A few of my favorite things

Weekend edition! I think you will find it remarkably similar to the weekday edition, but it will be completed in between soccer games and rounding in the hospital as opposed to all-in-one shot. The events to discuss include some of my favorite things. Yesterday, I had three encounters about planning applied improv events at various stages of development. It’s wonderful, all those conversations bring such life to me. Especially since two of them were from random encounters after putting myself out into the digital world. Very fun conversations and enjoyable perspectives shared on ideas that excite me.

Last night I returned to Dad Jokes, my improv team that I have been on the longest. It was formed with people that I started level 1 classes with way back when. The most magical moments I have experienced on the stage have been at one of those shows. Unfortunately, I have missed our monthly show the past several months. I missed December due to having COVID, January due to a snowstorm, February because it was my wife’s birthday (she is generally very supportive of me doing these activities, but even if she said I could go, I believe the term in medical parlance would be “false positive”), and in March, I was on family vacation. It felt great to get back on stage with the team and it was a very fun show. It wasn’t boring, the audience was great, there were fun ideas, and spontaneous moments were created. It was also obvious for me that I was rusty. There were moments from the show that I think back to that I could have made easier, better choices to heighten some of the scenes in a simple way. I have to practice/perform more to make it great. It was very good. It was a lot of fun. Humor arose naturally from the effort of the group. One of the deepest moments of joy I have from improv is when I walk out of the club after a show, and someone approaches me to tell me how much they laughed. That happened last night. It is probably too much in service of my ego, but at this point in my comedy “career” I think I still get benefit from a little stroke of the ego. It is cool to know that people came to laugh and left satisfied that they did laugh. That said, I was rusty and know that I can do better. I love that sense of both enjoyment that was found and the sense of needing to improve.

Then this morning I went into the hospital to round on patients with my team. Ever since COVID, they have been real sticklers about having drinks on the wards. We weren’t supposed to before but very limited enforcement. One of the times when I am happiest at work is when I get to walk around the hospital, talk about medicine, talk to patients, and drink coffee while we do it. Our team had no COVID patients, and no patients were near the COVID unit (If you are employed by Nebraska Medicine, please skip reading until the end), so I walked around with my team, talked about medicine with them, saw our patients, and drank coffee while doing it. It was really great. I could honestly do it all day, every day. I do tend to get a little excited and start talking about whatever pops in my head though and can lose sight of necessary tasks for our team to perform because I talk to much or we get talking about if robots will replace doctors, and  also healthcare providers in general, in our lifetime (share your thoughts below [it’s fine, I’m not on the robots’ side, I promise]). We discussed some beneficial topics for their learning, and they shared some great ideas that provided insight into healthcare issues to benefited me. That said, it took too long and was somewhat unfocused. I love that sense of both enjoyment that was found and the sense of needing to improve.

Improv shows and rounding with coffee are a few of my favorite things. Overall, I am thankful. Happy Saturday to all!