Adventures In Medicine

The most pointless doctor's visit in history was had on Tuesday, October 23. My eyes, the right one in particular, have been red/bloodshot fairly consistently for over a week. Being the well-informed daughter of a man in the healthcare profession, I deduced that this wasn't normal. I managed to get an appointment with a doctor by swooping upon a cancellation and leaving my office an hour early. Let's just say it took me more time to check-in at the doctor's than it did for him to see me. He shined a light in my eyes and told me to call the Eye Clinic at Boston Medical Center and left. No talk, no prescription, nothing. It was a drive-by doctor's visit.

So yesterday morning I get to work, call the Eye Clinic, and find out they have walk-in triage available. My boss practically kicked me out of the office when I told her, so off I went to get some answers. Four hours later I was back in my office, Panda Bowl lunch and two prescriptions in hand. I was in the waiting room for over two hours! But now I have medicine, I'm not allowed to wear contacts for two weeks, and even though the doctor didn't actually tell me what's wrong he told me it was not serious. And luckily my boss doesn't care that it took so long during a work day and told me I could just make up the hours (eventually).

Hurrah for first adventures in the Boston healthcare system.

Watched THE most horrible Japanese fantasy/adventure movie with Anthony last night: The Great Youkai War. At least we both hated it equally so we could have a good laugh at how ridiculous it was. How real people were actually talked into spending real yen on that production is something I cannot begin to comprehend on any physical, mental, or emotional level. On the opposite end of the film spectrum I saw Michael Clayton last night, starring George "I'm Hunky Even Though I'm Old" Clooney and Tilda "The White Queen of Narnia" Swinton. I enjoyed it a lot and found it much like Erin Brokovich with balls.

Lately I've been possessed with the at-times overwhelming feeling that I must do something with my life that will leave the world a better place than when I found it. Where I'm running into trouble is that I don't know how to do it (clearly). I've had so many ideas, but I just don't know how to get any of them off the ground. I've thought of ideas within my interests and without: socially-conscious theatre production, a magazine dedicated to news about causes/non-profits/world awareness, or giving birth to the next Mahatma Ghandi. I think of all those, the latter is the most unpredictable.

I know this seems like something a lot of people say while growing up, shouting "I'm going to change the world!" whilst running around with a towel cape around their necks. But I've realized that this is something I feel called to do, a yearning as natural to me as breathing, as much a part of me as my bad eyesight and love for Coke. It's not about being remembered--something I know I've struggled with more than once when contemplating what direction I want my life to go. It's about helping, about opening the public eye to the things it's possible to change. Is any of this making sense? I'm aware of how much of an idealistic, bleeding heart liberal college graduate I sound like right now. But I feel like I might be on to something that I could dedicate my life to, something I could look back on when I'm 90 and say "It was tough, it was heartbreaking, it was excrutiating, but it worked. And I wouldn't change a bit of it."

Okay, enough of my starry-eyed rant. These papers aren't going to file themselves, you know.

Seen
The Great Youkai War
Michael Clayton
Return to Oz

Read
The Bacchae by Euripides