Taking Advantage

I took advantage of my weekend on call (which was two weeks ago, so it is stupid to refer to it now, but I am going to anyway). I had to be in the Corvallis area, so I dinked around town and studied for the NAVLE (veterinary licensing exam) with my friend LO.
Prospects were dim that evening -- it loomed before me lonely and uninteresting. Sooo... I called my friends the Diebeles. I was previously instructed by Mrs. Diebele to invite myself over at some point, so I took her up on it. Turned out they were having other company that evening, but she encouraged me to come nonetheless. So, what do you do in such a situation? Assume the other party is just being polite and would really prefer to have you stay away? Or assume the invitation is genuine? Depending on the other party's viewpoint, it could be offensive to refuse the offer. Well, I read into Mrs. Diebele's voice a genuine desire to have me come, and I went.

The evening was good, meeting the Diebele's friends and messing with a labradoodle which looked to me like a blond wirehair -- neat dog. The Diebeles were at that time anticipating the impending opening of their new tea shop in Corvallis. They offer an incredible assortment of loose-leaf teas, a few nutritional supplements, and David Bercot/other Christian writings. We took an excursion to see the place that night. It will be interesting to see how it prospers.

***
I made further exciting use of my weekend on call by attending the Harrisburg revival meeting Sunday morning. The speaker (Jay Martin, I believe) spoke about marriage and read a rather humorously portrayed account from "Parables of a Country Parson." The book is written in King James style English, which adds volumes to the humor of the stories. The book may bear more extensive perusal.

That evening I attempted to attend an evening service at Tangent. I parked in their parking lot rather early, and waited ~until the opening time and nobody showed. Methinks -- perhaps they are meeting at the school, or someone's house. So, I drove around the countryside looking for their school. Whether I found it or not, I do not know, but I did not find any accumulation of Mennonites. I thought perhaps they were singing at some church member's house, so I drove south to check the status of a likely home. I didn't have the stupidity or courage to drive down the lane to see, so I went to Albany and sat at a rest stop for a couple hours. I waited out most of the rest of my required time on call, listening to a Catholic radio station. They had an interesting program about a DaVinci Code debunking book and a bit of radio theater.

Not Really Lost...

I went to visit a friend at the hospital on Thursday night. It was nigh unto 10 pm when I left, having been asked to lead one of my friend's friends to the freeway. We were traveling along, I in my car, she in another... and I was looking for 99E. I came upon Pacific Blvd, and regarded it as possibly 99E but not definitely so... therefore I continued on, and continued on, and realized I had missed my turn. However, turning around seemed like a move likely to lose my follower... and it meant swallowing my pride. I thought I might find a sign pointing me to I-5. But we proceeded until I saw a Dead End sign, and then I admitted my failure and led her back the way we came.

***
I completed my anesthesiology rotation yesterday, aside from a weekend of being on call. Anesthesia and I are much greater friends than ever before... it was a good confidence-building rotation.
As I am on call this weekend, I can't stay at our northern home but will have some fun going to church, etc in these southern parts.

Telemarketer Fun

I was about ready to consume my dinner last night when the phone rang. The Smuckers were not at home, so I answered the call. (And here I begin to relate the gist of the call, paraphrased, out of order and modified to make this more readable.) M = me and T = telemarketer with southern accent.

M: Hello, you've reached the Smuckers.
T: Hi, this is So-n-so. I'd like to save you lots of money with this great offer... {etc that I didn't understand}.
M: Are you trying to sell me some sort of entertainment system?
T: Yes, we have this satellite offer that will outfit your system and it'll save you a lot of money.
M: Well, really, the people who live here don't even watch TV.
T: You don't watch TV?
M: No.
T: This satellite offer will save you a lot of money, and you can get HBO channels and everything.
M: But that wouldn't help me if I don't watch TV anyway.
T: You don't watch TV? What do you do in your idle time?
M: Oh, I read novels and talk to my friends. There are all sorts of things you can do instead of watching TV.
T: So how do you get the news? If you don't watch TV, how do you get news? TV has a lot of news information on it.
M: I can read a newspaper or look it up on the internet.
T: You have the internet? Can you give me your e-mail ID so we can be friends?
M: You don't need to have my e-mail ID.
T: What, you don't want to be friends? You don't have friends?
M: Oh, I have friends. I just don't make a general habit of getting them from over the phone.
T: Do you have a boyfriend?
M: No, I don't have a boyfriend.
T: You don't have TV, you don't have friends, and now you're saying you don't have a boyfriend? What do you do?
M: There are lots of things, like singing at old folks homes, going to church, all sorts of valuable things.
T: You go to church every day?
M: No.
T: There are newschannels on TV, and church channels, too. You don't want to watch them?
M: The newsmedia is often biased -- you have to take it with a grain of salt. And church channels have some good but they tend to preach incorrect doctrines.
T: So your church says you can't have a boyfriend? Is it wrong to have a boyfriend?
M: Oh, other people in my church do [oops, not really true right now]. It's just not my time right now for me to have one. God hasn't brought the right guy along.
T: Can you give me your e-mail ID so we can be friends?
M: No, you don't need to have that?
T: So you don't want to be friends? Why don't you want to be friends?
M: I would be happy to send you something to share God with you, but I think the reason you want my e-mail address is so you can send me something about a satellite dish.
T: Can you give me references for other people who might want this satellite system?
M: No, I don't want to do that.
T: Give me your name. So your name is Elizabeth?
M: You don't need to have my name.
And so we continued until she finally hung up. I could have gotten her off earlier, but I don't like to be rude and it's sort of fun to talk to telemarketers...