Just another day at the office

So as you may remember, I work in two offices... one of which has tried my already tried and tired patience until just about the last drop has been squeezed out of my impatient little head. Now most of the time I walk around angry and frustrated while I'm at work.
Today for example, I came to work a little early so that I could catch up on paperwork. No need to do that it seems, as the parking lot is still gated and locked shut. I wait for 15 minutes for the custodian to open it up. No problem really, I sort of expected this. Not mad yet.
I come in, its 15 minutes before the start of the first appointment. We have no one at the front desk to check in the patients. She doesn't come until almost 10 minutes into the first appointment time. My first patient is checked in at 9:10 am, for a 30 minute appointment. This means 1/3 of the appointment time was hypothetically spent in the receptionist's car as she makes her way to work. This is not unusual, but I do find this frustrating. And so it begins. My patient does not speak English, which again, is typical, and does not make me angry. I do have to go looking around the office for my assistant who is sitting in the lab, fanning herself, and the frustration increases just a titch. When I tell her we have a patient, she snaps, "I'm feeling faint so you're just going to have to give me a second with the fan." A second assistant hurriedly plugs in the fan. I offer to get her water. She says she wants her own water from the fridge. I bring it, she tells me its the wrong one, but she'll drink it anyway. And so here we have it. I haven't even started the day and I'm already ready to walk out the door.
I find another assistant to translate for me, and finish the appointment by myself.
Why not insist she come in and help, and by help I mean, do her job? Well my friends, because believe it or not, it isn't worth it. This particular assistant loves a good fight, and its only 9:30 in the morning by this point. I leave the room for her to clean, and she comes in and explains that she has anxiety related to childcare. Oh yeah, that makes sense. I guess if ever we get anxious about something we should anticipate a complete inability to perform our jobs. Good thing no one else has any problems, this place would have to totally shut down.
I know I need to be patient, but I don't need to be a doormat. I'm getting tired of trying to lead by example, and I'm not their boss so I can't really do anything about their behavior. Nevermind the million other reasons this is really annoying, like being in school for 100 years and how I might as well get paid in pennies to be at this clinic.
So... why do I work here? It used to be that I really loved the community and I felt like I was doing something of value. Well, I've since learned that the services ain't any less valuable at my other office because hard-working people pay for them. And now... I don't know. I still like the community, but I'm burning out. One of my coworkers here is the best, and our director is so amazing. Plus he gave me a job right out of my residency when no one else wanted to hire me. The rest of the dentists were trained elsewhere and its difficult for me to communicate with them and be on the same page regarding patient care... and the day to day seems to be getting harder and harder. Guess we'll have to see if it gets better in the next few months. I hope so.

Watch Out Wednesday

Leon's favorite game is a combination of being chased all over the apartment, then running behind this chair and leaping at you when you slowing look over the side. He won't jump until he sees your eyes... which is hard to appreciate with the camera. He's so cute.
Happy Wednesday!

And Sold!

To the man from New Hampshire with a flat bed trailer!

That's right... my husband successfully sold our car in just under 24h. I mean, who could say no to this face?

Oh navy blue Audi, I will miss you.  As a hand-me-up from my very glamorous cousin Sarah, I was so excited to hear that you would be our car in Boston. I think I squealed at the prospect of driving such a fancy car. An AUDI! That's German engineering!

 We had our ups and downs, as you're a manual transmission, (or should I say jolts and stalls, ha!) and it took me a long, long time to commit to driving you. I'll never forget when I had to go to a job interview in Worcester all by myself, and drive alone for the first time... then on the way back I missed the exit for the Mass Pike and thought taking Rte 9 back to Boston would be the same. Super not the same. We stalled at every single red light on the way back to Boston... I would approach every intersection and chant "stay green, stay green, stay green." and try not to tear up as the light changed... everyone honked at me, there was some yelling (and I may or may not have stuck my middle through the sunroof a few times, sorry Grandma,) but after that, I had it. And now our new car is a manual transmission... I'm a changed woman!

I will miss you little car. Enjoy your new home.

And now, the Audi through photo memories:

Our first winter in Boston 2008.

Scrub a Dubbing Spring 2010...

doing the interior ourselves.

Marblehead Staycation Spring 2010.

OK maybe we don't have that many pictures of fun memories with the car... but I'll remember them anyway. Goodnight little car, and good-bye.

Laborde Day Weekend

We decided that from now on, Labor Day Weekend shall be known as Laborde Day Weekend, at least at our house.

