Road Trip

So Swell and I just got back from our very quick, very spontaneous road trip. I was doing what I do best, nothing, when I saw an itinerary on the internet for a meeting occurring a mere 464 miles from our home. The first order of business on this itinerary was a presentation by a particular man. When I saw that this man was part of this meeting I said: "Swell. We've got to go to Tampa."

Swell: "Why in the world would we go to Tampa?"

Me: "I've got to see a man, about a thing."

With that she said, "Let's go."

Plans were made. Plans being we'll leave on Saturday after work get there in time to see the man about the thing and then come home on Monday. Plans did not include finding a place to stay. That would be too much planning.

On Saturday I was busy at work. The busiest I've been in years. No lies. Upon leaving I looked at one of the opticians (who used to work with me at my old job) and said, "that was worse than DVW" which is saying a lot.

A whole lot.

I saw my 30 patients and by 7:30 we were on our way to Tampa.

Long story short we were in bed by 4 am after searching for a reasonably priced hotel nearish to where the man was going to be.

I was up at 7 and out the door by 7:45.

I sat nearby the meeting and when I heard the applause indicating that the man was done speaking I stood near the door.

Upon seeing him I did what any sane person would do.

I said: "Dr. Man, I drove from Atlanta last night to give you this." and I handed him my CV/resume.

And that my friends is the way one gets noticed.

He was slightly taken aback and spent the next 10 minutes or so talking to me before he had to run to the airport to catch his flight to...


...Atlanta.

Goshdarnit.

The rest of Sunday was spent sleeping, visiting with some others who were in Tampa for the meeting and then going out with Swell for one of the best dinners we've ever had.

Swell asked the front desk person at the hotel what was nearby in terms of a good place to eat. We could have stayed for the meeting's dinner but since we had already stolen lunch from them as well as snacks we didn't feel it in our best interest to steal a $60 pp dinner although we easily could have...

...and were encouraged to.

We just wanted to go out on our own.

The front desk lady directed us to go from Tampa (nearish to the airport) to a town called Clearwater where we ate at the Island Way Grill. It was really good.

We started with an appetizer called Frankie's Tuna roll which is a sushi-like dish that was fantastic. Per the menu it is "TUNA, CREAM CHEESE, GOBO, ASPARAGUS, AND CRAB, BATTERED AND TEMPURA FRIED". It was out of this world.

Then we were, much to our surprise, given very large salads with Rice Wine Vinaigrette. This, too was fantastic.

Then for our main courses we had Szechwan Pepper Crusted Tuna. Which was recommended by the waiter to be prepared raw. It was served with wasabi mashed potatoes and sauteed Asian greens. We also got Macadamia Nut Crusted Mahi Mahi. It, too, came with the wasabi mashed potatoes. Notice I said "we got" because we shared each. I ate half of the tuna while Swell ate half of the Mahi-Mahi and then we switched. Portions were huge. Too big. We couldn't finish either.

It was a nice night. We were sitting near the water (although it was just a marina it was nice) on a large patio. It was nice to get away from Atlanta. We decided we have to do it more often.

Then funny thing about being in Tampa - funnier than driving all the way there just to give someone my resume - was that I felt a strange twinge of guilt.

You know that feeling you get when you pass near or through a city where you know someone and you feel like you should at least give them a call to say "Hi"? Well we "know" someone who lives in Tampa and thought about looking them up on Monday morning but didn't. So as we left town on a disappointingly rainy Monday we felt a small twinge of guilt for not at least dropping some cookies off at this person's work place.

What's funny about this?

We've never met this person in real life.

We only know of them via the internet.

Yet we felt like we should say "Hi" because we were in the area.

That really would have taken my stalking to a whole new level. Pounce on someone unannounced as they leave a meeting just to hand them a resume and then show up at a person's work cookies in hand that we've never really met.

Maybe its good that we didn't.

Livid

So my column was put online yesterday. I still haven't received my hard copy. If the online version is the same as the published version I am livid.

It is not what I wrote. I never agreed to have my name associated with this version. It has blatant errors in it! I will soon see if the published one is the same as the online one.

See the online one here

My version is below:

A Mission for Vision

Teaching or training optometry to those less fortunate has a far greater impact than providing direct care.

Sheepie O.D., M.P.H., Atlanta, Ga.

