Day 143

Today was a good day.

I was just exhausted last night when I was finally able to fall asleep. Oddly enough, I felt totally rested when I got called to a birth at about 4 am. I walked into the birth room and the midwife even commented, "wow, you sure got some sleep," and she totally meant it when she said I looked rested and refreshed. Huh. Guess I'm only needing a few hours of sleep at a time now.

Not that I could sleep much in this heat, anyway. It's 10:30 at night and still 90 degrees in here. A few hours ago, I worked up the courage to venture outside to pick up some food at the market. I'll admit I seriously thought about how long I could survive without eating a vegetable or fruit, but in the end, I just decided to go for it.

Have I seriously adapted to the Texas heat?

Oh, speaking of Texas, I got into a debate today with our friendly clinic doctor. Hector is a Mexican-American MD (first one I have EVER met, BTW), who picks up cord blood at the clinic for research. We became buddies during my first trip here when I told him he totally reminded me of one of my dad's brothers. Seriously, we look like we could be related. Anyway, so he came in today to pick up blood and we started chatting about the weather and how I didn't know if I could handle it because it's so much different in CA. He asked me how anyone could possibly afford to live in CA. I told him I couldn't deal with Texas politics and that my family purposely moved out of Texas a long time ago. Then, he starts going on about how Texas is the most fiscally stable state and it's so great, blah, blah, blah. We debated for a few minutes and then found common ground in believing that Arnold was a true moron for having a 12 year old love child. It kept the peace.

Earlier this morning, I was complaining to the midwife just how uncomfortable I was in scrubs, since they never stay up when I bend and move. I hate wearing scrub pants! She told me I should check out the uniform store downtown for some new ones. She said I should just buy a few pairs to keep here because, as she says, "you know you'll be back, you're like a bad penny." LOL

I stayed out of the main midwife's way today by keeping busy with my new charting project. It feels good to be helpful to the clinic, instead of being all anxious about what I was going to potentially mess up next. I am super good with charting and paperwork. I may not be able to find every cervix, but I know how to manage a chart :)