Grey's Anatomy IS Like Real Life

This past fall there was an episode of Grey's Anatomy featuring the dermatology department at Seattle Grace (the hospital where all the doctors on the show work). The humor of the situation was that the dermatology department represented a sort of Shangri-la to the surgical residents on the show, who got sucked up in the New Age vibes they encountered there, from relaxing music, to massage, to grapes and filtered water. Of course, in the show, reality quickly crashed back in on the residents when they headed back to the surgical ward.

Typically, I do not like to use the word reality when referring to Grey's Anatomy, but after my experience at a dermatologist's office on Monday, I've been forced to reconsider.

Upon entering the dermatologist's office, I quickly became aware of Enya-type music being softly pumped through a speaker system in a waiting room made up of cushion-covered wicker chairs and tables. I was okay with all of this (although my husband's skin would have been crawling), but I felt sorry for the 10-12 year old boy sitting with his mother - he looked trapped. Seriously, a new-agey waiting room is really not the place for a boy that age...or maybe for almost anyone.

The waiting room experience was followed by my meeting with a physician's assistant, who, at various times told me in a very soothing voice, "We can open a window for you if you need some air" (it was in the 30s outside), and "You are so in tune with yourself to feel your blood vessels in your nose dilating when it's cold outside. That's wonderful."

Such was my experience at the dermatologist's office. It was somewhat surreal, and reminded me more of going to a spa or a massage therapist's office than a doctor's. Given that so many dermatologists are becoming pseudo-plastic surgeons these days, this is not super surprising. The soothing environment becomes an exchange for the money you are going to be asked to shell out for laser treatments or face peels.

Personally, I'd rather not sugar-coat the whole thing. What do you think?

New Year

Holiday Countdown 2008:

1) Baked Christmas cookies/candy, which were then distributed to the office staff in my and my husband's department and the neighbors.

2) Bought and mailed Christmas presents over 1 week before Christmas!

3) Left home on December 17th for a 10-day trip to two cities on the west coast. Got caught in the traffic muddle that ensued after Las Vegas got snow and stayed the night in a sub-par hotel in Phoenix. There was no shower curtain in our room, but once you've been awake for over 20 hours and can only sleep for 4-5 that night, little things like shower curtains don't seem that important.

4) Graduated on December 19th. Yes, it was totally worth it to make a trip to our alma mater for graduation. My husband and I spent 7 years working on our masters and then our doctorates, and getting our hoods felt great!!! It also put closure on a long process.

5) Saw friends in city of alma mater, which was soul-reviving. With the long months of sickness last semester, and getting used to a new place, we haven't yet made many new friends (that's one of our combined resolutions for 2009).

6) On December 20th flew to Santa Barbara to spend Christmas with my parents and grandmother. We took walks in the 50-60 degree weather (which felt wonderful!!!), saw the beach, visited Trader Joe's and remembered why we miss it so much, listened to my grandmother tell stories about her childhood Christmases in Vienna, sang Christmas carols, made really yummy Chicken Cacciatore (Giada De Laurentis made a typically time-consuming, and potentially complicated, dish very simple), and generally spent time together.

7) Arrived back home the evening of the 26th. We were glad to see our pets and our house. Having your own house to come back to changes things.

8) Today: finally got out our holiday cards, complete with a message from the dog. The message from the dog follows. Enjoy!

Dear Everyone,

In the spirit of the season, I have decided to take a break from bone chewing and cat chasing to write this holiday newsletter. This year, two dissertations were earned in our household and my masters are now entitled to be addressed as Dr. X and Dr. PracticingIdealist X. They spent a lot of time on this decision but I don’t really see the point. I just call them ”food guy” and “bride of food guy” myself. Humans are so picky.

As if this weren’t enough of a shake-up, Drs. Food Guy then stuck yours truly, the orange cat and the gray cat into cages in the back of a car. Every morning we went in and every night we came out in some new place. The smells were really cool! I mostly slept but the orange cat spent a lot of the trip complaining. During our nightly breaks I tried to comfort him but for some reason the Food Guys thought I was just biting his leg. Please! Finally, we pulled in to our new home.

