Bless. Their. Hearts.

Trying to write a paper on class mobility for my community health class. Does it exist?
No.
Stuck in the library, spent my time scouting Brooks Brothers deals on ebay and resolving an unpaid item strike. Not all my time. Halie in the cat suit has made me angry. Which she does on purpose. Met with the director of pharmacy in the morning. I got lost. In my own hospital. I ran into the Assistant director, Charles, whom I know well.
"How can you possibly be lost?" He asks me incredulously. "You come down here all the time!" I'm on a Quality Assurance team. We're trying to get the hospital to vaccinate family members of newborns with TdaP. The pharmacy director was very pleasant. I liked his messy desk and his neat files. He looked like he got things done. He was the kind of regular guy I believe there used to be a lot of in the 50's, but have since disappeared in this land of raging ego. Small unstylish glasses, nice shoes not overly shined, grey flannel pants, dress shirt and tie. Hair cut short, no particular style. He reminded me of my grandfather. A picture of him with his plump grey-haired unpretentious looking wife under a palm tree somewhere warm. Friendly. Just the kind of person who should be in charge of the pharmacy. No status symbols around--gold pens, things like that.
"Any chance of getting this for free?" I ask him.
"Not a chance." He tells me pleasantly. "Solvent altruism--those are my watchwords."
Our team leader is this little elderly physician named Dr. Barrelman. He's a little full of himself.
"Dr. Barrelman, bless his heart, would give all the medicine away to everyone for free. But last time I checked, the public health option hadn't passed." He smiles. I change my appraisal. "bless their hearts" is hospital code for "asshole"
"Bless his heart."I repeat.
"Bless. His. Heart."
So, no free vaccine.
I run into Dr. Barrelman in the Thai restaurant, where Lilly and I are splitting coconut curry and dumplings, extra hot. He's sitting in the corner with a blissfully beautiful young blonde woman. There are only 4 parties in the restaurant tonight--the mayor's son-in-law is getting progressively soused with the editor of the paper, both are arguing passionately and loudly over the new bicycle ordinance, a bunch of Chinese kids giggling and flirting with each other, Dr. Barrelman and the mystery blonde, and us. It's Lilly's therapy day, and we always go out to eat afterwards. Well, the sequence goes like this: Lilly and I have therapy. Lilly goes to the Dakota to chill out and I go grab a glass of wine with Jay. Lilly and I always fight after therapy. But we discovered if we take a break for a little bit, right afterwards, we don't. Then we eat dinner and study downtown. For some reason, these days are really difficult for us. Lilly is getting more depressed. We can both see it happening, but we don't know what to do. I don't know what to do! Maybe Italy again? She cries a lot. She wants to be perfect at everything. She wants a boyfriend. She wants life to be different. She says she only feels alive when she's in a movie theater. "Do you want to go see a movie?" I suggest.
"No! You don't get it!"
Dr. Barrelman and the luminous blonde come over to our table. "Hello, there!" he says. "Rebecca, right?"
"Haley."
"Oh, right."
"Medical school...4th year, right?
"Trauma Surgical Intensive Care Unit. Nurse."
"Oh! Right! This is my wife, Kyrie."
"As in, Kyrie eleison?"
"Yes," she breathes, extending a warm, pretty hand, "That is my chosen name." She smiles. "I think you're in my yoga class."
"I believe I am."
"Namaste."
Lilly's eyes are bright and amused.
"I just started teaching." She says. "My first class, tonight!"
"I just went to my first class," Dr. Barrelman says, beaming through his elfin wrinkles. "It was marvelous! How did your meeting with Stanley go?"
"He's not giving it to us for free."
"Bless his heart." Dr. Barrelman says.
"Bless his heart." I repeat.
Kyrie smiles benevolently. "Bless us all." she says sincerely.
That's my 1/2 hour.