I visited my palliative patient today.
When I woke up this morning, I noticed my phone had 10% charge left. Neither husband nor I could locate the charger so I quickly texted my receptionist and told her I would be unreachable for the morning. I didn’t feel comfortable not having access to the office, but I knew there were other physicians working today that would cover for me if anything urgent happened. I also told husband that I would be unreachable, so as to not worry if he texted me for any reason and I didn’t respond. Honestly, it felt a little weird not having a usable phone.
I had planned on taking local transit to see my patient and brought along a book I’ve been reading – “The Secret Language of Doctors” – but on the seat next to me was a local news magazine so I picked that up instead, flipped to the back and started working on the Sudoku puzzle. After a few minutes and a few numbers figured out, I got frustrated and moved on to the crossword puzzle.
Now, I’ve never actually completed a crossword puzzle. In.My.Life. I get one or two clues and then I get stuck. I never felt smart enough for those things. As my colleague told me later, I probably just didn’t think “out of the box” enough. Well to my huge surprise, I finished the crossword puzzle on my way back to work. I cannot begin to express the utter astonishment and the feeling of total supreme awesomeness I felt for managing that feat. I felt like a freakin’ superstar.
A crossword puzzle.
A useless iPhone.
Note to self: Let your iPhone die every once in a while. You might surprise yourself.