The Joys of Being Me

When I wear my favourite t-shirt, I get into a bit of trouble. 

Across my chest, it reads "In my defense I was left unsupervised."

I wore this to work today, knowing that I had no big meetings. Just a doctor's appointment at lunchtime. 

The doctor doesn't care what I look like. As long as I'm clean and tidy, they're happy. 

Walking into said doctor's office, the girls at reception greeted me, then broke into peals of laughter. 

"I NEED THAT T-SHIRT!"

"It's mine," I told her. 

"And who are you here to see?"

"Umm... a doctor?... Sam? Dan? It's a he. I'm here for a little thing and he's not my normal doctor."

"Ah, Ben."

"That will be him. Middle-aged white man name."

They chuckled at this too.

"Ben's upstairs."

"Thanks. Oh, you can get the t-shirt at shein.com. Well cheap."

The medical issue is trifling, but best dealt with quickly. A patch of cellulitis which needs antibiotics. (Well, that was my diagnosis - Dr Ben said it was the same thing.)

And Dr Ben was indeed a middle-aged white guy. Lovely fellow. Took one look at my t-shirt and said that he needed one too. 

"Why didn't you see your normal doctor?"

"I thought if I waited for an appointment with her, my leg might be black or falling off. And as I'm due back in Darwin next weekend, we can't have that. Best get it fixed."

"Good point. Have you injured your leg at all?"

"Not to my knowledge. It could be an errant mozzie bite in Darwin, but I felt nothing and I slather myself in DDT before heading out. The cat likes to mug my ankles, but he normally leaves his claws in. This is just bad luck."

And after five minutes of checking my leg, agreeing I needed antibiotics and providing a prescription, we were done. 

"What do you do up in Darwin?

"Work. Swim. Probably get bitten by mozzies. Berate the lack of accessible theatre culture."

"Sounds fun."

"It has its moments."

"Anything else?"

"All good. I see my normal doctor for the ongoing stuff."

"Sounds like a plan."

And I left. Happy that my leg's not going to turn black and drop off (don't google it - cellulitis is gross if you don't catch it early), happy that my washing had dried on the line on a lovely day, happy to be out at lunchtime, and very happy that my favourite t-shirt had made people smile. 

Off to The Whitlams now. 

Today's song: