November 21, 2020

by drplasticpicker

We watched Ocean’s Eleven yesterday. It was the Friday night after finishing the trimester, and the kids wanted a typical Friday movie night which we hadn’t done in a while. I didn’t take any photos or post on Facebook and Instagram, which made my tween daughter happy. She’s suspicious of my social media postings. We had her 2nd pizza from the dough she made last week, and again it was so fluffy! It had been a busy clinic day. I haven’t been monitoring most people’s schedules which I need to do sometimes as Assistant Boss, but gosh I’ve been busy. I wasn’t able to get to my 330pm virtual appointment until well after 5pm because I had lots of teen physicals and put in an implantable birth control in a patient. When I got home at 615pm or so, which is not bad but it’s so dark these days, the family had just started eating. So I got to have a slice of homemade pizza which was simply the most fluffy piece of pizza deliciousness and some salad. We moved onto movie and bagged carmel and chedder Costco popcorn we had purchased in bulk. The movie was really good with only a couple of scenes where Mr. Plastic Picker had to stand in front of the TV waving his arms at inappropriate parts. I actually did watch the whole movie and didn’t fall asleep. It was fun to see Brad Pitt and George Clooney is their hey-day.

I like to randomly check Ecosia (not Google) when I write these blog entries. I had no idea that Oceans Eleven was based on an older Frank Sinatra era Rat Pack movie which was based on a stolen idea. Per Wikipedia, “Peter Lawford was first told of the basic story of the film by director Gilbert Kay, who heard the idea from a gas station attendant. Lawford eventually bought the rights in 1958.” Reminds me of when a consulting company was hired by Crimson Univeristy to look at our shuttle bus routes from the Radcliffe Quad to Harvard Yard, and they suddenly took ownership rights to the schedule that had been designed by the long-time driver. I remember chatting with the driver every morning and feeling his injustice when he told us about that. And in residency, a particularly ambitious Med-Peds resident in our program suddenly copy-righted the house-officers manual that everyone had contributed to but putting his name on it and publishing it.

I don’t wish ill-will on anyone, but one does hope karma catches up with those folks. Funny thing is that I can’t even remember the name of that resident that was younger than me that essentially stole the work of his colleagues (I didn’t contribute but I remember chattering among the other residents). But I do remember the shuttle driver that designed that schedule. I remember being a 2nd year pediatric resident years later and it just happened his grandchild had intussception that was very subtle and came in as an admission at one of the smaller community hospitals we covered. As a junior pediatric resident, I had to call in the grumpy interventional radiologist twice that night to ultrasound the toddler, because I was very suspcious. Even with the second negative ultrasound, I was so worried and knew something was up. I transferred him in the middle of the night to our main hospital against the wishes of the radiologist, because I was convinced something was wrong. I think knowing the grandfather made me extra worried. The toddler actually ended up having an intussception when the third ultrasound was done, and the pediatric radiologist said that it was quite edematous and hard to reduce and evan a few hours later – his bowels would have begun necrosed. He did well after the Peds Radiologist reduced his intussception with a barium air enema, and went home from the main hospital the next day. The night was definitely good karma for the shuttle-bus driver and me.

I was going to blog about monitoring my networth and my kids’ GPAs. But really the most important thing to monitor is your child’s moral development. The highest GPA and the highest networth makes no difference if their moral fiber is not strong. I had forgotten about those two stories from long ago, someone who had strong morals (our shuttle bus driver) and someone with loose morals (the resident who copyrighted his colleagues work). Boston seems so far away these days. It’s been twelve years since we left Cambridge. We left because Mr. Plastic Picker and I had these two young children, and we couldn’t figure out life in Cambridge. We had a language delayed 3 year old and a fragile ex-28 week preemie. I wasn’t sure if my little preemie would be okay, and I was a scared young mom. We landed in a great organization, the HMO where I am Assistant Boss. So despite my rantings and ravings about the frustrations of middle management, I am very loyal to said HMO – because it was the place that allowed me to be both a mother, pediatrician and raise my two babies.

Anyway, the networth is looking good. The GPAs at the end of the trimester are very good. Honors Math and AP Physics I believe are solid. I think even Honors Spanish which was going to be a stretch, is good. And the ex-preemie gets stressed if she doesn’t get 100%. But I’m forever grateful that they are both happy and healthy. I am grateful for this time we have together. I did check both numbers yesterday, and the GPAs and Networth numbers look good.

And I did this years ago but keep it on my phone. It’s different schools outisde of the Ivy League and their acceptance rates. I haven’t needed to look at it to ease my stress in years. I always tell Mr. Plastic Picker and I’ve messaged Dr. Young Ho Yoon, that I never wanted to force any path on them. I just wanted to make sure I did what I could to give them the options that they wanted. I just wanted them within striking distance of the Ivy Leagues. And I think they are, and now it makes it less stressful for me. I can just support them and try to save the earth for them. I am looking in San Francisco for a condo though! Still dreaming. I think having my ex-preemie be the first ex-preemie woman Governor of California would be so fun!