When I've had health insurance I always ended up picking doctors at random in my neighborhood. Back in Brooklyn I was living in Little Warsaw where, oddly enough, every third building is either a hair salon, a liquor store, a Catholic church, or a doctor's office. My doctor was a 60-something-year-old Polish lady. I walked in with a swollen tonsil or something, and fatigue and general feeling crappiness... this was in my first year working night shift at a hospital. She listened briefly and then handed down the word with proper Old World doctorly authority:

"Listen to me. You are tired. You look depress.
Is not a good job for young man.
Find a nice woman who cooks for you.
Have you met my secretary?"

Against medical advice I remained single, kept working as a nurse and moved to San Francisco. I got another random doctor - this time a 40-something Middle Eastern woman with a slightly more cheerful but equally authoritative tone. I went in today for some more not very interesting complaints.

"You look tired. Are you unhappy?"

Well, I'm kind of tired... actually I'm mostly pretty happy, just not so happy with my job sometimes, and some stressful things and...

"Listen to me. Do you like classes?"

Uh... well, I'm thinking about going back to school next year, if I can work part-time...

"No: do you like classes?"

...Like what?

"Do you know Landmark Forum? It's a very good, very special thing. Can make a big difference. A little expensive, but if you can, you should try..." etc., etc.

Aieee! If you don't know, Landmark is the descendant of Est. Truly I'm in California now. (Also, the last three people who mentioned it to me were all Sutter Health employees. What the hell?)