A look of sheer terror crossed my wife Swell’s face, as we heard the unmistakable sound of gunfire nearby. As all five passengers in the dilapidated van ducked for cover, I couldn’t help but think, “What have I gotten us into?”
Swell (also an optometrist) and I were returning to our flat in the beautiful, mountainous Palestinian city of Nablus after a full day of orientation meetings at An-Najah National University in the West Bank.

Vision camp flashback
In the few moments between hearing the gunfire and regaining my composure, I flashed back to my first trip to the occupied territories. It was the summer of 1999 and I had just finished my first year of optometry school.
I was in Palestine to provide eye care to the local population as a part of the Pacific University College of Optometry Amigos EyeCare group. Despite having made advance contact with our Palestinian hosts, once we arrived in the Gaza strip, local government officials told us our services were not welcome. These officials said the Palestinian people would find ways to take care of their own vision needs. After some pleading from our team leaders and our local hosts, however, the government officials relented, permitting us to provide care to a population they would select: grade-school children.

For the remainder of our trip, however, the statement, “the Palestinian people would find ways to take care of their own vision needs,” reverberated in my mind. Yes, our camp was able to treat many individuals, but we did nothing to create an infrastructure or human resources. I, therefore, felt the impact we made was temporary at best. After all, once we departed, so did the community’s opportunity for eye care.

The right to sight
Earlier in 1999, the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) and other organizations concerned with global blindness, such as the International Council of Ophthalmology (ICO) developed VISION 2020: The Right to Sight. This global initiative calls for local human resource and infrastructure development in developing countries to combat preventable blindness by the year 2020.
Because of my concern regarding the long-term benefit and sustainability of care that came from my vision-camp experience, I was eager to put the principles of VISION 2020 into action in Palestine. So, when I discovered that An-Najah University was seeking foreign O.D.s to teach optometry, I convinced my wife to join me in Palestine for the spring 2007 semester.

A yearn to learn
Swell and I spent 16 weeks teaching various optometric courses, and we were thrilled with our bright young students. They earn their Bachelor of Science degree in Optometry while taking all classes in English. Due to procurement difficulties the entire faculty was without optometric equipment until just before our arrival yet the students were well prepared to pick up the equipment and begin to fine tune their finger skills. Despite a lack of previous teaching experience, we found teaching optometry came very easily. We were, after all, simply teaching what we do and see as clinical optometrists.
The program at An-Najah will produce optometrists skilled in all aspects of vision care including “medical optometry.” In May 2008, the first graduating class of Palestinian optometrists will receive their degrees. This will enable them to meet the vision-care needs of Palestinians for many years to come through constant direct service as a result of their optometric education and by acting as optometric educators.
The gunshots we heard on our first day turned out to come from a young policeman firing his rifle into the air. Perhaps he was acting as our unofficial welcome wagon, thanking us for trying to leave a lasting impact on the visual health needs of the Palestinian people. OM


If you're really in a reading mood you can Read this as well

The weekend is coming

Swell's Mum arrives for a visit early tomorrow morning. Sometime around 6 am we need to be at the airport to pick her up, then its off to our respective places of business. She will leave bright and early Tuesday morning - I think.

Swell faxed a contract and a payment to the consulting company I wrote about earlier. That means we're on our way to moving - somewhere - and owning a practice.

We're very excited. Although I'm hesitant to get terribly excited because there are other things we want to be able to do that could take a back seat with the stresses and demands of being business owners.

I'm a professional author... officially.

My column will be published in Optometric Management this month's issue (i.e. it is in the mail now). I will be paid for its inclusion in the journal.

My collaboration article is in November's issue of Clinical and Experimental Optometry which will be out soon. (I've seen the final version as it will appear in the Journal. Very exciting.)

My written all by lonesome article has passed one of two reviewers' second review but I have not yet heard back from the second second reviewer.

I am working on analyzing some silly data that we collected while in Nablus that Swell and I will turn into a paper soon after.

Upon receipt of the contract for my Optometric Management column I was reminded that they are always looking for "good" writers. I suggested a series of articles that I would write that would track our opening of our practice. Discussions on choosing a location. Choosing whether to buy or open cold. Decisions on what insurance to take, etc. The idea is being passed along so I may have some more writing to do. I'm already doing a very silly version of those articles on a secret blog that you're not allowed to see so it would just be taking those ideas and making them more serious and thoughtful. Fun to think that I may be able to write some serious public health things and then some more generic optometry things.

Things are really good around here. We spent a small fortune getting some paintings framed. They turned out awesome. We've framed 5 paintings (Two from Egypt, two from Moldova, and one from South Africa). A sixth (from South Africa) was simply stretched onto a frame.

