Makes for an interesting Wednesday morning… that’s for sure.

And it is retroactive to my start date. Yeah baby.

I know that I shouldn’t feel entitled to things because I am a doctor. But when you work hard and you are right for the job AND you have a doctorate, they should compensate you right. What doesn’t make any sense is that if they always offer people low salaries, they aren’t ever going to get the cream of the crop. So does that mean I am not the cream of the crop?!?

Really, what I want is a job in Santa Rosa. I want to break free of Sacramento.

It isn’t that things aren’t happening. I just don’t feel like writing about it. That is the beauty of my blog. If I want to neglect it, I can. Truth be told, I haven’t been inspired to post. Maybe I will be back in a little while.

p.s. iPhone 3G? I don’t know that I could be more excited.

We went camping Mendocino this past weekend. I had worked enough overtime to take Friday off, thank goodness! It was a zillion degrees here in Northern CA and we (Winemonkey, Pebz, along with Siea and Brown Bear) wanted to escape to the coast! Winemonkey, Pebz and I got there on Friday night and found one of the last few spots in Van Damme State Park. It is one of my favorite places to camp because it is always incredibly lush with ferns, berries, and stinging nettle. Well… the stinging nettle doesn’t make it all that wonderful… The other thing that makes Van Damme such a great place is that it is in a gully, so the walk to the ocean is really really easy. No mountain climbing gear necessary.

Anyway, we took a chance going out on Friday as there were no reservations available online. I typically don’t like making reservations, but I knew with the heat everyone was going to run to the coast. Even there it was abnormally hot, in the 80’s (a far cry from the inland hundreds…). Our spot was really nice, good shading, level, pretty little flowers all around and no stinging nettle. It was nestled right next to a babbling creek. The bathrooms were located right across the street from the site, but it didn’t matter much as the light didn’t both us.

We spent the weekend cooking and relaxing, going to the beach, hanging out at a local bar in Mendocino, where they let my “service dog” in. The weather was perfect the entire time. The food was amazing. Winemonkey and I had our first grilled chicken thighs and grilled zucchini of the season. This is always one of my more favorite grilled dinners. We had tri-tip on Saturday night for dinner along with Siea’s perfect fruit salad and grilled sweet potatoes. I won’t even go into the killer ‘zza apps’ that Siea brought.

All in all, this weekend was beautiful. Even Pebz had a good time.

Click the picture to see the rest of the trip!

I am not an argumentative person in general. Any of my friends or family will attest that I occasionally find a high horse to ride in on, but it is rare and usually understandable. But when someone picks fights with me, I generally just want to walk away. Particularly if they are arguing with me and I agree with what they are saying. FYI - That isn’t arguing so why must we continue this?

Anyway. To be called chicken because I don’t want to waste my time is just uncalled for. Especially when I feel like I walk a thin line by staying there.

But back to this weekend. It was really cold. Hard to believe with the sunburn I am sporting… but because of the wind chill I only have burns on my shins and a patch on my chest. The rest of me was covered for warmth. Sleeping at night was an interesting experience. Pebbles did not have her own sleeping bag so she had to climb into the bottom of mine. Winemonkey and I were both a little nervous about her suffocating down there, but she emerged the next morning like a little ball of sunshine. She had somehow wiggled out of her sweater during the night. The second night we put the rain fly on and it was infinitely times warmer in the tent. Pebs spent the night blanket-free snuggling alternatively with me and Winemonkey.

All in all, Pebs was a great little camper. She is so mellow it is hard to tell if she liked or hated it. But at least she didn’t seem miserable.

If you want to see pictures from the weekend, click here.

Just thinking about it makes me want to bolt out of this office and get on the road!