Sometimes you want to go....

Where everybody knows your name
And they're always glad you came."

-- Cheers theme song


Zoe has been coughing for a few days. Last night she complained that her ear and tummy hurt. I saw it coming: We were up most of the night.

I hit the phones this morning, kicking myself for not having found a pediatrician before now. I was cold calling places out of the phone book... nothing open yet. I called my old doctor here, hoping he'd see kids. No deal. (I'd make a horrible reporter.) But I got a referral agency, and the woman was really helpful, but in the end she gave me all family docs, not pedes. Which would be fine if I had a 12-year-old, but the kid is 4.

I hadn't had much sleep, and I was getting irritated, but I remembered driving past a storefront near my brother's place less than a week ago, and making a mental note of a practice I saw there. I don't know if it said pediatrician or not, or if I noted it because of its proximity to my house, but I scanned the yellow pages at that point and picked out the name.

Damn, she had three locations. I called up, and got an appointment at 10; how lucky for us that she was in Pittsburgh that day, and luckier that her office answered that early and had an appointment available so quickly.

Ahhhhh. I couldn't find anyone to watch Zoe so I called in to work, and soon headed to the doctor's office.

The waiting room filled up shortly after I got there, but we were called up quickly. I'm sitting in the examining room with Zoe... and maybe I had a subconscious inkling of this before now, but it suddenly hits me: THIS WOMAN WAS MY PEDIATRICIAN.

And like, suddenly, whoa, I'm like, dude, far out....


I did have a different pede for most of my childhood, but he got old and others joined his practice, including this doctor. I know I saw her at least a few times, and today we chatted about other doctors that were there then... there was one my mother hated and one she liked, and it turns out I was in the presence of the one she liked. She had moved her practice and was on her own now, and suddenly I felt so old.

Zoe got a prescription for her ear infection and by this evening she was bouncing about like her old self.

The sun came out for a little bit today, and the Chia Pet, as mangy as it has been, filled in a little. You'd think from the commercials the damn thing would grow overnight, but it doesn't mention you need more than a cumulative day of sunlight a month.


The elephant Chia rejoices after today's hour of partly cloudy skies in Allegheny County.