D1 on the Panel

So yesterday I drove up to NMB to the FIU Bay campus. I met Paul there -- D1 was on a community health care panel, and we went to watch.

It was a lovely event, at the Cal Kovens Center. There were academics, like Dr. Joe Greer, who is poised to become next FIU Med School Dean, and community leaders from the Parks Department, as well as corporate types.

We sat through the discussion before D1's, about getting health care resources to poor folks, and then D1's turn came.  She sparkled. She was the youngest one there, so when talk turned to dealing with Millennials, she was the focus. She talked about how her generation was told that everything they did was to be awarded, and that everyone gets a trophy. The panel laughed in agreement --D1 was a hit.

After the discussion, we chatted with some of the folks there. A woman came up to me -- I looked familiar. Sure enough, she was a former employee of Dr. Barry's Peds Department -- she did "development," corporate speak for asking donors for money. She was now working for a different non profit -- and her parents live at Ocean Reef, where D1 consults.

We then retired to Houston's for a terrific lunch, where I made D1 proud by ordering the fish and vegetables. The man at the next table was eating a baked potato laden with sour cream, bacon, and scallions.  Ha -- I'm no longer one of THOSE people.

This am I chatted with D2, doing the NYC corporate thing, making her way up that ladder.

I am so wildly proud of my Ds.

And Wifey took full advantage of that -- reminding me that Mother's Day is coming up, and she wants an expensive watch.  I protested that she's not MY mother -- so why do I have to get her anything.  That argument went over like a lead balloon -- giving me my life's greatest gifts, loving and raising them right, goes a long way.

So now I'm watch shopping.  I called the man I bought a used Rolex from, but he's out of the biz -- the margins, he said, were too small. He referred me to an old time dealer in the Seybold Building, and I chatted with the owner's daughter on Monday. She said she'd call -- so far, nothing.

But there are many online dealers, and I found one in NYC that seems to have an acceptable Cartier. So it ought to be a happy MD for Wifey.

So rock on, my Ds. I am one proud and happy Daddy in the USA.