Hi. I've kept a journal for a while (10 years), but lately I've just lost track of it. I always thought that the life I've been living--I was a resident in Emergency Medicine--would be interesting to someone and that I should write a book. That never came to be and......yeah, it's time to face facts, it's not going to. Not anytime soon. So--blogging for me. In preparation I have tossed the TV and bought a bottle of Plymouth Gin. We'll see how it goes...... Now seems like a good time to dive in. I just turned 30. I just quit 11 long years of higher education (4 of college, 4 of med school, and three of residency which, while technically "work", sure as hell gets paid like "education". I've stumbled my way into a good job and still find my head swimming from making $15K for my first month's work. Crazy. I've bought an engagement ring and, God willing, these pages will soon be filled with syrupy unreadable stories of a romantic engagement in San Francisco. Or, possibly, a rather turgid "Farwell cruale world.." note that might make for good reading also. New apartment, new city, and if things work out maybe a new dog. This confluence of beginings seems auspicious. I mentioned that I hoped to become engaged soon. I've done the first part--well, if you count meeting the right girl the first part then I've done the second part and bought a ring. The Biscuit and I hadn't talked about it and I had no idea what sort of ring she might like. Diamond, yes, but beyond that I was at a loss. Fortunately, she has a great friend, Radiant. I picked her up when the Biscuit when out of town for the weekend and we went to Robbins Brothers. I know, I know...pretty corporate for an engagement ring, but we were just looking for ring styles since I was going to buy the diamond in the LA Jewelry qaurter. And you got to give the devil his due--the Robbins Brothers do a damn fine job. Cold sodas, obsequious sales girls, charming"closers", the works. Radiant knew exactly what the Biscuit wanted...it's almost like they had talked about it. Princess cut, platinum, three-stone. Carat, Radiant told me, was "up to me". Thanks. Nice to be part of the process. I'm type A--a lot of us are in medicine. And I had researched the hell out of this. The whole cut, clarity, carat, color mantra. Also the artificial price inflation, the Rhode's slave-colonization that still lies at the heart of the industry, etc. Buying into the manipulative marketing and the exploitation and the materialism of it all makes my skin crawl! Still--I couldn't justify rebelling against the corrupt, insidious, blood-fed diamond industry by buying my girlfriend a shitty ring so I decided to bite the bullet and just put the money down. And let me assure you, particularly you amorous guys, it's a shitload of money! I dropped $3000 at Chez Robbbins and that was for the F-ing SETTING! A resident's monthly salary buys you a SETTING! I won't go into the gory details of wrangling for a center stone but let me put it this way--I love the ring. I'll be proud to see it on her finger and proud to have her show it to her friends and colleagues. I periodically take the ring out of it's box (hidden in a manilla envelope in my sock drawer) and gaze appreciatively at it. And when I do I think, "Shit, I could have bought a Camaro." Okay, I'm enjoying the blogging, and I expect I'll be back soon. Even so, wish me luck--I have to talk to her mom (Shiver) and plan to propose in early September. U-561