Saturday, October 29, 2005

Nine months

Ooops! I wrote this last week but never got around to posting it; I guess it still seemed unfinished. Anyway, this should have been last Saturday's post:

Megan is nine months old today; she has now been out longer than she was in.

Megan is great at scooting, but still isn't crawling - maybe she'll be in that 10% that never crawls but just up and walks one day. She can also get to sitting position whenever she wants, which is usually when we are trying to change her diaper.

Megan has also mastered waving, though she is sometimes shy to perform. Then again there are other times when she is waving up and down the aisles of Home Depot like a beauty queen. Megs has also started giving kisses. This is really sweet...if you like tongue.

And Megan is a great eater. When we first started feeding Megan our pediatrician warned us that it can be quite a wasteful process, since you end up throwing so much out. So far we have thrown out exactly two half jars of food and one of those was because a friend's dog slobbered all over it! Megan will make a great vegetarian - she even eats the nasty ones like creamed spinach.

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

The three B's

What better way to relax after a hard day at work than with a beer, bath and a baby.. all at once.



I know Megan was very relaxed - No more beer for her!

Monday, October 24, 2005

Um, scratch that

Megan had a tough day with the cats today. She loves being with the cats, but Megan doesn't always express her love in a kind and gentle way. Until now, the cats have been very tolerant, but today Zeus took a swipe a Megan and got her across the face. Fortunately, it was only a tiny scratch by the eye.



Later in the day, Dante ate all of Megan's Cheerios off the floor. Megan has forgiven them both.

Friday, October 21, 2005

Work wrap up

My first three weeks of work felt kind of like moving to England: the language is supposed to be the same but then all the sudden someone says "loo" or "lorrie" and you don't know what the heck they are talking about. And when you try to do something familiar like order a pizza you are shocked to find there is corn on it - something you have never even considered. I have been overwhelmed by the "culture shock" at work even though things aren't supposed to be that different from my residency.

I have met about a hundred new people and they have all mastered my name, but I seem to keep forgetting all of theirs. I didn't know the location of anything and so just to get a note across campus I had to ask where to get an envelope, to whom I needed to address the envelope and then where to drop it off. All the while the secretaries very politely answer my questions: "You put interdepartmental mail in this box here labeled "Interdepartmental Mail.'" One tech turned to me while I was doing a frozen section and asked, "Is this your first real job?" That obvious, huh?

The other big difference is the amount of support I have at work. There is someone to cut the specimens for me, to stain my slides for me, to clean up my frozen section mess, to put away the biopsy equipment - all the stuff I had to do as a resident. And the techs do this all while calling me "Dr. Smith" even though I repeatedly tell them to call me Pam. It is nice, but it also feels very weird.

Thursday night the office had a welcome dinner for me. I think this marked the end of my honeymoon period. Next week I have a full workload, same as everyone else, instead of the 3/4 load they have been easing me in with.

Thursday, October 20, 2005

A Sinking Feeling



Two of Megan's favorite things: herself and a new object




Friday, October 14, 2005

Country Critters

We see all kinds of critters out here in the country. Two redtail hawks reside in the neighboring trees; several different cats come to frolic in our pasture; and we even had a blue heron in our pond last week. We even have a little snow imp in our house.




Tuesday, October 4, 2005

Big Brown Bathtub

Our brown bathtub may be ugly, but it sure is a lot of fun!








Monday, October 3, 2005

First Day of Work

Alright, one day down, twenty years to go!

Anyway my first day of work went well. Megan cooperated like a champ. She didn't wake up for her feeding until 6 am. Normally I feed her and then we all go back to our respective beds for another little snooze. This, morning, however, Megan went back to snoozing and I had to get ready for work. She was still sleeping when I left.

Commuting on country roads should be nice because there isn't any traffic, unless, of course, you get stuck behind a school bus that stops every block for three miles. Then it sucks.

When I got to work, my first orde of business was to go get my picture taken and get an ID badge. But it just so happened to be the first day for the woman in charge of this task as well. She didn't have keys to the door. When we finally found someone to open it, she didn't have a password to log on to the computer. I had to go back later.

Then I headed off to the orientation required of all employees. The first item of discussion was the need to have your ID badge displayed at all times. I crossed my arms so no one would know I was already breaking the rules. The we watched the Fish video about how you can make work fun and how you choose your attitude every day. Actually, this was the best part of the orientation.

And no hospital orientation would be complete without the dreded blood borne pathogen lecture. Someone actually demonstrated how to wash your hands during this portion. And I nearly jumped out of my seat when the instructor talked about "certain bacteria like malaria also infect the blood." Malaria is a protozoan you moron, but I kept my cool.

I was the only new physician orienting today and every speaker kept asking "Is there one doctor here?" I had to keep raising my hand to tell them who I was. This might have been avoided if I had had the proper name tag. After identifying myself the speaker would tell me how this or that wasn't relative to me (I am not actually a hospital employee, just contracted by the hospital). I kept wondering why I was wasting my time if none of this was relevant. Apparently, they finally clued in because my afternoon session was separate from everyone elses and I am completely excused from day two of orientation tomorrow.

Coincidentally, there was one other physician who started work today, but he had already completed the orientation. His name was James Proffitt - how bizzarre.

In the afternoon, I actually went to my work site. There I was welcomed with flowers in my spiffy new office.



I unpacked a few books, met a few people, choose a few passwords, looked at a grand total of two slides, and called it a day.

When I got home I had more flowers waiting for me.



Plus a little peach:



Megan isn't really that messy when she eats, Mac just thought it would be funny to put peaches on her nose for the camera.

Tomorrow the office is having a welcome cake party for me. Now if only work were flowers and cake every day!

Sunday, October 2, 2005

Busy, busy, busy

Even though I've been off work all week - it has been very busy. I returned from Tampa on Friday; we enjoyed a wonderful Harvest Fest dinner on Saturday hosted by Craig and Lisa; my parents came to visit for three days starting on Sunday; Monday we headed off to the Salem cook's tour here in our neighborhood; Tuesday I went to say all my goodbyes at OHSU and had a great going away lunch with the hemepath crew; and the latter half of the week we spent working on the house. Whew! But unfortunately, my time off has come to an end. Tomorrow I start my new job. This is the real world now, folks: day one of my carreer starts at 7:30 Monday morning. I feel like the new kid on the first day of school. And it's not going to be easy to leave this every day: