Long post. Prepare ye selves.
I'll start off easy. Here's a snapshot of our mini Christmas tree, which we decorated the night before this was taken. Okay, it doesn't look like this anymore - the damn cats decided it'd be a great idea to play with the ribbon (I bought sparkly gold ribbon in lieu of garland or tinsel as those two items make cats sick), bat the shiny balls off, and chew on a sparkly snowflake (causing one of them, I'm not sure who, to roll in panic and get glitter all over the carpet, which I then had to vacuum up). Geniuses. But the point is, we have a little Christmas tree, and it's beautiful. It makes the place smell like pine. Or fir. Whatever it is.
Okay. Down to business.
I'll start by explaining that all week, at work, we have had hardly anything to do. I've spent the time stuffing, stamping, and sealing envelopes for our year end newsletter. I've also hand written every address for our Christmas cards for our biggest contributors to the clinic. I don't know if I've finished them all yet, but I finished the list my office manager gave me, and it was easily 50 envelopes. There may be more for me to do tomorrow. I've also finished some more purge boxes from the storage room, and we'll be tossing more old files from 2005 and earlier tomorrow. Sounds good. There have been moments of busyness. The other day, we had many appointments and there was one woman in particular who spent a good part of the afternoon getting diagnostics done on her large husky dog. The dog hadn't eaten in four days, was drinking a bit, and had a high fever. Our dr's ran blood tests and urine tests, and while they didn't find anything unusual, they suggested she come back the next day to run the same tests and see if a trend explained what was happening with the dog. She flipped her lid. I'm serious. She had a 30+ minute conversation with the dr treating her dog (who also happens to be the boss, and owner of the business and building) in the exam room, displaying her frustration with the care we were trying to provide to her and her pet.
Afterwards, she came out to pay her bill, and expressed more anger, frustration, and kept on and on about how unfair and unjust our business was, as well as how we "didn't know" what we were doing, how because "he's a vet" he should "just know what to do", etc, etc. This was the first time I'd ever had to deal with a complaint this big. I let her run her mouth for a little bit. I explained that she was paying for DIAGNOSTICS, which MAY provide answers, and if she same back, we may be able to find the problem. All problems are not solved immediately, and while she was given options, she refused them all. At some point, the dr that was seeing her overheard her displeasure and came to rescue me, standing behind me and hashing it out with her for another 20+ minutes. Meanwhile, time is ticking and I'm supposed to be doing my close. The phone hadn't rung yet, so I sneakily turned it over so no one would call. I sat very carefully, wringing my hands nervously while the dr and the client argued with each other. Her arguement was, as a dr, he should automatically know that the dog is sick and know how to cure it. His arguement was that without diagnostics, he isn't able to cure the root of the problem, and while he could prescribe something to mask the symptoms, it wouldn't matter in the long run, as the problem would still exist and the dog really wouldn't be getting any better. She wouldn't hear any of it. In the end, the dr told her that clearly she wasn't happy with our service, she wouldn't have to pay, and she should seek another practice as she clearly was not getting what she wanted from our clinic. In a huff, she left with anger and tears. It was one of the most awkward situations I've had to sit through. As I finished locking the doors, the dr came to me and said, "Sorry, was she really hard on you?" and I replied, a little shakily, "No, it was just a little weird." He nodded and then went home.
It was so hard, so awkward, so nerveracking. By the time I'd finished my close my nerves were shot; when I got to the car I broke down. Of course, in my frame of mind, knowing that her dog was suffering and she wasn't willing to help it using our hospital's options for care, made me so upset. It's the highest form of cruelty to be handed options and toss them away because they were "unjust", "cruel", or "potentially harmful". The next day I checked her file, saw that her files had been transfered to the holistic/homeopathic hospital about thirty minutes down the highway. I kind of saw it coming. Where else would she go?
Now that that's over with, here's a cute picture of Phoenix wearing his new Christmas collar, and exploring my wrapping paper-littered living room. I was wrapping up all the presents, and he really wanted to check it all out. It's not so easy to wrap things when there's a curious kitten batting at everything that moves.
Last night my roommate and I went to see the latest Twilight movie. I know, I know. I completely disagree with the Twilight franchise, the fanbase, the actors, etc. Well, that's not entirely true. I adore Robert Pattinson, though in the Twilight movies he looks so miserable it just makes me laugh. But in other movies, such as Little Ashes (in which he plays Salvador Dali), Remember Me, Water For Elephants...he's magical. And GORGEOUS. The best part about Breaking Dawn was those sex scenes where they (thankfully) focused on his pouty lips and rippling back muscles. Yum.
Anyway, the rest of the movie was a little bit confused for me. I was trying to compare with the book, while I hadn't actually read the book since it came out, and didn't really remember all the nuances of it. There were parts that I definitely knew weren't in the book. I don't like it when movies do that. And the ending was so anti-climactic and overly dramatic, it really killed it.
Because my roommate has her licence now, we then wandered Wal Mart once the movie was over, and she handed me something I've been looking for forever - MirrorMask on DVD!! Overjoyed, I happily purchased it and we went home. It was a good night.
To finish this rather long entry, here's a better picture of my baby kitty Phoenix with his Christmas collar on again. There's actually a red bell on there that you can't really see (since it's been turned around to the back of his neck so he doesn't chew on it). So yeah. There's my entry. Sorry I've been slacking so much.
