Brian's Weblog: April 2008

Today was the Race for Spinal Victory at Jones Beach - this is my 3rd time partaking in this particular event, although this year I ran the 10 mile portion rather than the 5k as in years past. I was hoping to break 1 hour and 30 mins, which would have been 9 min/mile....and managed to finish just above 1 hour and 25 minutes, at an average pace of 8:30 min/mile! Very pleased with the result, I finished 38th out of 133 runners - not too shabby. I managed such speed despite pretty high winds for the westbound half of the race, and an ankle-deep inescapable puddle of ice-cold water right near the end, which soaked me from knee to toes as I splashed through it. Click here to see the full results! Angela and Ella finished the 5k in a speedy 48 minutes (they walked it) - 4 minutes better than last years race, so they also kicked ass! Next up... Long Island Half Marathon in a few weeks. I am hoping I can maintain that 8:30 pace for an extra 3.1 miles!

I am that red/white/black dot running past the Jones Beach Amphitheatre.

Bummed that Angela didn't manage to get a pic of me crossing the finish line. She says I was too fast. Whatever.

So, its April, and I have now entered the world of "new-jobness" again. I have been through this situation several times in my life, beginning as a camp counsellor when I was 12, continuing through the shopping cart gatherer at Caldor when I was 13, on through Burger King, McDonald's, Movie Theatre ticket taker, Starbucks barista/supervisor, Terry Animal Hospital associate, and now, finally, on to Crawford Dog and Cat Hospital. Each time I start a new job, it can be awkward at first, working with new folks, not quite comfortable enough to be myself yet, unsure how people will handle my humor, you know, that sort of thing. Luckily, I had spent a lot of time at Crawford while in vet school, so I know the majority of the people working there. So, it spared me the awkwardness of that, although I haven't quite had the balls to start burping out loud and singing out loud to the radio (often replacing the word "you" with "jew" because it is fun). I will get there.

But for now, my major area of "I-need-to-get-used-to-ness" is with the pace of the practice, the comprehensive nature of the place, the fact that the techs do SO much, and the fact that it is all computerized. In a nutshell, Crawford is much different - Terry AH was much faster paced, much higher volume of patients, not a lot of down-time at all. Along with that, sometimes, you aren't as thorough as you could be when you have 4 appointments stacked up waiting for you, barking in the waiting room and scaring the poor cats in their carriers. Where I am now, it is lower volume, but I feel higher quality of medicine - its not just "have a shot of this and that and let's see how it goes" anymore, now it is "let's get to the bottom of this problem without guessing." Very different.

Also, my new boss Keith is quite adventurous - not only does he attempt most any surgery that is feasible in our practice, but the guy is competing in an Iron Man race in November (for those of you who don't know what it is...it's fucking CRAZY - 2.4 mile swim, followed by a 112 mile bike ride, ending with a 26.2 mile marathon run. Yes, one after the other, all in the same day). This is contagious, obviously, to one as mental as myself. NO I am not signing up for an Iron Man, but you never know what he could talk me into attempting. So, yeah, we do cool surgeries. With LASER. That's right, a (my fingers do quote signals like Dr. Evil) LA-SER. Yeah baby.

The techs do EVERYTHING. I am talking EVERYTHING, they take the history for me, they enter all the notes into the computer, they work out medicine dosages, they place the IV, knock the pets out, take the xrays, do the dentistries, etc etc. I find myself wondering why the hell I am even there at times...oh, and speaking of computers, EVERYTHING is computerized, I haven't written a single word since I have been there. A bit of a change from 3x5 index cards.

So, so far, so good. All being well, as I am expecting it will be, I will never have to go through the "new-jobness" feeling again.

And now...your fix of my demon-child!