Thankful Thursday

Let me take a minute before anything else and write a quick Haiku. Ahem:
Kaiser I love thee,
the pinnacle of health care;
and Nolan agrees.

Okay, maybe not the best Haiku ever written...but really. I bet Nolan is rolling his eyes as he reads this, because ever since switching to Kaiser health care I'm SOLD. I'm considering tattooing "THRIVE" on my ribcage. Let me show you why:
- Last week I needed to make an appointment with a specialist. So I signed onto the website, and searched for one that I liked, and bookmarked her. I chose not to book online for whatever reason, but that's definitely an option.
- The next day, I called the advice line nurse, and she told me exactly what I needed from my appointment, and asked if Friday worked for me and listed off a bunch of times that were open. Holy cow!
- When I told her a good time, she confirmed that I was booked with "Dr.____" which was the doctor I had bookmarked online...I totally forgot to even mention that to her but she knew!
- I showed up on Friday at 10am. Free valet parking - booyah. The parking attendant told me where to go. Then as I was getting near my building, the ambulance driver hopped out of the vehicle, asked if he could help me get where I was going. Yes, I'll take a free escort!
- I checked in. 30 seconds.
- I put my slip of paper in a window, and then my name was called before my seat was warm.
- Nurse took b/p, weight, info, all that good stuff. Super friendly.
- Doctor showed up. 2 MINUTES LATER. If that. Super, super nice and helpful.
- Appointment was efficient. Doctor put in order for a prescription and told me I could pick it up at the lab DOWNSTAIRS. Holy cow. Also put in order for bloodwork. Also downstairs.
- Took number for bloodwork, was called 3 minutes later and painlessly drained of a few ounces. Sent on my merry way.
- Took number for prescription, number called and prescription explained...maybe 5 minutes total.
All in all, the whole thing was less than an hour. And I can do everything online! My doctor immediately emailed me my test results, and let me know if I need to refill my prescription I can do it online and have it shipped to me. Sweet! So anyway: if you've ever had a doctor's appointment, you'll see how truly wonderful this experience was! I am thoroughly impressed! Also: I stopped at Starbucks afterwards as a treat and they only charged me a dollar for my latte. Score!

So, moving on:
1. I'm thankful for our fantastic health insurance for which I don't pay a penny! It's amazing.
2. I'm thankful for fun new gym classes! I tried spin class with Erin on Monday and OMG. My quads are still burning and I don't think I stopped sweating for hours afterwards. Also today I tried Zumba and it was actually fun! So there, Mom, now I'll zumba with you. Worst part was my realizing how uncoordinated I actually am compared to how graceful and athletic I thought I was. Also: terrible at dancing apparently. Upswing? Had to laugh at myself and that's always good for you.
3. Thankful for the long weekend coming up! Nate is coming to visit on Sunday-Monday, so that will be a hoot. Plus it's been a weird week. I would say stressful but I feel like I'm not able to justify saying that anymore, seeing as how my work life is a drop in the bucket compared with Nolan's crazy schedule.
4. I'm thankful that Nolan is going to start wearing a helmet when he bikes.
5. I'm thankful that I've managed to stick with my new year commitments, because I'm already noticing a difference in my life! How refreshing.

What are you thankful for?