The house is amazing! A large back yard complete with big birds and these things called deer and squirrels. I haven’t seen a reptile in months! I’m not so sure about this white stuff that falls from the sky- I barked at it at first but now it seems to know who’s boss. Some days I don’t see the cats for hours on end- they like to hide in the basement, I think, but it’s weird down there. The Food Guys seem happy, too.

Well, that’s the news! We wish all of you our warmest holiday wishes and hope the new year brings you lots of yummy rawhide bones.

Love,
Dog X

Last Day of Class: The Good and the Not so Good

(Disclaimer: There is some bragging and whining involved in this post.)

Hooray! Today was my last day of teaching race/ethnicity for the first time. It went much better than I ever expected. I have two students who specifically asked if I would be teaching something else in the spring, and one of my students shook my hand today after class and told me I was a great teacher. Hooray again!

On the downside, I have a student who is constantly plauging me about his grade on the second exam. After talking with several students who did not particularly like their grades on Exam 2 (please keep in mind that I grade blind - I not only do not look at the student's name when grading their exam, but I also grade all of one question at a time, so that I'm consistent between students), and given my grading strategy, I decided that it would be unfair to give points back to one or two students. So instead, I told them all today that I would consider applying a curve to Exam 2 after seeing the final course averages. (Please also keep in mind that they have a very cushy extra credit option for which they receive points simply for showing up.)

Two of the three original students with grievances said they completely understood. The annoying student, however, emailed me after class explaining why I should make an exception for him.

This is the part of teaching that I HATE.

Note to self: Remember the handshake, P.I., remember the handshake. And that teaching is over except for the final ; ).

Gay Marriage Will Save the Economy!

This is just too funny not to share. Enjoy!

Presentation

Today I'm giving my first presentation as a Ph.D. I have to admit it feels good to have those three letters and two little dots after my name.

It's a good day.

New Things

Two observations about my new world/home:

All Things Snow

Today it is snowing. According to the weatherpeople on the radio, we are experiencing snow "showers," in contrast to the snow "flurries" predicted for later in the week. At times it does resemble rain showers; it's whiter and fluffier, but people still use their umbrellas while walking in it. I haven't heard any other words used to describe the snow yet, but I'm sure there will be more (including dirty snow and *&^#%* snow that won't melt away - we won't go into all the Eskimo words for snow).

Right now...it's beautiful.

And I'm excited for the adventure-aspect. It's similar to when I moved to the middle of the desert and encountered warning signs on the highway proclaiming certain areas "Blowing Dust Areas," but WAY more fun. Snow in the eyes is distracting, but dust in the eyes really hurts. And again, snow is prettier.

Wait! I live in a real neighborhood now!

Several weeks ago I ran into a nice brother and sister on the sidewalk while I was walking our dog. The little boy was selling popcorn for the Boy Scouts, while his sister was selling cookies for the Girl Scouts. As I signed myself up for one container of popcorn and three boxes of cookies (relatively the same price, to keep things fair), I was reminded of my many years of girl-scoutery in actual neighborhoods. What a weird realization to be on the other side of the order form.

However, all things weren't completely comparable. In this case, the children were British (from London), and they live in the house that my husband has jokingly dubbed "Tara." Ah postmodernism (or whatever you'd like to call it), where the British family lives in a home reminiscent of Southern mansions in the Northeast. When I was selling cookies, the most exotic part was delivering the cookies in our little red wagon.

WOW!

I teach from 10:10-11:00 MWF. After class this morning I received the following email (paraphrased):

Dear Practicing Idealist,

I'm sorry I missed your class today, I accidentally overslept. I hope you
have a great weekend. Looking forward to class on Monday.

Sincerely,
Penitent Student

Not only does this new university have an awesome library, but there are students like this! I'm not really sure what to think about this rabbit hole I've fallen down.