Argh. Aaarrghh. AAAARRRGHHH.

My boss is a douchebag. In a way, his douchebaggery of the week only reaffirms the decision I made to quit. Unfortunately though, I have to give 120 days notice (!!!) and have to endure approximately 93 more days of potential moments of ARRRGHHH!!!

To add to insult, the new member of the group is a complete idiot. The guy has finished a residency at a supposed teaching institution as well as additional fellowship training. Here we are at one of the LEAST demanding, LOW volume, community based practices known to man, and he's barely treading water. He lacks the confidence to do basic procedures that a second year resident has mastery of. Furthermore, every other word out of his mouth is "what do you think of this?", "I don't feel comfortable with that," "what should I do with this?", blah blah blah blah. The only satisfaction I get is that my douchebag boss likes him even less than I do. And soon (well, soon-ish), they get to be left behind to deal with each other as I get the hell outta here.

OMG! A truck just smashed into the building!

That was my first thought this morning as I heard the rumbling and felt some serious shaking whilst sitting at my desk at work. Then I came to the realization that this is Southern California, and that this is lasting a little too long to be a semi crashing into the hospital (why would a semi drive into a the hospital anyways? derr!). Belatedly I stumbled to the doorway (an old wives' tale?) and when the shaking stopped, I looked around the corner to see my boss on all fours crouching underneath the flimsy plywood counter. Bwahaha!

Anyways, it was a mere 5.4, I can't imagine how crazy it must have been for my brother who was in Chengdu when that big 7.8 hit in May. According to USGS, there's a 99% chance for a 6.7 or greater in the next 30 years. Yikes!

SIGH

This has been a crazy time for me ... recently I've committed myself to finding a new job, contemplated moving to another city, had a major wreck on my brand spankin new mountain bike, and saw my dog nearly get mauled to death.

Unlike life, I'm gonna blog with one thing at a time.

So a dilemma that I know many Californians face is: should I stay or should I go? After living here for a year, I've unexpectedly found myself truly enjoying my life here. Yes, the traffic is bad. And materialism is a badge of pride. And downtown LA really sucks for such a huge city. And its the epicenter for the entertainment industry.(Yes, this is a bad thing.) But I've been seduced by the weather, the diversity of cultures, awesome Chinese food, proximity to the mountains and the outdoors, and all the cool places you can go within a days drive of LA. The biggest drawback that makes me seriously consider moving out of state? The ridiculous price of housing. Those who left in the last decade were the smart ones, the ones who didn't get sucked into the bubble. The ones who haven't had to declare personal bankruptcy and lose a lifetime of savings and possibly their only chance at homeownership.

I recently was offered a job that closely approximates what my dream job would be. The drawback? Denver. It's cold there in the winter, I don't relish playing in the snow, and I hate to say this, but it's awfully white. It's nice not being a minority in LA. But in Denver, I can own a great house well within my budget, still enjoy the outdoors, and be in the same city with some of my closest friends. And, my retirement and financial situation would have a much rosier outlook there.

Reading this post I can almost convince myself to move there. Almost. But not yet.