Recent phone talk with E while I was on call at the hospital:
E: "What are you doing?"
Me: "Oh, nothing, just studying."
E: "Well, then you should come home!"
(My thoughts exactly...)
Me: "I can't, I have to be here in case someone has a car accident."
E: "Or a tumor? Or a brain injury?" That's pretty accurate, actually. Some people think a tumor is as urgent as a brain injury, and therefore call in the middle of the night. It's extremely frustrating.
Me: "You got it."
E: "What else did you do today, other than study?"
Me: "I had a patient who needed her appendix out, so she had to have a surgery."
E: "Oh my gosh!" Always gratifying to have your work sound exciting to someone.
Me: "And I had another patient who needed to have his gallbladder out, so he had a surgery too."
E: "I know you've done other gallbladder things before."
Me: "You do? How?"
E: "Because it doesn't look like I'm listening at dinner, but I am...sometimes."
My child has fallen prey to the unfortunate circumstance of having two (technically four) physician grandparents and one physician mother (and one EMT father). Our dinner convos are not always...ahem...bloodless. I'm sure it drives my poor husband nuts, because although we try to limit our discussions to topics that are less gross and more "interesting" (or even just plain crazy), we frequently trend toward the technical. But I love that E is easily impressed, and that he apparently listens to what we're talking about. It's nice to induce excitement (or I'll even substitute shock and disgust). He's supposed to look up to me, after all.
