10/13 - I had way too much to drink the night before. Way too much. So Saturday was a bust. I spent the whole day just farting around on the computer--no volleyball, no gym, no errands. Until that evening. After all the previous nights with the Straights, it was nice to spend some time with my Gays. Dutch, Fishering and I went to a housewarming party. I called it an early night.
10/14 - Again, no gym. Instead, Sucker wanted to go kayaking. He lives right in Marina del Rey, so it's convenient. We drove out to the marina at 10:00. At that time when the air is still a little brisk and the sun makes everything that cool morning blue, it was perfect. And to see the marina, with all the dock slips and the yachts with their masts towering overhead, to see it from the vantage point of being in the water itself, it was awesome!
We finished up by noon, giving me enough time to shower, change and get up to the Sherman Oaks Galleria where I had lunch with Sunshine, his wife, Guido and Razor Burn to talk some business. I was given my brand new business card, bitches! It's going to happen soon...I think.
It's all part of the plan. We have a plan. Months ago, while sitting at dinner at the Falcon, Guido, Razor Burn and I set two goals. The first was Summer of Fun. Mission one, accomplished. The second goal was Big Things. We said it all the time, "Big things, baby. Big things."
That's what it has been about. The business is about to launch. Now the new project, buying a home. Individually, we can't really get shit. Actually we can get shit, but that's what it would be--shit. Collectively, what can we get? Big things.
After lunch, we checked out a compound (yes it is officially described as a compound, not a home). I like the sound of that. In a crowded bar: "Guido, I'm gettin' tired. I'll meet you back at the compound." Anyway, we checked out the compound. Four bedrooms (really five). A movie room with a projection screen that comes down via remote control from the ceiling. A billiard room (yes, it sounds like I could be living in the Clue house--"Van fucked Mr. Body in the billiard room with a candlestick...er condom"). A pool. Two waterfalls. Two fire pits. One koi pond. And a shitload of character.
We saw one other house that day...not so much, then convened at Tommy Ray's to formulate our plan of attack over mojitos.
10/15 - After work, met up again with Razor Burn and Guido for dinner at Lala's, but had to leave early for my 8:30 date with Steel Blue. Man that was a good date.
10/16 - Apparently, not such a good date. I called him on the way home, then went home a little down. Eh, whatevah.
10/17 - On call. I didn't get paged. Not once. At 2:00, I thought something might have been wrong, so I called the exchange: "Hey, it's Dr. V. I just wanted to make sure you had the right number." What the fuck was I doing? Still, didn't get a single call. We call that a no hitter. Love no hitters.
10/18 - Half day. Worked out. Met up with Dutch and Fishering and others at O-Bar. It was a Thursday. What else?
10/19 - It was another Friday. Hit me like a ton of bricks. As soon as I sat down and logged into my schedule, my jaw dropped at the whopping list of twenty-six patients on the docket. What the fuck? All day I worked three rooms simultaneously, running from one to the other like a chicken with its head cut off. As I evaluated the vertigo patient in one room, the nurse was drawing blood on the diabetic in the other as the gastroenteritis patient rested with a bag of IV fluids running in the third. On top of all that, I was on the phone returning patient phone calls, trying to get a hospital bed for a patient with severe flank tenderness and a white blood cell count of 21 with no improvement after antibiotics. Besides that, I had to deal with schmoozing with the drug reps, refilling medications, reviewing labs and writing letters. To top it all off, I had four walk-in patients.
By 4:30, I was exhausted. So when my nurse got a phone call from a patient asking for antibiotics without being seen, I had had it. "Tell him I don't give antibiotics without first evaluating a patient."
He wants to come in.
"Tell him I don't have any openings right now, but the Urgent Care is open in an hour, they can treat his upper respiratory infection."
He says you're his doctor, and he wants to see you.
"What did I say?"
He says you're his doctor, and if he walks in you WILL see him.
"Tell him if he walks in today, I will see him. Then I will ask for him to find another doctor for any future issues."
I had had it. The day was long. I was fucking tired. I just wanted to go home. But I had made plans with Guido and Razor Burn for dinner at 8:30. I thought about cancelling. Sometimes, though, my inability to say no (to friends, that is) pays off.
I'll post details of Friday night soon.
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