Odds and ends from TV-free me

So, not much new to report this week, I'm afraid. Unless you want to know what's going on at Darmstadt Middle School... then, THEN I can be of some help! I have no trouble staying in the loop of the goings-on with the 6th, 7th and 8th graders of the greater Darmstadt area, thanks to my patient population! Anyway, M. and I survived the trip back to Germany in fine form. Okay, there was some pretty obnoxious sneezing on the plane on the way over. I won't say which one of us was responsible! ANYWAY, we're actually still debating whether the "cold" that M. and I both endured was actually a whopping case of Georgia hay fever...this is totally possible, given that you can't wear black outdoors around Lake Lanier without collecting a fine yellow mist for all of the pollen floating around. Luckily, we started to feel better a few days after coming home. The sleep deprivation? That's been a little harder to shake, but any sleep lost was well worth being able to go back to the states for a bit! The days are also getting lots longer here. And when I mean lots longer, it's getting light at 5:45 AM and the last flickers of sunset evaporate at around 9:45! Craziness! And I've had plenty of time to stare out the window at the pretty sky. Because of all that extra sunlight, you ask? Well, no. My lack of tv would be the real answer. The decision to go tv-free seemed like a good idea when I moved into my apartment...cable (or the decoder which you can get to watch US tv) is expensive so I thought, hey! Here's my chance to break the habit! But really, it just creates a huge craving for Oprah, I've found. The other morning, I walked past our clinic's waiting room to hear the familiar strains of my favorite talk show theme song wafting into the hall...and it was like hearing the voice of someone you haven't talked to in a long time. And it made me want to stop what I was doing and watch, thinking to myself, "I swear, I'll watch for juuuuust a minute!" Okay, maybe two! And I wanted to, I really did. But, in a clearer moment, I decided that having my commander find his new captain parked in the waiting room watching Oprah instead of seeing patients might be, well, in bad form. So, I pulled myself back to my operatory, a little sour knowing that the Oprah continues without my viewership. Hrrmph.