PLAYING CATCH-UP, A BIT OF THIS AND THAT

10 November 2002

There is a God.

I finally admitted to Dr. G that I am nearing burnout and he asked what we could do to lighten my load. So in addition to giving me a raise, he has also agreed to some help in the office. My friend, who had already agreed to take on the patient billing, is now going to come in once a week and keep the ledger cards up to date. This is a task that has gotten woefully behind--and one which is critical to knowing where we are, financially, at any point.

She and I worked most of the day Friday (Dr. G's day out of the office, thank goodness) and caught up on all the work that has been making me feel guilty and overburdened since June. Not only did she help me catch up, but she also helped me to understand what we're doing, which was one of the big stoppers for me initially. I could do just about anything to avoid touching that pile. But now the pile is gone. It's all been done.

With the mail today was a stack of payment checks from the biller who has been doing the work for the past 2 years (and who will now turn things over to my friend). When I saw the stack and realized the steps that had to be gone through to record everything accurately, I had to ask: when in the world would I have had time to do this??? With her assistance, now, that might not be a huge problem. It is still becoming apparent, however, that my job is rapidly evolving into a full time job (and it couldn't come at a better time than just after getting a raise, right?)

I also had a wonderful feeling of competence the other day. As anybody who has been reading this journal for longer than a year knows, math is not my strong suit, and my biggest fear was taking on the checkbook. This is a business which often hangs by the thinnest of financial threads, where there is the need to know as close as possible to the penny where we are financially and I can't honestly say I've had the answer to that question since I began.

However, I did an accounting for Dr. G recently and gave him the figures as well as a list of our outstanding bills (the two did not balance each other out). He told me I had to be wrong. In truth, we are seeing a lot more patients now than since I began to work there and Dr. G has performed several surgeries, big income generators, and he had assumed that our income was greater than it is (insurance companies being slow to part with a buck, they take their sweet time to pay the bills).

I showed him that I was so unsure of my figures that I had run every column on the calculator, double checked the numbers against what is in the checkbook, and pasted the tapes there as well so I'd know that I was right.

He still insisted I couldn't possibly be right. And, as uncertain as I am of my capabilities in this area, I spent hours going over every possible place where I could have made a mistake.

The next day he reported that he'd called the bank to find our current balance and the last 12 checks cashed. Then he compared that with the checkbook and he had to admit that my figures were "probably right." That was such an incredible admission--and it made me feel so incredibly good.

In my other career, the one where I get to see free shows and write reviews, I saw two productions this week. The first was the touring Broadway production of The Full Monty, which was great fun. As a reviewer, it's always nice to go in, get some of the best seats in the house and enjoy a show. This was one of those times.

However, I paid my dues last night when we went to a community theatre production of Carousel. It's always difficult to know how to review this company because they do try hard, but this show dragged horribly, the choreography was energetic, but nothing "flowed" smoothly and the movements were stilted. There was no chemistry whatsoever between Billy and Laurie (and he appeared to be so much older than she, it was almost like a case of child molestation), and there is one guy in the cast who is in every show and is absolutely abominable--energetic, but abominable.

But you can't say that.

So I tried to say positive things like "I'm sure the pace will quicken as the actors begin to feel more comfortable in their roles," and "he had some difficulties staying on pitch, but this may have been opening night jitters."

The company won't be happy that I only gave the show 3-1/2 stars, but that was being generous. With any luck, people reading the review, who are regular theatre goers, will be able to read between the lines and steer clear, while those who support this company and think it's the next best thing to sliced bread, will feel that they're going to see a good show.