New Year 1

I began the new year with the cold that my wife gave me at Christmas. It seemed to fit me well, so it has hung around for a while.

What is always a part of the profession is that we deal with people whose lives are always in flux, if not in totally crisis. At the end of last week I had prepared my new appointment book. It was all neat and uncluttered, smooth and clear. Every hour had one name written neatly in the box. Tuesday, Jan. 2, listed eight appointments.

But,
I had thirteen messages waiting for me at 8:47. Two people were still sick from New Year's Eve. One was just out of the emergency room. One had missed the return flight from California. One had to suddenly fly to California. Three people who said they would call in the new year were already calling.

By 9 AM I had crossed out five appointments and written in six new ones.

My eleven o'clock was one of the ones that canceled so I thought I had a moment to get everything up on the computer for this year, but a woman walked in. She is someone who lives around the corner and for two years now she just walks into the office. If I am with someone she changes the station on the radio in the waiting-room, and that way I know she was there. She is a friendly, loud, impulsive woman who usually works two jobs, but she quit one in November over a slight disagreement.

She fling herself ove a chair and ee had a discussion about why she should return to that job/ I said she should because she needs the money, she was good at it, she left for a dumb reason, and they want her back. She won't go back only because she is vain and stubborn.

After half an hour I had pointed this out to her clearly. I am not always so directive, but I know that all of those things are true.

She smiled, picked up the head of the frog-puzzle that sits on my coffee table, threw it at me, laughed, told me I was cute, and walked out.

I am not that cute, but she will probably go back to the job next week. She won't tell me she did so for another month, and then she will act surprised that I didn't know.

In this second job she uses her advanced degree, which is a Ph.D. in psychology.