The Moldova ones (which were sitting in a book for 7 years) are my favourite although the others look really, really good as well.

Sorry so boring but we really haven't been up to much lately. I think we're going to head down to Florida next weekend for Sunday as we want to get away for a bit and there are some folks we wouldn't mind saying "hi" to. I also want to give a small gift to the outgoing president of the main optometry group that provides volunteer services in developing countries. They are having their annual meeting a week from Sunday in Florida (we went last year). I want to give her a gift for being such an understanding and kind person despite the recent "attacks" on her organization's methods.

Thats it. More later.

I can't believe I get paid.

Today was, as was last Wednesday, my easy and guilty day.

I got paid - well - to see one patient. The rest of the day I just sat around doing nothing.

Nothing.

This particular practice depends upon insurance to draw patients in. I am in the process of being credentialed on the main insurances they take.

In the process means I am unable to see many of the patients as we wouldn't be reimbursed by their insurance company. So I sit.

And do nothing.

And get paid.

I feel quite guilty but they could have phoned and said: "Don't come in" but they didn't. So I did.

I am keeping up relatively well with my workouts.

I am following a training guide and do quite well with it. I didn't do my long run last Sunday so I'm repeating that week. Yesterday I upped my pace from the sloth-enly pace of 10:30 minutes/mile to the slightly more swift 10:00 min/mile and it actually felt better.

I missed last Sunday's long run because I was cooking with Swell.

We attend a bible study (Financial Peace by Dave Ramsey) immediately following church on Sundays. Church starts at 5:30pm and our bible study (not really at all a study of the bible...) ends at around 9:00 pm. This doesn't bode well for people's consumption of supper so one couple or two singles bring food for the group each week.

This week was our turn. Swell bristled at my suggestion of fruit roll-ups, chips, and doughnuts. She wanted to impress people (real Christianly, no?). So on Sunday, we cooked.

Swell We decided on chiftele, potato salad, tomato/cucumber/feta cheese salad, bread and confetti squares for desert.

Chiftele is a typical Romanian dish.

Meat mixed with more meat with a dash of meat for good measure.

Sunday morning found us at the local Farmer's market (Your Dekalb Farmer's Market - Mine? I didn't even ask for it!) buying ground beef (3 pounds), ground turkey (1 pound) and ground pork (1 pound).

I told you it was meaty.

In addition to these meats (of which we used all the turkey, pork and 2.5 pounds of the beef) mashed potatoes were added along with egg, seasonings, and bread crumbs.

The meats were mixed expertly by your's truly made into balls squished into patties and then fried.

I did a fantabulous job on the meat and meat by-products while Swell made the potato salad.

As a former vegetarian I was simultaneously revolted and intrigued.

Despite a late start to bible study and another couple bringing a dish (poor communication in our group - our leader wasn't there this week [it's a video series] and he neglected to inform them that we had volunteered to bring the meal this week) oh well.

They were sufficiently impressed and Swell beamed appropriately.

ASIDE:

For goodness sake if someone doesn't tell this ignorant hick family to stop yelling at each other sometime soon I may have to scream. Furthermore if the mother doesn't stop telling her kid he's wrong about why we celebrate Thanksgiving by telling him that it is the day the Mayflower landed I'll go over there take their youngest, screamingist child and beat them each with her.

/ASIDE

It was declared that we made the best meal yet and that we should just be left in charge of the food.

Now if Swell would only cook for me.

Tomorrow is my day off. Swell works. I don't. Life is good. Thanks for asking.

We haven't updated in a few days. Not because we don't love you, simply because we have nothing to say.

Nothing ground breaking to talk about.

Nothing exciting going on in our lives.

We're just existing.

Working.

Sleeping.

Dying a little on the inside every day.

Our time in Atlanta has to come to a close sooner, rather than later.

JDL and The Good One can testify to this. They are the ones who, if they were paying attention (unlikely), saw Swell crying up a storm on the shuttle from our hotel in Vegas to the airport.

She's tired of being alone in the big city.

Tired of missing out on all the good things life has to offer.

Decatur is great. Our condo is great but 3000 miles away from closest family is not. We can't leave Atlanta without new jobs in our new city. Even with new jobs we will be taking up to a 30% pay cut just by leaving the Southeast and heading to the Pacific Northwest. That is not something we can take lightly. An excess of optometrists leads to low wages. Three new optometry schools being opened in the next 5 years will drive wages down even further. While those that know me know that I'm not a money kind of guy I do have 6 figure student loans to pay back and I can't do that making minimum wage. We'll have to find something with guaranteed cash flow in a city with a relatively low cost of living. We'll see.

