One of the nicest things about starting my own practice is all of the meals I’ve eaten recently. I've had representatives of different companies take me to breakfast, lunch and dinner - all at my favorite restaurants, and, if you know anything about me, I love food.

Today I went to lunch with Vern from Butler at the Bread and Ink Café about 4 blocks from my house. Jane and Michael Stern (the authors of Road Food, contributors to Gourmet magazine and the radio show The Splendid Table) recommend the Dungeness Crab Bruschetta and the café highlights it with a framed article on their menu board. So Vern and I ate our Dungeness Crab Bruschetta and House Salad with Rogue Blue Cheese crumbles, and chatted about equipment and the various vendors Butler distributes. He checked in with how things are going and, as always, offered some words of wisdom. We finished up with desert. I had the special – Pumpkin Pecan Pie and thought maybe it should be illegal to get two great pies in one.

I left the café full and happy and with a delivery from Vern – 4 bottles of Sevoflurane anesthesia in a tiny box that I had ordered. I walked home in the bright fall sunshine and couldn’t believe how great I felt to be embarking on this adventure. I also felt so weird to be walking home with $1000 worth of anesthesia in a box! Just walking around in public with it! Michael reminded me that the anesthesia I was carrying works out to about $1.00 per milliliter – my little box had four 250ml bottles in it.

I hope these wonderful, weird moments continue to be abundant and can hugely overshadow the difficult ones that are sure to come.

And a couple more great meals wouldn’t hurt either.