Has it really been ten months, Ray? I suppose it has. The last two months, I don't even have an excuse for not posting. I graduated at the beginning of August. After that it took seven weeks for my certification, licensing, and credentialing paperwork to be processed, so I have been sitting at home since graduation. Many in my class, as has been the case in previous years, used this time to travel, a deserved respite before starting work. One classmate (now co-worker) went to Paris for ten days and got engaged at the Eiffel Tower. Last year one new grad spent a month in Europe before starting work. But, my kids started school the week I graduated, and since I haven't worked in two years and student loan money ran out in early August, I have been sitting at home since graduation, not posting.

Now I am finally working as an anesthetist at Emory University Hospital. Not my original plan, but I am very happy with it. I'm happy to be doing something, to feel productive. I'm glad that I am finally finished with school. At least for now. (That's like the final shot of a horror movie, where we in the audience see the slain killer's hand protruding under a pile of rubble. Just before the cut to black, the hand moves, accompanied by a horn blast. Will there be a sequel? Who can say?) It's great to finally get to where I've been heading. Instead of training under someone's supervision, I'm working on my own. Because I'm at Emory, they even started giving me students my second week on the job. It's a pretty sweet job too. I enjoyed anesthesia as a student, but now that I'm doing it for real it's even better. And eight hour days are a piece of cake after working twelve hours a day my last six months in school. It's challenging, scary, rewarding. And now I'm getting paid. Not that that is the only important thing, but it is very important. Now I feel like I can get everything else in my life back to where I thought it should be by now. I've still got a lot of changes coming up and things are looking good.

I've had this video up on my myspace page for a while, but I'm going to put it here as well because I think it's great. I think this is what most people really think I do, especially surgeons.