Home again

I went to Northern California for an interview on Monday. Flew back last night. With a couple of lay overs and a delayed plane, it was an all night extravaganza. When people say, Oh, I just love to travel, nights like that one are not what they're referring to.

I have spent August days roofing houses and gone home feeling less disgusting than I did after spending the night in that airplane. Something about greeting the morning (and its fermented breath) with 150 people separated by nothing but a bunch of tiny, grungy used pillows, all their toothbrushes buried in the overhead compartments...

Just thinking about it makes me want to take a hot shower in Listerine.

The trip was not all bitching and moaning, though. Monday afternoon found me sitting on a bench. Outside. Eating an ice cream cone. In JANUARY. I thought of you, Maria. In fact, I briefly considered calling you to tell you all about it. But, I seem to remember you kindly requesting that I no longer do that when I'm stinkin' drunk...and I was stinkin' drunk on that ice cream.

More on all of that later. Right now, I'm heading to my bed (ahh, that just sounds nice) to rest up for a long day of nephrology tomorrow. I anticipate a lot of time spent drawing the nephron on the backs of paper towels, trying to figure out where my patients' electrolytes went. And that will be almost as much fun as sitting on a bench. Outside. Eating an ice cream cone. In JANUARY.