It’s Santa Rosa!

Santa Rosa is hotter than we’d prefer, but we’ve lived in hotter climates — San Jose, Los Angeles, and (obviously) San Antonio are all worse. Even in Brookings, we’ve had a lot of 80F-and-above weather lately. Sometimes we get an ocean breeze, sometimes we don’t.

I’ll be going into practice with a guy I’ve known since med school; we’ve had an excellent professional relationship for the last ten years. I like him, I trust him, and the feeling is mutual. Best of all, he really, really wants me there. It’s nice to be wanted.

What about Washington? I told both places that I needed to know their offers, if any, by July 1st. One place managed to get me an answer by this morning — a little tardy, but not so bad as to make me risk my offer from Santa Rosa. They decided they didn’t want me. It was one of those baffling phone calls where you wonder afterwards, “If y’all liked me so much, why didn’t you make me an offer?”

I think I charmed the head of recruiting. She sounded genuinely disappointed to be giving me bad news. She told me, “They want to keep interviewing.”

The doc who would have been my partner did the menschlich* thing and called me this evening. He told me they had just hired two nurse practitioners, and they’re concerned about bringing on another partner this quickly. (So you had to fly me up there to figure this out? Whatever.) What this suggests is that they want to hire docs who would have a start date July ’09. Maybe they liked me, maybe they didn’t; bottom line, I was ready to work sooner than they needed.

You thought maybe I was kidding? They bronzed his ass, and his little dog, too!

Karen wonders whether the economy might be to blame. I would gladly have taken all of their pediatric patients, and they knew it. At present, those patients go to other ENTs in the area. Pediatric patients are predominantly Medicaid patients. Medicaid doesn’t pay well. If we’re looking at an impending recession, the organization might not want to see a big influx of Medicaid patients.

It’s a thought.

Oh, and the other Washington position? Once again, they knew I had a July 1st deadline to meet. They haven’t emailed, haven’t returned my calls. In my book, this defines “unprofessionalism.” Better to find that out now than after I’ve been hired.

It’s been a stressful time for me, but I’m glad I went through this job search. I feel like I’ve made an exhaustive study of the best opportunities from San Francisco to Seattle (and north of Seattle, too) and I’ve found the position that’s right for me. It’s not perfect (thanks in part to global warming) but what is?

Don’t know when we’re relocating. I’m going to shoot for mid-August. Meanwhile, no one wants to buy our house. There’s always something to worry about.

D.

*I explained to Jake that a mensch is a man who behaves in an impeccable, upstanding fashion. He asked me what you call a woman who behaves impeccably.

A womensch?