Just trying to learn my way around

Hey there, happy guy!

I have several things that I need to post about, so I'll try to get all caught up in the next few days. We had a great (but fast) weekend visiting Patrick's family, and I have a lot of pictures and video of the cousins to sort through and post, so more about that later.

On Friday Patrick and Elijah joined me for my first visit to my new doctor's office here. I've been a little nervous about switching doctors and all since we first started talking about moving. I loved my doctor in Colorado, and the idea of finding someone new didn't sound fun, and not knowing where to go or thinking I might not being able to find someone quickly enough if I needed it just stressed me right out. So I was glad that the insurance stuff was worked out quickly and we got an appointment right away. The appointment wasn't a real check-up, just a visit with a nurse to get all my records and history and all that so that they would know what's going on with me before I meet the doctor. Everyone was nice, and I am looking forward to my appointment this afternoon to meet the doctor and get back on track with my regularly scheduled care. Getting there on Friday, however, really reinforced my perception of R.I. so far - you just have to know what you're doing. We were late to the appointment because we got lost - neither MapQuest or the street signs around here are very helpful, and we couldn't get anyone on the phone to give us directions until we finally just turned around enough to get there. Really, the street sign situation here is horrible. Even Patrick, who has a great sense of direction and can usually find anything, gets really frustrated and thinks everyone who moves here just has to get GPS.

So when we arrived at the office all flustered and late, the receptionist checked me in and gave me some paperwork to fill out. "The nurse will be calling you in a few minutes," she said. So we filled out the paperwork and waited. And waited. And waited. Elijah ran all over the waiting room with Patrick and read all the books they had in the kid corner. After about 30 minutes, Patrick went back to the receptionist and asked if anything was wrong and they said, "No, we're just waiting to get your paperwork back." OK, thanks for letting me know that I should bring it back to you! Yikes! Anyway, it's not that people here aren't nice, they just assume that you know what you're doing. Even when you tell them you're new and you need help, it just doesn't do much good. Hopefully today when we go, we'll figure out the right way to get there. And now we know we'll have to start practicing getting to the hospital soon so we can get lost trying it a few times. Fun times!