Anywho... supposedly we were supposed to be hit by Hurricane Earl... so Joey and I did what any conscientious people would do when deciding whether or not to go out to a bar to meet friends, and that is predict the hurricane's pattern based upon the swirl pattern on our cat. This is easy. First you just get the cat:

Then look at the swirl pattern on his fur as you stretch him out. By this method we were able to surmise that we would just get a little bit of rain, and that's it... so off we went.

What's that? Oh, of course it was accurate.

So then I got to see my friends Caitlin and Brianna for a drink...

And hang out with my own Joey. Sometimes we end up talking to each other a lot because we're shy, and think that other people feel like they have to talk to us. Well, maybe that's mostly me. I'm lucky I have a built-in friend in my life.

Then for the rest of the weekend we relaxed...

And got our old car ready to sell/Joey did all of the research and important parts. But it was MY suggestion to take pictures in front of the park so that it would look maximally classy. See, I contribute.  Anyone want to buy a car?

It was a great weekend... I guess I'm ready to go back to work now. No Tuesday's Teeth today on account of the holiday. I hope everyone else had a great weekend too.

Afternoon dreaming

I'm sick of people...I just want to go home and paint my nails my most favorite fingernail polish:

OPI Bastille My Heart.

And be away from people that say they hate coming to the dentist... even though I'm nice enough to see them as an emergency appointment, during my lunch. I mean geez, pull yourself together people. There you go - that's my free advice for the day, internet: pull yourself together at your appointments... the world will thank you.

Fantastic Friday

And why is it fantastic you ask? Well, most obviously its Labor Day weekend... also my friend Caitlin is coming in town and I'm going to get to see her and she is FUN and I'm excited. But really, truly, and mostly, its fantastic because this guy:

is at home right now doing a LOT of laundry. Multiple weeks worth. And he's really good at laundry. He folds like I've never seen. And now I don't have to do it tomorrow. 

Thanks Joe Joe! PS: Can you pick me up from work today if its hurricaning?

Thankful Thursday

Because I'm thankful for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that we have a brand new car. Hollllaa!

Leon is thankful that I have such awesome friends like Brianna and Caitlin who take care of him when Joey and I go out of town. They even play with his favorite toy - a mouse on a string.

Thanks friends! And thanks to Caitlin for sending me this picture so I have one to put up on my blog as I write this (at work) and don't have to steal one off facebook, because that's not as cool.

So today I'm thankful for a lot of things (as previously mentioned,) but the ones that come to mind are the following (in no particular order):

1. Its Thursday, my favorite day of the week. (I love the anticipation that its almost the weekend)

2. I have really awesome coworkers who laugh at my lame jokes and are not only great dentists, but I can talk to them about patients and treatment when I have questions, or when people be drivin' me crazy.

3. Television.  

4. That I have really, really good parents. I don't mean to brag but, my parents are the bomb. They're both really intelligent and hard-working, AND they're fun and I like to call them on the phone and talk to them when we're far apart, but even more I like hanging out with them whenever I can. I will go on and on about this in another post on another day. Stay tuned.

5. Pandora, specifically my new "Every heartbeat" 80's station (for Throwback Thursdays in the doctors' room at my office. Sorry Mara.)

6. My awesome Grandma and sister, both named Elaine. I love them a lot... they are technically not the same person, but most people who know them would say they have a lot in common. They're lots of fun, and both really smart. Sometimes its intimidating and I don't know what they're talking about, but they don't make me feel dumb about it. Thanks Elaine and Grandma!

7. That we now have working air conditioning. I mean, for the love, this is essential in the 21st century.

8. Iced coffee from Au Bon Pain. I love when you can get it yourself because I like to blend the French Vanilla and French Roast Decaf about half and half, with a splash of regular French Roast at lunchtime. Delicous and doesn't make me shaky. My afternoon patients are thankful for that too. 

9. That my cat exclusively goes to the bathroom in his litter box. He is a good cat.

10. That one of my very best friends in the world, Haifa, had a healthy baby, Tala. She is so beautiful and I can't wait to see her. I think about them all the time.

11. That I have my Joey. I love him so much. He's so wonderful, so handsome, and my best friend. I love being with him all the time... even if we're just driving around car dancing... which we'll be doing a lot more of these days. He's such a conscientious clinician, and his patients are so lucky to have him. I'm really proud of how hard he's worked to be where he is in his perio program. I can't believe its his last year.

12. That we have an impending long weekend, what's up Labor Day!

13. We had a great summer. Lots of sun. Loved it.

14. Tom, my office manager, who fixes broken stuff and talks to my patients about how insurance works.

Alright then.. Happy Thursday everyone!