New tri at Palmer! I'm taking some fifth and some sixth tri classes, as I'm on an individualized schedule. Also I'm in two bachelor's courses. Seven classes in total, and somehow that's considered a "light load"... 12 - 16 hour semesters are nothing like 30+ hour trimesters, trust me! I worked 60+ hour weeks before coming to Palmer and had much more free time than I do now!
OK enough griping, I'm actually loving the classes I'm taking this tri, and my schedule is starting to make sense. I have to be there first thing at 7:30 for my Cervical Adjusting class Monday through Friday. Before that I have to help get Laney, out two year old, ready for school (We call daycare school, as the one she goes to seems more like a school than a babysitter) and drop her off there. It's conveniently right next door. If anyone is looking for daycare for 18month - 4year olds, they're the greatest! Positive Parenting at Trinity. Check it out at www.positiveparentingpreschool.com Delaney LOVES it there. Oh, I was talking about my schedule, I digress...
So anyway after a hectic morning every day, I don't have class again until 9:20, but only on Wed and Thurs (Philosophy IV) or 11:10, but only on Mon, Tues, and Fri (Physiotherapy I). Then I'm free (I use that word liberally) til 1:55 for NeuroMusculoSkeletal (NMS) I which is every day, followed by OB/Pediatrics every day at 2:40. Those are all the regular classes I'm in, but then Monday from 3:45 til 6:15 I'm in a bachelor's course: Sports Injuries. Tuesday I have my Physiotherapy lab from 3:45 til 4:15, and Thursday I have my other Bachelor's course, Marketing from 3:45 to 6:15.
I'm just starting to get used to the big breaks in the morning schedule, and a crazy busy afternoon. Family life makes the afternoons tricky. Laney has to be picked up no later than 5:30. If anyone out there has ever picked up a kid late from daycare you understand this concept. Our last daycare, before Laney was 18 months old, actually charged us the $1/minute late fee and then fired us as clients! We've not been late at Positive Parenting and we don't plan to either! Don't think they'de react the same way but I'd rather not find out! When we pick her up she's ready for dinner, which is rarely what we eat because she's all of a sudden gotten extremely picky. Everything foreign she says EEEWWWW and pushes away, refusing to even taste. Some things she's always loved she does the same thing with. Every evening we have to solve the mind-frying question of what to feed Laney. Do we try to get her to eat something nutritious or sucumb to Mac and Cheese. ( at least it's organic) I don't know how I'll handle it when she says EEEWWW to that...
Then it's promptly to the bathtub as she's usually wearing half her dinner, where she consistently splashes half the bath water onto the floor...
Then she runs around like a crazed lunatic, into walls...hopefully not down the stairs. When she gets tired she gets reckless and manic. It's fun and terrifying and tiresome all at the same time!
Bed for her by 8 but she's been keeping herself up til 9 or 9:30 playing in bed lately, giving shoutouts for water or for general attention. By the time she's out so are we, virtually exhausted. Now somehow it's time to study and write blogs...
So what about all that time in the morning and early afternoon?
Well there's club meetings. I'm in several, though I can't claim I go every week. AO (Atlas Orthogonal) which is an upper cervical specific technique. I took the elective last tri, and club is a great way of honing skills learned. Activator meets at the same time, so I alternate. Gonstead club is great for perfecting manual adjusting skills, as is Palmer Package club. Then there's ToastMasters, which is actually an international organization for public speaking. Palmer has a chapter, we meet once a week and deliver speaches to each other and critique them. When we get out of Palmer we'll be ready to deliver awesome health talks and presentations, which are integral to a successful practice. Another class I'm taking in the form of a weekend seminar at Palmer is S.P.E.A.K., which has much the same goals as Toastmasters, but is Palmer and Chiropractic specific. It integrates the Dale Carnegie series into it as well. A huge benefit of doing SPEAK is it certifies the student to take part in the Palmer health screening events, which will be great practice for when we run our own clinic. Also it's a great way to get patients as a student intern in our clinic at Palmer.
I'm also taking business seminars in Atlanta and Orlando six times a year from our consultant. These are weekend long events. The next one is unfortunately the same weekend as Palmer's Homecoming so I won't be here for that.
Our son (my step-son) Dartagnan just decided to move back home after a semester and then the summer break up in Minneapolis where his father and father's family live. He stayed with his aunt, uncle and cousins, and his Grandma. We sent him up there when we found out that his Grandma was terminally ill with advanced throat cancer. We wanted for him to able to spend as much time with her as possible, as they've always been close. She just passed a couple weeks ago while they were all on a family vacation. She was a wonderful lady, keen wit, sharp humor, thick German accent. Never anything wrong with her if you were to ask her. We miss her dearly.
So D is back, and while he was gone we moved Laney into his bedroom. So now he's sleeping in our sunroom. Sucks for him in the morning as he loves to sleep in and the room is all windows!
Which brings me to the other thing occupying all my spare time, finishing his new bedroom in the basement. We're coverting a nasty sixties era rec room type basement into a master suite complete with the house's largest bedroom, largest bath, a new laundry room, and a media/family rec room. He has to share the bathroom and rec room with us, and he better share the laundry...
We want to get him into his new room as soon as possible, as he starts highschool in two weeks and I'd rather have him have his own space at this point in his life. While he was in Minnesota I got the Laundry, stairway, and basement hall completed. I had to get the laundry moved to finish the new drain tile and sump pump installed on the side of the basement that his bedroom and bathroom are. Just got that (almost) done during the last break, between our travels. So far I've got his walls and walk in closet half framed in. I'll finish that later this week, after the three tests I have over the next 3 days, so that I can move on to wiring and drywall this weekend. With drywall, trim, and flooring I'm looking at at least a few more weeks, so he'll have already started school but that's the best I can do...
I'm starting to regret being handy...
We can't forget all the other things that invariably keep a dad and husband busy (and blessed). Cram all that in with Palmer and you have one interesting schedule.
So, sorry it's been so long since the last post. It seems I'm constantly running to keep up with yesterday, but such is life. I wouldn't trade a single aspect of it in, honestly, and there's so much more I wish I had time to do. I haven't painted in ages. I can't remember the last time I've been to the gym (though I did go jogging on the mississippi walk a few weeks ago, quads still hurt) I want to take advantage of Palmer's free Rosetta Stone again to improve my Spanish and maybe pick up French. I would love to get more involved at church. I wish I had time to actually read my textbooks, rather than skim and look up specific things. I want to take more special technique electives while I'm here at Palmer. I want to pass boards (got round one out of the way)
Mainly I want to know when I leave here that I'm a capable doctor that's ready to continue learning and growing, is an awesome listener able to get to the heart of a patient's problem, is well equipped to open a practice right away and to not only survive, but thrive. I want to prepare, learn, develop myself without ever compromising the other roles and relationships in my life. It's a tightrope and juggling act at the same time. But plenty before me have done it, so I know I can too.
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