my mom doesn't need any help grilling me about my dating life, thanks. I'll let you know if she ever does.

So, today was my first day of outpatient pediatrics. I went to a private practice office in Richardson Texas. It was boring. Every kid either had Strep throat, a virus that mimicked the symptoms of strep throat, or they were perfectly healthy, or they had been swimming in Garland, Richardson, or some other suburb north of Dallas in a public pool and now had diarrhea caused by cryptosporidium (a parasite). The most exciting thing I saw was a diaper rash with a superimposed fungal infection.

Between patients, the physician I was following asked me if I had a boyfriend, then why didn't I have a boyfriend, then advised me that I should try and get a serious boyfriend or better yet a fiancee before I graduate, because once in residency I will be even busier and men will be more intimidated by me once I'm a practicing surgeon. She went on to tell me that if I waited until my 30s to have kids then I will only have time for two and I'll have to have them really close together. And that I should try and marry a Doctor so that they will understand how hard my job is, or at least a male nurse (for the record, I'd kind of prefer to have a stay at home dad. As Aretha and Annie so aptly put it, "sisters are doin' it for themselves".)

How am I supposed to respond to such a barrage? here are the thoughts I was having as this advice vomit flew through the air at my head:
1) I came to medical school to get an MD, not an MRS.
2) If a man is intimidated by my education, it's probably because he's insecure about his own
3) What the hell decade are we in, anyways?
4) If all else fails, I'll buy a trophy husband from Eastern Europe and keep him here by having power over his greencard.
5) if plan outlined in #4 doesn't work, I can always become a dried out old workaholic spinster, which sounds pretty bad but remains a solid option. Plus I can buy foreign babies like Angelina Jolie.

I'm not like an uber feminist man hater or anything. I just think that some people in Texas can be a bit behind the times when confronted with single women over the age of 23.