A Bunch of Random Stuff

Because I tend to write when the mood strikes me, and because I still find it easier to express myself with a pen and paper rather than on a keyboard, I often find bits and pieces of writing - the beginning of some rant or another - on rogue pieces of paper or scrawled in a notebook. For example, this rant started on some scrap paper at work, on the back of a poorly photocopied request for clinical records. Wow, writing on scrap paper about writing on scrap paper. I'm so Meta.

Anyway.

It is really funny to come across the aforementioned scraps months later, because although they obviously meant enough to me at the time for me to get started, they didn't mean enough for me to follow through with the finished product. Reading a lot of them, I often wonder what the hell I was even thinking.

Case in point, I just found a list of protein bars meticulously detailed in the back of my dayplanner, each with a rating out of 10. Apparently, that was important research to me at some point, and I quickly discovered that anything with less than about 20 grams of carbs is virtually inedible, but why I thought anyone else would care is beyond me.

I've started countless rants on the foibles of working with the public - usually while waiting for someone who hasn't shown up for an appointment. The infamous "no show" is probably my most popular rant never written. I guess I can't bring myself to go all the way with a no show rant since the entire topic boils down to - "It's inconsiderate. Don't do it." A lengthy diatribe about *how* inconsiderate it is or *how much* you shouldn't do it isn't very enlightening to anyone. Not that I'm claiming much of my other writing is enlightening. Gah! You know what I mean.

I also started one last year when one of the MDs at my clinic asked someone else to come talk to me about a problem he had with me. I was really choked at his round about approach, and thought about talking to him about it. But I'm the queen of conflict avoidance, so I didn't, and I see why he wanted to do it through a buffer. And no, I'm not planning to work on my conflict avoiding tendencies. I'm quite comfortable with them the way they are.

For those of you wondering why more of these pieces of fine social commentary (hah!) don't make it onto the site, all my various bits of home repairs have kept me too busy to get much writing done for pleasure, plus, I'm avoiding doing work on a website for my practice, so time spent writing and coding Vertigogirl.com just reminds me of some of the other work I should be doing. I was pretty impressed with the ceiling fan/light combo I installed in the bedroom, though. I'm certainly not going to win any awards for electrical skills though. But at least I did remember to turn off the electricity. I also got a great workout running up and down the stairs about 6 times before I figured out which breaker serviced the bedroom. I guess I should have labeled it for next time. (I kid. I'm way to anal not to label the appropriate breakers when I figure out which is which.)

My next projects are getting the partially installed screen door for our back door to fit into the doorframe - I measured. I swear. I'm also going to install a large, fluorescent bubble light in the kitchen. And thanks to helping the Emages out yesterday, I also know how to install laminate flooring. Maybe I'll open a contracting business. Nah. None of these projects ever turn out as easy as I expect, but I am learning a lot about home repairs as I go. And that's what it's all about isn't it, boys and girls? Learning. Oh, and not electrocuting oneself. Oh, and power tools. (Heh.)