Helpful Suggestions from the Peanut Gallery

So, last week, I was eating lunch at the clinic with a group of my co-workers. Several of them, including one each of the clinic's dentists, hygienists and dental assistants and their spouses, are busily planning a trip to Cairo over the long President's Day weekend. Piles of brouchures and flight itineraries were scattered everywhere and several of the trip planners were excitedly penciling down dates and other trip-related details. They were also discussing the apparently fantastic view of the pyramids from their hotel, located on the banks of the Nile. As the discussion progressed, I was minding my own business, when one of the assistants said, "Hey, Dr. Molly, would you like to come along? There's still room on the trip!" And I gleefully replied, "Nope! Can't! Dr. M. might be here!" (The backstory on the Dr. M. reference? Ah yes! M. earned the honorary title of "Dr. M." after accompanying the lot of us to Cologne last spring for a dental products show...at which he was unwittingly subjected to viewing a particularly gory video which demonstated of the placement of several dental implants-in an acutal patient! He survived the experience and in the process charmed the majority of the assistants from my clinic! Ever since then, they insist on referring to him as Doctor M.) But I digress...so, I'd just begged off accompanying them to Cairo, as M. is scheduled to be home sometime around then. Which is when LTC M., another dentist from my clinic, and an OIF veteran who knows a thing or two about sand, elbows me and says, "No! That's the perfect joke! Call him up and tell him that for his leave, you're taking him to EGYPT! How perfect: the last thing he probably wants to see is sand...and more sand. Definitely!" And EVERYBODY got a big laugh out of imagining me calling M. up and explaining to him that no, we wouldn't be going on an alpine ski vacation, but that instead I thought we should make this an all-desert-all-the-time year. Hmph. Anyway, fortunately for M., I knew better than to try that idea out on him as a serious one...and I think he saw the humor in it, too. Needless to say, though, we will not be taking any suggestions from the peanut gallery, and instead will be spending M.'s leave in several cool and decidedly non-sandy locations. Trips to the middle east for business reasons only, I say! Regardless of where we are, it will just be nice to spend the time together, and for him to have some true "down time" to relax...and I know he's counting the days!