to benefit their community is an example for more of us to follow. Don't remember what Caesar Chavez said?"
"No Doc, what?"
"¡Si, se puede!" (Yes, it can be done!")

Found money

Well that was nice news!

Ever take a jacket to the cleaners and on the way there checked the pockets, only to find a forgotten $20 or $50? Perhaps you've pulled the cushions off the couch to vacuum and found a wad of bills that have fallen out of your pocket. That sort of thing happened to me today not once, but twice.

I got a Visa debit card in the mail today. There is a program/website/drug information service for medical types called Epocrates. I periodically get e-mail from them asking me if I'd be willing to fill out a questionnaire. Generally there's a small honorarium and in fact I used the old Visa debit card a couple of years ago to pay for my contact lenses. Oddly enough, I did one of those questionnaires just last night. It was a long one with a $125 honorarium. After I activated the card this afternoon, I logged in on line to see how much was on it. 405 bucks! And that's not including the honorarium from last night which won't be credited for another month.

The other thing that came in the mail today, was one of my credit card statements, so after checking out what was on the debit card, I logged onto my credit card company to pay my bill. I'm not a major fan of late fees. Now I put everything on this credit card. Gas. Groceries. Dinner out. You name it, it goes on this card. Then I pay everything off every month. I noted on the bill that I have a bunch of "reward points" that are going to expire this coming October. So while I was on line paying the bill for the month, I checked out how many reward points I have and then looked to see what I could get with them. Turns out if I decide to turn them in for cash, the company will send me $1000! I haven't cashed anything in in probably four years, which is prior to mergers of the current credit card company with the previous owner/bank. Back then, I acquired a telescope and a leather backpack. There wasn't an awful lot of things to choose from with the previous credit card company, at least not much I was interested in.

Another option for those credit card points is an airline ticket to anywhere in the world! Unfortunately, while I have enough points for that, I don't have enough points for two. No desire to go somewhere without taking LJ. (But you know, I HAVE always wanted to see Australia.......)