Tomorrow morning

I am waking up to go on rounds at UCSD Medical Center. They begin at 7:30. I am planning to wake up at 6, or a bit earlier, in order to have time to have a bit of coffee and breakfast first.

Last Thursday I tried to do just this, but somehow slept through three alarms and woke up at 7:20. I miraculously still made it to the hospital at 7:35, but by then my team was off somewhere and I couldn't find them. I did wander (delirious for having had no coffee yet) all over three floors of the hospital, explaining to people who approached me that I don't work there and am not an M.D.; and that yes, I realize it is confusing because I am wearing a white lab coat, but I am required to wear a white lab coat. This was an awful lot of sturm und drang for 7:35 in the morning before coffee.

Around 8 I gave up (the rounds take less than an hour) and went back to my car, and was charged 5 dollars for having parked for half an hour (them's the rules--up to two hours is $5; I usually scout around for cheaper parking, but I was late.) Gave the attendant a ten, he gave me no change; I asked for my change, he insisted I'd given him a five; I parked and waited while he counted out his drawer, and after about 15 minutes he kindly apologized and returned my fiver. I wasn't mad at him--maybe he hadn't had coffee either--I was just growing increasingly discouraged with the direction my morning was heading. Then I got a text message from someone on my team telling me where they were, and as I had not pulled out of the parking lot yet, I asked the attendant if I could please just pull back into the lot and not pay again, since I would only be another 20 minutes or so, and out well before spending a total of two hours there. He politely informed me that the parking lot does not offer in-and-out privileges, and even though I was still in the parking lot, it counted as being out of the parking lot. This kind of makes sense to me now, but it was far too confounding for having only been awake for 45 minutes.

The end result of all this was me driving away (and past my team as they emerged, looking sane, organized, and cheerful, from the hospital) and, when I was a safe distance away and out of my lab coat, having a complete meltdown and leaving a very soggy-sounding message on Jam Guy's voicemail.

So. I am posting this to request that my friends who read this blog send me some positive vibes, and hope for me that tomorrow goes nothing like last week's attempt, because that might traumatize me in some gruesome and irreversible way. If that happens, you will probably be alerted by the ranting gibberish that will appear on this blog. Thank you in advance.