Vacation wrap-up and good insurance stuff (for once)

Well, the rest of the vacation went well.  Despite the fact that I definitely left Nacogdoches a whole hour late due to a sudden inability to do travel math (there was, to be fair, a branching decision tree that I accidentally clambered out onto the wrong branch of), I wasn't overly late to dinner with the CBC folk.  It was good to see people, to drink margaritas, to eat grilled oyster tacos (I know!), to play Phase 10.  Well, maybe except for the Phase 10.  I think that game would be better as, like, Phase 8, but that's neither here nor there.

I eventually headed out to BR, did not die on the Basin Bridge (Mike vs. the Atchafalaya Basin Bridge, still undefeated!), and ended up going out for a pitcher of Abita and a big basket of chips and queso with Erin at Zippy's.  Not that it started out that way -- Mellow Mushroom and Chelsea's both proved unreliable for various reasons -- but it was really a good place to end up.  Quiet, chill, well-lit, housemade chips.  Abita pitchers.  Need I say more?

At this point my memory goes off the rails a bit.  I know I did something with the girls involving Highland Coffees, but I suspect we mostly just hung out?  I do know that I had dinner with groovy2382 at Parrain's, which was predictably wonderful.  I'll have to make some boudin with one of the magical things that came back from the trip with me (all in good time, Eager Beavers), because otherwise I'll have to wait until at least December for boudin balls.  And I should really learn to deal with fish more, because that barbequed black drum (my favorite thing on the menu) is just too good.  And of course it was good to talk with A, see how she's doing, play with her cat.  And then home for more Olympics!

Sunday was yet more hangouts, first with Mandi and Erin at Hello Sushi on Highland for the obligatory sushi gorge, then at the old house with the now-married Shane and Rebecca.  I KNOW.  Madness.  I've really got to be in better touch with them (and with everybody) -- I miss our long conversations around the big dining room table.

And then Monday I got up reasonably early to drive to New Orleans the better to come back home.  Ah, right: funny thing happened.  I needed coffee something fierce, and I was forced to drive through a Starbucks (because there wasn't any way I was going to drive away from my destination, in rush-hour traffic, to go to Highland Coffees, no matter how much I love them).  I've learned from past adventures in road tripping that the proper way to get a caféau lait at Starbucks is, apparently, to order a Misto.  Which... what the fuck, but hélas.  Anyway, I pulled up and placed my order, and when I got the drink the girl in the window said, "Where are you from?"  I told her I was from Ohio at the moment, and she said "I thought so!  I'm from up north, and we say Misto up there, but they say café au lait down here!"  *facepalm*

Anyway, obviously made it home alright, despite delays in DFW.  And I brought things back!

6# Camellia red beans
2# Nacogdoches honey
96 family-size Luzianne tea bags
1 antique meat grinder, purchased by my parents at an antique shop for $8
(I just realized I forgot to bring home Café du Monde coffee.  Bollocks.)

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On a totally different note, I actually had a good experience at Student Health today.  I've been meaning to schedule an appt with a local glaucoma specialist, since I'm far overdue for my yearly checkup, so I did that.  But for insurance purposes, I have to have a referral from primary, so I scheduled an appt with the Optometry segment of the Student Health Center today.  Yeah, only, it turns out that they have to do a full workup in order to issue a referral, but insurance will only pay for one of those a year, and I had one back in December.  Luckily, it turns out that the attending that did my exam back in December was the attending in the SHC today, and she remembered me!  So she had the file faxed over from the other facility, called in a referral to the specialist after a quick chart consult and pressure check, and then billed the visit as a standard office visit so I wouldn't have to pay out the wazoo.  Yay!

Two foot-related items; one moderately ridiculous, the other potentially problematic

OK, so. 

Foot-related item the first.  I walk around barefoot at work quite a lot, and this seems to really weird people out.  Not so much the actual DMP clientele, who don't really even seem to notice, but random students in the halls and rooms.  To wit, I just now walked down the hall to fill up my water bottle, and there was this random guy waiting for the elevator.  We don't even acknowledge each other as I approach, but while I'm standing at the water fountain with my back to him, he says "Floors must be pretty clean here!"  Uh... sure?  They clean them?  And as I said to him, it's not like I'm eating off the bottoms of my feet. 

The better story, though, comes from a colleague's student.  I popped my head in to check on her (she was working on a GIMP project with some students, and I wanted to make sure the program was playing nice), and then I walked off.  She told me later that the student she was working with at the time asked her, "Who was that?"  She told him that I was one of the computer people -- 'he works here' -- to which he responded "He can't work here!  He's not wearing shoes!"

I just think it's funny.  I mean, I work for one of the most laidback segments of an already rather relaxed department.  No one in any official capacity really gives a damn.  But societal expectations of professional dress run strong, I suppose.  I got odd comments from my colleagues down at LSU, too.  Weird broad-scale foot phobia.

Foot-related item the second.  I think I may have to see a doctor about my foot.  It's been periodically giving me trouble for a few weeks now; I can't remember if it started when I jumped off my sister's patio (unimportant story), or if that just 'woke it up'.  Anyway, I have a stabbing pain in the large tarsal on top of my arch sometimes, mainly if I jump somewhere or walk for a long time.  Certainly seems like it could be some sort of fracture.  Ugh, what if it is and I have to wear one of those gigantic boots?  Feh.