Sizing Down

I had a conversation with my mom the other day. It seems that some of the doctors at her work were resentful of one doctor who works part time. She seemed to think it was because she worked part time. She has two small kids and just isn't able to come to work full time. However the other doctors made it really hard for her to work a schedule she wanted. She wanted to work every morning from 8 to 1. It fit in well with her kids' schedules. They made her work full days two days a week instead. Actually, she works fewer hours by doing that, but it's still more awkward for her and she preferred the other situation. I guess they just didn't want to see her going home early. I asked my mom what all that was about. She said that there are a lot of doctors who don't like what they do, who got involved in the field for the money and the prestige of being called doctor. So apparently seeing someone leave early when they have to stick it out for the rest of the day is not terribly pleasing to them. I still didn't get it. This doctor who works part time gets paid less. Any other doctor could do the same thing. Anyone could work fewer hours and make less money. As far as I see it, they made their choice. But my mom said it's not so simple as that. Some things look like choices, but they aren't really. A lot of these full time doctors have stay-at-home wives designing new houses or like to vacation a month of every year in Tibet or other random things that cost a lot of money. Sure they make a lot of money, but they've all found ways to spend it. Yes, they could cut back their hours, but they'd also have to cut back their expenses. They'd have to stop doing a lot of the things they regularly do. Sizing down is painful. I know it first hand. For most of the break, I spent the whole time at Steven's place. We were practically living together. I was there when he left for work; I was there when he came home. It was so fun. And now that I'm not seeing him every day anymore, it's hard. I've had to downsize back to weekends again. That wasn't such a big problem before, but it's hard now. I want to see him. I want to hug him and fall asleep next to him. Bummer. Am I really going to have to wait a year and a half until we can live together? I hope not, but that does seem to be the way things are turning. Sigh. It'll be sweet when it finally happens.

Though that does bring up a separate point- housing immediately after the wedding. We're going to be busy enough just planning the wedding. Are we also going to have to go house shopping as well? There's no way I'm coming back from the honeymoon and staying with my parents when he goes back to live with his. We're going to need to actually have something prepared! That means getting everything settled before the wedding! That means planning ahead when we're at our most busy! I couldn't even get Steven to look for housing last summer when we had nothing going on. Are we going to have to stay in a hotel? Rent an apartment on a monthly basis until we can find something more permanent? Live in a few bare rooms until we get it together enough to move our furniture in? Oh dear... Maybe we can just buy a tent and camp out on some patch of unclaimed land.