Why Get Married When the Boat Ride is Free?

     One year when my gyn walked into the examination room, he looked concerned and said,

     “I have always thought that you looked familiar to me, and now I think I know where I remember you from.”

     “Okay,” I said, sure that this was another load of bs.

     “I think I know you from high school, and if that is true, I can no longer be your doctor – was your name once Denise Des Soye?”

     Oh my gosh! This guy was actually trying to convince me we might have gone to high school together!

     “Yes, my maiden name is Des Soye.” And I tried to add, “you have always known my maiden name from my file,” but I did not get the chance to say it because the doctor had continued with his joke of the day.

     “I knew it. We did go to high school together!”

     “No!” I started laughing, “How could we have gone to high school together – I'm from up North, and you are from Alabama?”

     “Actually I lived up North for a while – were you in high school in 1969?”

     “I graduated class of 1971, so yes, I was in high school in 1969.
     “Yes! I was two years ahead of you! Now I know why you always looked so familiar!”

     “That is so absolutely untrue! If you had been in the class of 1969 in the high school that I went to, there is no way you would have noticed a lowly sophomore as myself – you could have almost had me believing you until you said that!”

     Finally he admitted he was kidding around – and since we were not old high school buddies, he could continue to be my doctor.

     The year that Mike and I got married, 2009, the nurse at the gyn office had put a note on the folder about the marriage and my name change. The doctor saw it on the cheat sheet and walked into the examination room with the comment,

     “Why did you have to marry him? He already lets you ride on his boat!”

     Even though I was used to expecting goofy comments from the doctor – he still managed to leave me dumbfounded with this one.

     By the time last year's meeting with the doctor came along, I had told my story of the 2007 physical three times in public. I was feeling a little more confident in myself around him and asked the doctor where in Alabama exactly he was from? He looked at me and said that if he had ever given me the idea that he was born in Alabama, it was because he was just being a smart ass! He is a native of South Carolina.

     Although the doctor has won the war of the wits during each year's examination, my being a storyteller is not one of the notes on his cheat sheet – and all I can say to that is.....

     Gotcha!

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