'Til you're stuffed to the brim with it

So I took this from my friend Christi's blog. She said this more eloquently than I could even imagine and I love her for it! Its something I needed to hear, and thought perhaps you may enjoy it as well...

Sometimes, someone who has meant the world to you decides that you aren't too terribly important to them anymore. It might come without warning, and it might come at a horrible time in your life. It might make you sad and it might make you wonder what will happen to all that love you wasted on them.

But I like to think that it's okay. I like to think that love given is never love wasted, no matter who or what you poured it into. And that by giving all that love away, there's now plenty of room in your heart to be given all sorts of love in return, 'til you're stuffed to the brim with it.

Thank you, Miss Christi!

Oh, and in case you didn't know... I'm a DOCTOR!!

Why do some people believe that insisting you refer to them by their professional title somehow will make you respect them more? Truthfully, it just pisses me off. It also makes me wonder how miserable they really must be in life if their happiness rests on how many times they can put a tally by the "Times I've been called Doctor today" line in their journal at night. Don't get me wrong, I have immeasurable amounts of respect for people willing to go through that much schooling, training, and daily onslaught of things only the genuinely brave could stomach. The part that gets to me is the insistence on being called Doctor even in mere conversation. I deal with doctors quite frequently with my job, and only a few of them are this anxious about people knowing their status on the pecking order of life.

The reason this is getting to me now is I spent two hours… yes… TWO HOURS with a woman in my office yesterday who repetitively dropped this tidbit into our discussion, "Well, my husband is an international doctor who is highly respected, I'm sure you've heard of him. He's the best facial surgeon in the country." (I've heard of many, I'd never heard of him) Well, after two hours going over her needs/wants/anything she could think of to throw in my face, including suggesting I have her husband fix mine (yes, I was biting my tongue on that one) she left my office seemingly satisfied with the outcome.

To my surprise, and to be totally honest, dismay, I received this message on my phone this morning, "Maren, this is DOCTOR X, Mrs. X's husband. You spoke with her for a little bit yesterday and were unable to resolve our doubts about what is going on with her account. Call me AS SOON as you get this. DOCTOR X, 555-5555, once again that is DOCTOR X." Dreading the upcoming exchange of egotistical dialogue, I picked up the phone and slowly dialed his number.


"Doctor X's office…"

"Hi, this is Maren with University Healthcare Attorney General's Office, can I speak with Doctor X please?"

"One moment."

Waiting, waiting, waiting… He is obviously a very important person since I have to wait so long for him. Waiting, waiting, waiting…

"This is DOCTOR X"

"Hi Doctor X, this is Maren with –blah, blah, blah- sorry I missed your call, what can I help you with?"

"Maren, this is DOCTOR X, you spoke with my wife Mrs. X yesterday about a recent surgery she had. Do you remember?"

Silently I roll my eyes - how could I forget?!?

"Yes, I remember, what can I help you with?"


Here comes the barrage of how I didn't explain a single thing (oh, but I did) and how confused I left his wife feeling (is that why she left smiling and thanking me for all my help??) and how he DEMANDS that I tell him why the actual charges on her account ended up being more than the *estimate* they were given pre-op. I clarify that an estimate is just that… an estimation of charges that will accrue during the surgery, and that sometimes there are things that come up mid-procedure that will cause additional charges to be added to the final balance. This is what happened on Mrs. X's account, I explain.

His response, "I am a DOCTOR, and I know how charges come about, what I don't know is how YOU PEOPLE (man, I really hate when people say that) can't get your charges right and give us a correct estimate when we ask for one! Is it really THAT DAMN DIFFICULT??"

"Like I said Sir, an esti…"

"Sir? SIR? I'm a DOCTOR and you WILL call me DOCTOR! I didn't go though years of medical school and work as hard as I have to get where I am to be called SIR!!!"

UGH! Here we go…

"I apologize. Doctor X, like I said, an estimate is just an amount that is presumably going to be the balance on an account. It is not a guarantee. There will always be the possibility of additional charges being added due to the fact that with surgeries there is always a chance of the unknown happening. Since you're a DOCTOR I'm sure you understand that completely."

"Uh, well, I guess that is possible, but…"

"Along with that, DOCTOR, I'm sure Mrs. X also explained to you that she was fully satisfied with the breakdown of accounting I gave her yesterday, as well as the discount I gave her on the remaining amount."

"She did mention…"

"I'm sure, DOCTOR, she also explained to you that all of your accounts have now been fully satisfied and the issues with your insurance companies were settled with a simple phone call to customer service. She has my number if she has any further questions."

"Well. Umm. That is good then. She will be calling you to get a receipt for that payment she made."

"She received one yesterday when she made her payment, DOCTOR. If she needs another copy, I can mail her one today."

"Uh… no… the one she has should be sufficient."

"Ok then, is there anything else I can help you with, DOCTOR?"

"Uh, no." Click.

No "thank you." No "have a nice day." No "goodbye." No "thank you for adding twenty three tick marks to my daily count of times people called me DOCTOR." Nothing!

Can I just tell you, I'm OOZING respect for him right now. I'm dying to just bow down on my knees and kiss his feet because, in case you didn't know… He's a DOCTOR!!





Ok, I'm done now. Thanks for listening to my ranting.

TAG - 6 quirks

"The sisters" got tagged through Mimi's blog, so I figured this would be my place to start. We're supposed to list 6 quirks about ourselves and, like Kim, I'm having troubles narrowing it down to just 6, but here we go...

1) If I'm feeling overly stressed at work I kick off my shoes and sit cross legged at my desk. It relaxes me and helps me to focus for some strange reason. Not only that, but it gives the security guard something to laugh at. Now whenever he passes my office he kicks his feet out towards me to get me to do the same so he can see whether or not I've got shoes on. Its his tool to judge how stressed I am.

2) I am a habitual people-watcher. It doesn't matter whether I'm at work looking out my window, walking downtown, sitting in a restaurant, anything. Wherever I am, I'm looking to see the bits of people that they chose to show society, and wondering why its those bits that they chose to show. So if you're ever trying to talk to me and need 100% of my attention, I suggest you don't do it in a public place.

3) I can't touch metal under water. It makes my teeth hurt. (Yeah Mimi, I totally get you on that one) If I'm doing dishes I have to pull the knife/pan/whatever out of the water and then scrub it, I can't scrub it under water like they show in all the commercials. I also can't scrape metal with my nails, it produces the same teeth-hurting effect. If I ever get anything metal with a sticky price tag on it, someone else has to get it off, or I scrub it with a rag until it rubs off.

4) I'm horrible at surprises. I can keep secrets like a champ normally, but when I'm trying to surprise someone with something I know they'll love I get so excited to see their face that I have a helluva time keeping it to myself.

5) I love anything mini. Mini bottles of shampoo and conditioner from hotels, mini lotions, mini pens and pencils, mini sticky notes (well, I'm obsessed with sticky notes in general, but thats another story) I even have a mini ketchup I got on my last road trip.

6) I'm scared TO DEATH of heights, but get a euphoric high anytime I push past it. Any time I climb a rock and look back down from the top, stand at the edge of a cliff, reach the peak of a rollercoaster, etc. I feel like I've overcome an obstacle that seemed impossible. I'm hoping to take that euphoria to an extreme soon and go sky diving.

** I tag whoever hasn't done it yet who wants to.