Finding a doctor in Napa is tough...

Well, dear followers, so Napa is still beautiful with rolling hills and vineyards, but one thing has proven to be tough: finding a good doctor. It ended up being important because my first week here I sprained my ankle and caught a nasty stomach flu.
I tried all the board-certified doctors on my insurance list, and none of them were taking new patients, except one in a "concierge" medical service who charges $1200 a year to belong to his medical practice. Didn't seem ethical to me, so I tried a couple of non-board-certified family practioners - one whose office was so crowded with large families who spoke no English, I had to wait an hour and a half for five minutes with the doc - and another who was very friendly but didn't do any exam (you know, that whole - look at you on the table thing, stick things in your ears and throat.) Don't know why that made me nervous, but it did. So I'm trying a doctor in Yountville to see how that goes. There are also no "Urgent Care" centers in Napa, which is weird - Port Townsend, a small tourist town in Washington, smaller than Napa, had two, and San Diego was brimming with them. It's too bad, because you don't want to have to go to the hospital (which is nice) for basic care, right, because you can't find a doctor? So I say - open up an Urgent Care center, Napa - it seems there are no doctors available for the majority of newcomers!
Anyway, since I promised to chronicle living in Napa, good and bad, thought I'd include this saga...
Hope I have better luck with dentists and hair stylists...

The Eagle Has Landed in Napa Valley

This weekend we moved into an apartment on the North side of Napa. We took a quick tour - found the hospital, got a library card, looked at the Oxbow Markets, took a quick walk by the Napa river. It's a lovely town - there are a lot of vacancies in the retail spaces right now, which is kind of sad, and a sign that the downturn has hit even here in Napa Valley.
We stopped into the local bookstore, Copperfield's Books, which I loved. They have readings, a great magazine collection including literary journals, graphic novels and comics (including Buffy the Vampire Slayer)as well as fun, unneccessary objects like scented markers and hedgehog-shaped erasers. The poetry section - I'm a poet, so that's the section I pay the most attention to - was small, but at least had a decent number of living poets on it. I didn't notice that many local writers there - at least they weren't showcased or anything.
The temperature - around 85 degrees and 60 percent humidity - seems lovely and dry after living in muggy Carlsbad.
So far, so beautiful! Now, to try to find a doctor who is still taking patients, a dentist, a hair stylist...

Moving to Napa

I started this blog to have somewhere to talk about moving to and living in Napa. I looked for a blog like this while I was researching living here and couldn't find one, so here you go!

My husband and I are moving to Napa next week. We are planning to rent an apartment for a year, and possibly buy a house in another (if we succeed in saving up a down payment!) I'm a poet and poetry professor and my husband works in IT as a telecommuter, so Napa seemed like an ideal place for us - close enough to San Francisco and Silicon Valley, but since both enjoy small towns, far enough away to be charming and affordable.

If you have any advice for us as new Napa residents, please leave comments!