Life as we know it

This week we had the opportunity to gently discourage a doctor from coming to practice here. Yes, he would be more competition for B, but we both believe in a free market and if he really wanted to come here then so be it. Our objective was to prevent another orthopod from coming here under false pretenses and then leaving after a year like the last two did. I remember Ben’s interview dinner over 2 years ago at the same seafood and steakhouse restaurant. I had a cough then and I had one this time too. Weird. The service was slow last time due to a kitchen fire. This time it was just slow. In March of 2008 we were told by someone at dinner how much this city was like Kzoo (where he grew up). I loved hearing that since I didn’t want to move from SW Michigan. I thought great. There must be shopping, great parks, affordable housing, awesome thrift stores, no mosquitoes just a 20 degree temperature difference. Strangely enough this week’s interviewee is living in Michigan. I didn’t say that this sleepy Texas town is anything like Michigan. In fact we didn’t gloss over the mosquito problem or the lack of a middle class…how the rich exit the city on the weekend because 5 days in the city are 5 days too many. I can laugh at the hole we live in, because I came here aware that it was just that. We visited here four times before we signed a contract. I knew a majority of the men wear silk shirts and flashy jewelry and the women wear way too much makeup. I didn’t know that the tattoo parlour would be the business in town that grows, but really it isn’t surprising. We are here because of the practice opportunity and because Ben loves to fish. Whether we are here forever, I couldn’t say. But if we are, maybe Ben will start wearing floral shirts untucked and sandals to clinic and I’ll cake on more beauty products and sell them from the trunk of my pink Cadillac. And for our twentieth wedding anniversary we’ll get his and her tattoos. Taking body art suggestions.