January 7, 2020

by drplasticpicker

What a horrendous day yesterday. I was expecting to have a Georgia Senate Election party, and had far-fetched dreams of making peach cobbler for desert. The senate still flipped but then there was an attempted coup in Washington. Seriously, as attempted coup by a bunch of idiots who were taking selfies. They were domestic terrorists which shows the world how stupid terrorists are. I came home after a normal morning clinic and having tried to deliver good care and actually to attend to departmental needs and concerns, and I expected to have a “We Flipped the Senate” party with Peach Cobbler in honor of Georgia. Instead I fell asleep on the couch in the afternoon watching live-stream CNN, as the newscasters just sounded like my Facebook Feed friends. I wonder if I can become a CNN analyst?

I fell asleep with images of gunfire and smoke at our Capitol building, and my siblings and I were texting eachother with incredulous images. Then I was rudely woken up by a call about a departmental scheduling issue that was very annoying. I had to call five people to sort out what happened and to unravel the truth, and no one was at fault – but everyone was not being as efficient as they should be and some people had little omissions from the story they told me. I sent an email reminding everyone to act earlier at 2pm to avoid these scheduling mishaps and ironed out another workflow. I had to call to apologize to someone for making them feel bad. It was not their fault and not my fault, but when things don’t run efficiently there are bystander effects. But I did call to apologize as I was not wrong, but I made them feel bad which is wrong.

But after some sleep and Mr. Plastic Picker coming home early, I did settle down in the afternoon to push through some middle-management work and climate work. I had been thinking deeply about some minor issues in our department and nudged all of us to recommit to our work, and we are on our way. I truly enjoy working with our administrative team despite some dysfunctional relationships some people have with eachother. I really no longer have any dysfunctional relationships but other people do. But we are a team and no one is perfect, and we trudge forward. It is very important to be honest and to keep the patients and the department in the center of our decisions. I don’t know why people try to hide things. Don’t they realize I always find out? No one in particular but just over 90 doctors and hundreds of staff to take care of over a quarter of our region’s children. I’m just a bit player watching the wheels turn and nuding things in the direction I think is right.

And with the climate work as well. I have no grand plan for myself, other than lending my efforts to stopping catastrophic climate change. The best thing about becoming Dr. Plastic Picker is that I fundamentally care about everyone and the earth. I still don’t LIKE everyone. I LIKE Dr. Dear Friend. She is the best. I have a non-plastic gift for her today. I can fundamentally hear people, but I don’t have to LIKE them but I don’t DISLIKE them. I just work with them, and we reach our common goal to save the earth. People are so funny. Lots of egos and bravado in climate work. But that’s okay. It helps us all get to where we need to get.

The onions are going crazy. I’ll use them for dinner tonight and stick the bulbs in the container garden out back. Poor rosemary I haven’t been able to propogate.

And San Diego Pediatricians for Clean Air has patches!!! One of the people I adore is going to help me give youth talks about clean air and pediatric health to Girl Scout Troops in our region. Yeah!!! And my own daughter is going to be our Youth Education Coordinator for SD Pediatricians for Clean Air.