I did manage to make it out for an interview in the US for the next phase of things. Which is now rapidly approaching! (as I transcribe some of these "blog notes" onto the web, I've only got two week left in Launceston). In any event, I was in the airport at New Orleans and took the shuttle into the city center. Because of the time of night and so on, my "shuttle" actually ended up being one a three "Party Bus" mini-van-type things that operate in the city. The owner occasionally does late night shuttle duty for extra cash when there are no proms, so on. So yup-- lights, mini-bar, plush leather interiors, mirrored ceiling, insane sound-system.
Shared the ride w/ another guy coming from the airport. He was a great character who made practical props for movies (said he'd been involved with the last 2 Transformers movies and was working on the third(!?!) Definitely seemed like an ex-hippie who'd become mistrustful of the world through experience.
The upshot of the whole trip was that I've taken the job in New Orleans and imagine that will be the next big thing. Of course while staying in NOLA the big thing that struck me was that every third commercial on TV was for a personal injury lawyer (the oil spill, metoclopramide, asbestos and un-differentiated poor medical outcomes seemed to be the favorites at the time). Yikes-- welcome back to the USA.
Funny story. In the am when getting ready for an interview, I put on my suit in the early hours when it was still dark. Mind you, this was the first time I'd put on a suit since having brought the two of them to Australia (also brought some white coats I've never put on, but enough about that). In any event, I'm in the cafeteria making tea (What? Who am I? Have I been living in Australia?) and I look down and notice that in the dim light I've managed to put on the brown-grey mildly checkered pattern slacks and not the slightly blue-grey striped pants that went with the jacket I was wearing. The one time during the year I need to wear a suit. Sigh. Well, anyway during my apartment search, found out that Brad Pitt keeps a house in the French Quarter, so clearly I'll be in good company...
On my way back to the States, of course my plane from NOLA was late, so I ended up spenidng an extra day in LA w/ my good friend who's doing a Rheum fellowship there. She was on-call the day we wandered around Hollywood & Beverly Hills, doing the tourist thing. She got one (1) call during the day and it was about whether or not you could have white cells from a joint aspirate in OA. Yup, that was it. Tough life, I tell ya'... ;) In any event, we ended up in "the Valley" at a friend of hers house, and I was involved in the most epic beer-pong game ever played. It was ridiculous. I can't go into it right now, but extra-innings, penalty shoot-out-- the works. It reminded me of myself, Tim Shutt and Erich Kurschat chucking fallen acorns at a "no parking" sign across from the cottage at Kenyon in an attempt to illustrate the concept of arete in action. We came close, but the beer-pong was epic.
I think it's true that if you want to know something about someone, if you really want to get to know them, you should go traveling with them. Yourself included. There's a lot of good information there. First off, it tells you how and how well you plan. Often you don't have to be traveling, so there aren't many artificial deadlines or guidelines about how and when you get things nailed down. What criteria do you use to book your flights? Price? Date? How much is it worth to you to have a 3 hour shorter lay-over? $50? $100? Did you leave your hotel booking to the last minute? Do you want to have a car arranged? Did you look up the bus schedule in Ireland? Are you going to be sure to hit the tourist highlights from Lonely Planet or will you just see what happens once you arrive in Morocco? Do you happen to know that you will need a visa for Australia (not Austria) if you are planning a visit to Melbourne? These things matter, turns out. Not only for the current trip but in terms of what they say about you and how you like to plan for things.
Secondly, it tells you about your ability to be flexible with your plans. If one thing or another doesn't look like it's going to work out, how much does that bother you? And are you willing to accommodate other people's goals for the trip? Are they compromising to meet yours? I recall, fondly, when we headed out to the first Lilith Fair near Pittsburgh and our Danish exchange student began to complain about wanting to go home because of the rain. He was also complaining about why we were at this concert and not watching Brian Adams, but I'll let that discussion go for a bit. Meanwhile our friend who'd waited all day to see the Indigo Girls was dead set on staying put. At one point I was concerned that we'd end up w/ a dead Dane, but the tyranny of the majority won out.
Relatedly, travel is important because it reveals a fair bit about you when your plans don't go the way they're supposed to go. Travel that turns into a nightmare (or "challenge"-- perhaps I've revealed a bit about myself there...) tests resilience, resourcefulness, improvisation, communication, and importantly, patience. "God, grant me the strength to change the things I can, the serenity to accept the things I can't, and the wisdom to know the difference." I much prefer the Kipling line from "If," "if you can wait, and not be tired by waiting.."
On the Lonnie front, just two weeks left to go. Of course, one of those weeks is the overnight shift for 7 days in a row, so that's a fun kick in the teeth to send me off. But apart from that, Australia medicine is still keeping it real. The following is an actual quote from the first part of an Orthopod's letter back to the Pt's referring GP:
"Thank you for asking me to see this big man who has had 5 coronary bypasses, suffers from sleep apnea, obesity, diabetes and hypertension and lord knows what else."
Yup, that's in the medical record. Love it. Every now and again I'll write something like "his pattern of presentation to the ED for 'lost prescriptions' is becoming concerning and we may be unable to accommodate him in the future" or "her pattern of complaints did not seem to be consistent with any organic pathology with which I'm familiar." I tend to let people read my "and lord knows what else" 's in between the lines, I guess.
What's also great are the following options on our pathology reports screen:
In case you're getting concerned, the option of "dog" in response to the query "sex" is because our Path service would also do some of the veterinary work for the region.
I also loved this name for a day-care (creche) center here: "Dumped." What a name for a place where you drop off your kids!
And some things are just unfortunate in any culture. While "Urn-ie" might be accurate in terms of describing this machine as a small hot water heater, the evocation of "urine" is unfortunate. Though not entirely inaccurate-- my experience with this machine led to the worst cup of tea ever produced by human hands.
I'll get a good-bye Lonnie post up before I go!
Cheers,
--andrew s.