I'm on my Saturday lunch break again. Had 13 patient encounters in my three before lunch hours. Will have an equally busy afternoon and I'll then be exhausted until tomorrow. Swell must be busy selling glasses (She rarely sees patients but is expected to work the floor when not busy *roll eyes* as I've haven't heard from her all morning.)

I joined the American Public Health Association and they send me a monthly Journal with public health articles in them. The first one I read was quite interesting. It outlined the history of the availability of birth control through insurances.

Basically saying that through the history of birth control very few insurance companies are/were willing to pay for contraception despite the obvious cost savings they would have if women were able to plan their pregnancies.

This lack of coverage regained attention with the development of Viagra as it was quickly put on most insurance companies' covered drugs whereas many still refuse to cover contraception.

A strange contradiction. But to me shows the importance that western society places on Women's health, which is...

...it doesn't.

Today is my easy day.

Today is, therefore, also my guilty day.

It’s 9:30 am as I type this.

I’m at work.

My first patient is at 3:00 pm.

Easy and guilty.

So needless to say we’re back. We had a great time in Vegas which is always surprising to me as we don’t drink. At all. And we gamble very little. (Does throwing $20 in the penny slots constitute gambling?)

Vegas is a good time to people watch, see the sights, and eat too much. It was nice to have some visitors from Edmonton come down and spend some time with us. It was somewhat nice to be at an optometry conference although most of our education was dull. Swell was very keen on collecting free things from the vendors displaying their wares. She didn’t care if it was a pen, a balloon, a bag, or a piece of paper. If it was free it was snatched up by Swell.

Most of it will find its way to Romania.

It will cost more to mail it then it did to manufacture it.

The most exciting part of our trip was when I nearly won $30,000. One of the vendors at the show was giving away a two year lease on a Lexus Hybrid or $30,000. Knowing that money is far superior to a Lexus I would have chosen the money. They were giving away the car/money through a basic raffle.

They collected raffle cards every day. At the end of every day they drew 10 names. Those 10 people would be in the running for the car/money. You had to be present at the time of the drawing to win/get entered in the finals.

Day 1- We were unaware of the raffle and did not enter
Day 2 – We entered but did not have our names drawn
Day 3 – Swell didn’t want to hang out until the time of the drawing. She just wanted to leave. I insisted. Lo and behold my name was drawn. I was in the Semi-finals!

I now had a 1 in 30 chance of winning $30,000…

They actually changed the rules slightly and said they would now draw five names out of the 30 (actually 28 as 2 people didn’t show for the final drawing!?) and those five would have the chance to win the car/money.

My name was not drawn to be a member of the finals.

So I missed out on the money. Boo hoo.

While in Vegas we also went and saw Matsuri which is a great Japanese acrobatic/gymnastic/dance show. It was a lot of fun.

Other than that we wandered, laughed at people and ate too much food.

Swell and I also made an appointment to speak with a consulting group who will help us find a location to open a practice and give us business insight that we don’t currently have.

Very expensive but will be worthwhile. We will pay them a small amount in the next month or so and that will get us advice on where and how to open/buy a practice. When we buy or come closer to buying a practice we will fly down to their headquarters and go through business boot camp, we will then open and they will provide 6 months of support.

We’re both excited about this program as neither of us have any business skills and that was causing some concern when it came to working for ourselves.


Tomorrow, Thursday, October 11 is World Sight Day.

314 million people in the world are estimated to be visually impaired – with 45 million of them blind. 153 million are visually impaired due to uncorrected distance refractive error (need for glasses to see in the distance) and millions more are affected by uncorrected presbyopia (need for reading glasses). Optometry Giving Sight is an organization that collects money to be used to deliver eye care services and develop human resources and infrastructure.

Imagine going through life with decreased vision simply because you have no access to eye care and/or spectacles.

Consider helping to eliminate avoidable blindness/visual impairment by supporting Optometry Giving Sight on World Sight Day!

How can it be?

2 hour delay of a red eye flight + waiting for luggage + having to take the train home + having to be at work by 10 am + only 3 hours of airplane sleep over the past 36 hours = me being very tired.

Sooo tired.

Tired.

On to more important things. How can it be October already? On top of that How can it be Thanksgiving already?

I don't know but it is so...

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!!!