Creepy crawlies

It's been storming lately in Baltimore and my theory is that the wetness has driven the insects inside for refuge from the damp.

How else would I explain the sudden influx of crickets, leaf bugs and other vermin into our clinic? I'm not a wimp when it comes to bugs, except when I'm not expecting them. I survived a night in the jungle with the fourth highest insect population in the world damn it.

But I had survived nearly a year in my clinic with only the odd fruit fly or gnat here and there and I embarrassed myself not once, but twice, this week by screaming like a weenie in front of a client and pressing myself up against the opposite side of the room. One time was a leaf bug (a lovely invasive species from China that stinks when you crush it) and the other was for a giant cricket lurking beside the sink in the exam room.

Make that three times, except the final time, the client started freaking out too and I eventually stomped on the offending arachnid before having to go, "Ahem. Aaannnnyhoo, um, hi. I'm Dr. Lau. What's going on with Fluffy today?"

Doesn't do much to instill a professional atmosphere.

My techs have caught on to my dislike for the creepy crawlies and one of them taped the carcass of a giant mosquito thing to the x-ray light in surgery after I had ran screaming out of there earlier when faced with the live insect and told her to get rid of it for me.

And that's all that's new on this end. Gabe and I are heading to California to visit my sister at the beginning of October and otherwise, I am patiently waiting for my last day.

In the meantime, I must go to sleep for another fun week of work looms ahead.