Spring in NYC

It's finally spring here in the concrete jungle, and I've decided to celebrate by taking a "mental health day". For those of you who don't know the concept, a "mental health day" is when you call out sick to work, even though you're not sick, just to recoup and recover and regain some of your mental health. That's today for me.

I really do love my job, but it's been stressing me out recently. I always have heard that the first year of being an NP is the hardest, because you feel as though you don't know anything, and you're constantly afraid of making mistakes, etc. etc. And that's true... but I feel as though my greatest stress really comes from my boss. I love the doc that I work with, but my medical director drives me up a wall! And I'm still not officially hired, which means that I really don't have a leg to stand on if I complain. And while I like my patients, I can already see how doing primary care for the rest of my life would be unbelievably boring. I'm already sick of seeing diabetics and hypertensives each and every single day. 

The more I think about it, the more that I really want to go into adolescent health or HIV care. The problem is that I can't really figure out which one of them I like more. And I'm scared that I missed the boat by not applying for that HIV fellowship, although I think in the long run, this year (at least) of primary care experience will be good for me. If only I can not let my medical director drive me insane!

Anyway, on to my mental health day. It's gorgeous here in New York today, so after enjoying my coffee and blogging, I am planning on gearing up and going for my first outdoor bike ride on my new bike. I'm still deathly afraid of my clippy pedals, but one must do what one must do, and I have to learn to ride this freaking bike before June 1, or I really will die. 

Less than 6 weeks to the ride!! Here we go...