'Nother day, nother... nah, that's way too lame. I wonder if people actually said that when they were making a dollar a day? I remember when I was in high school, my goal, my dream, was to make $100 a week. Yep, that *was* a long time ago, heh. Anyway, the day started out pretty OK. Karen's cousin Phil got up shortly after I did, and we visited a little, but I'm used to having my mornings to myself, y'know? I got Karen up so that she could keep Phil company so that I could get ready for work. I didn't go in until 08:00, but I still got up at the regular time, so it was a little more relaxed time than usual. Work. It was a busy, confused day, it seemed like every patient that we did presented a new problem. Well, mostly old problems, the botched preps, the incorrectly answered questions (polite for baldfaced lies 'cause they didn't want to take the time to read the patient's chart and get the correct information) coming from the doc's offices. A more frequently occurring problem lately is the no-shows. Every day we have people just not show up for their appointments. I have no idea what's going on there, probably the people are checking their insurance and then checking the prices on the exams and saying t' hell with it. It would be nice, though, if they would call up and cancel and make room for other patients, wouldn't it? And then we have the patients that show up a day late for their appointments. When that happens, we treat it like it was the doc's office that messed up, (and it most likely was) but they still have to wait until we can get to them. Most of them are understanding, but some walk out in a huff and we never hear from them again. And then there are the ones who show up three or four hours early. We try to work them in early if we can, but the fact that we know that they're sitting there is kinda nerve wracking. Should we not eat our lunches today 'cause mr X is here early? Of course, it's nice for them if someone doesn't show up, and that's why they're here early. Sometimes they get lucky, more frequently we just give it up for them... and they know that we'll do it, and that's why they're here. And why we're here? To serve, dammit. And we do the best that we can, including going hungry, if that's what it takes. OK, rant over. I really love my patients, I do. Legs hurt. Back hurts. But there is laughter in my heart. Not that it makes my legs feel any better, but I couldn't stand it otherwise. In fact, I couldn't stand living without laughter in my heart, or somewhere in close proximity, y'know.