The Doctor is In

Following a suggestion from Taffi (and maybe a bit from Jameson, though I'd never admit it), I'd scheduled a Skype appointment with her therapist friend, Ginny.  We'd met at Taff's party in June just before I headed back to the island.  At the time I thought Ginny was a great listener.  Now, while sitting at my desk tapping  my heel and waiting for my appointment, I realized her listening was a covert operation to gain more patients.  Hmm... maybe my anxiety about the island, my workload and husband was getting to me. Shit. I needed this appointment. 

With a sigh, I fired up Skype and settled back into the chair to get as comfy as possible.  Jameson was at school, I had 2 hours free of meetings and Mitch was working at the dive shop.  This was as open as my schedule got.  As my Skype chirped with an incoming video call  from Doc.Ginny, I accepted the call and put on my game face.  We exchanged pleasantries, made sure the video  feed worked on both sides (while I thanked the gods for the lack of construction at Rainbow) and we got down to business.

"So, before we start, can I ask a quick question?"

"Kelly, you can ask me whatever you'd like. I want you to be comfortable," Ginny replied while setting down her pen and writing pad and crossing her hands on her lap.  I could see the corner of her home office and wondered how she'd set up her video feed since my video only showed  me from the shoulders up and windows behind me.

"Where is your camera? I feel like I'm in your office right now,"  I asked, not able to help myself.

"Oh. I've actually got a couple of feeds. My husband set it up so I can treat clients virtually while making them feel like there with me in the office.  Was that what you wanted to ask?"

"No, I actually wanted to know where you got the name Ginny."

"My parents, of course."

Quick witted and sassy - I  liked her already.

"Alright, Ginny, let's roll."

"Kelly, why don't you tell  me what you'd like to talk about.  I read through your e-mail and you mentioned stress with your job, the island, missing out on family functions, your husband's school.  Do any of these sound like a good place to start?"

I crossed my arms and looked  up wondering where to start. I only had 50 minutes, probably more like 40 at this point.  My immediate thought was to ask if Ginny had been to the new Starbucks in Redmond Town Center, but I figured that would go over like a lead balloon.

"Tell you what, why don't you talk to me about what you miss most about living in Washington?  Normally I'd limit an answer to one item, literally, but I'll give you some leeway."

"Easy. Convenience and reliability."

"You do know those things are not always synonymous?"

"Totally. But, I also know that at home if I want to run to Krispy Kreme to grab an old-fashioned, I'd take a left at the end of my block to hit the main road and I could be there in 6 minutes.Whereas here, depending on the time of day, I'd  take one of 3 different routes to get to the same place because A) there is no easy way to do anything on this island (I said while using my fingers to count and making sure she could see them in the camera) and B) if I'm going to sit in traffic to go pay a bill I may as well waste my entire afternoon by hitting the grocery store, Prime and the drugstore.  So yeah, I totally miss convenience and reliability."

"Are you familiar with the chaos theory?"

"Is that like Nordstrom on Black Friday? Because, yes, I am painfully familiar with that"

Laughing Ginny answered, "I guess in a round about way, yes it is. It's really how one choice, one action can have a larger impact than you'd expect. When you take route 1 on the island, that choice impacts the rest of your day as well as anyone else you come into contact with and people they see or interact with after the fact. So, even though nothing on the island is easy, as you say, what you do with your time on the island is important in the larger scheme of things."

"What? Like Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon?" 

We talked for the next 20 minutes about my choices and putting a different spin on them, trying to look at my life from a different vantage point and ways to reduce stress. In turn, I told her my story of how I'd e-mailed Starbucks no less than 8 times to suggest they open a store on the Dutch side of St. Maarten. This, to me, would be the fastest and easiest way to alleviate a lot of my stress.  Ginny disagreed and suggested I drink less coffee.

Wrapping up my Skype appointment, Ginny asked, "Kelly, this is the point in which I ask clients if they'd like to talk with me again.  I'm not going to ask you because I've gleaned you don't do anything you don't want to do.  However, I am going to suggest you think about it and then let me know."

"Soooo, are you telling me you'd see right through an answer of 'I'm not bovvered'?"

"Should I start calling you Lauren?"

"Got it. Look at my schedule and mail you back. Consider it done," I signed off to Doc.Ginny.

Mental checklist: apparently 8 years of med school and residency, combined with details provided by Taffi, were going to make these therapy sessions legit. Must tell Ginny to address me as M.C. Hammer during next session.