Fatigue

Sorry I've fallen off the face of the earth. I've been so beat lately. Probably not helped by the fact that my family recently became another statistic when my dad (an accountant) lost his job. It happened the night before my birthday and a huge pharm exam. Bummer, right? So it's been a rough few weeks.
On the bright side, we only have about 3.5 weeks left of classes! That's both exciting and frightening. I'm worried I'll have to retake orgo this summer. Wouldn't be the WORST thing, but it would be pretty frustrating.

Tech Abuse

As a tech (or an intern), my job is to help the pharmacist do his or her job. My obligations and responsibilities are limited to what they say I can do- some people want me compounding, others don't even like me doing data entry (really? That's pretty basic tech 101). With that being said, techs have the potential to make a pharmacist's day really awesome or really awful. It's not necessarily out of spite! Some are poorly trained, and some are just bad workers. Floater pharmacists should know this better than anyone else. When they walk into a store, they don't know the clientele, front store staff, or general store nuances- it behooves them to befriend the techs to make the day run smoothly. So when a floater pharmacist (who, for the record, is TERRIBLE) treats my little sister poorly and makes her stay 20 minutes late when she knows the poor kid has to get home, do homework, go to sleep, wake up, and get herself to school in a mere 10 hours...well, I don't take too kindly to that sort of thing.

Computer Fail

I take the same bag to school nearly every day- an LL Bean backpack I got in 8th grade that has served me through thick and thin. For whatever reason, I switched to a light shoulder bag Thursday. My class schedule was light, I had plans after school, and I really only needed to bring my laptop in. Sure enough, that little bag broke. Outside our library. And crashed onto concrete. So my laptop died, and since I'm a rebellious, immortal youth, I hadn't backed up the hard drive since October. I'm praying it can be fixed, mostly to salvage my pictures from our January vacation. Class notes I can get, pictures I can't. Everyone cross your fingers and say a prayer before  Tuesday!

Thanks and Giving

Today I was talking to a friend who was feeling a bit down in the dumps. I told her when I get down (which is more often than she realized!), I play the thanks and giving game. Think of five things for which I'm thankful, and give a little prayer for five people who have it worse than I do. So here's my five-five of the day:

THANKS
1. Pharmacy school. This often tops the list. I know it's hard to stay motivated now, but it will be worth it when I have my diploma and start school in August.
2. Vacations. I have a great one in the pipeline.
3. My BFF. Eighteen years and still going strong.
4. My sweet BF who hangs out with me at work even though he has to leave for work at 6 AM, drive three hours round-trip every day, and is definitely exhausted when he gets home.
5. The great weather we've been having.
GIVING
1. Aforementioned friend from above.
2. My grandmother, who has a bad case of Alzheimer's. Even though her nursing home is down the street from my school, I'm lucky if I get there once a week.
3. My parents, who have responsibility for said grandmother. It's more work than having a child.
4. A customer at the pharmacy who is 81 and cares for his wife and his handicapped daughter. Breaks my heart.
5. My youngest cousin

So, dear reader, what mini stress busting mechanisms do you use? What would make your thanks-giving list?

Follow-Up

That pharmacist is definitely leaving, probably, maybe. At least, that's what he told all of the customers today. He then tried to get some to call corporate to get him to stay. I can't help but wonder, would he really want to stay with all of the bad blood at the store?
He yelled at me this morning because I mentioned in passing to the pharmacist yesterday that he looked under the weather Friday- which is true. He has an insulin pump (not a secret, he tells everyone), and he just looked a little off. I figured maybe he was messing around with his insulin or something. So he took that to mean I was out to get him, and proceeded to yell at me for 25 minutes today just after we opened. Needless to say, it made for an awkward 8 hours.

Demoted

Today, I think our staff pharmacist (i.e., not the manager) got demoted during my shift. It was a long time coming. He had some serious issues with the fact that his boss was both a female and 20 years younger. But he also had other issues- he once broke a kid's Gameboy while the kid was in the waiting area because the music was too loud. Just went over and whacked it out of the kid's hands. Last week he punched a computer screen. We're a very slow store- maybe only 1200 a week, with just under 120 tech hours. I don't know where he can even go from here! Anyway, the DM called twice tonight, and eventually, RPh just disappeared for about half an hour, came back, only to disappear again. I'm wondering what I'll walk into on Sunday. My poor partner (we rotate the same shifts)- hope she has fun tomorrow if he even shows up. I'd feel bad, but he dug his own grave here. Easy come, easy go- such is the world of the big chain pharmacy.

Motivation

I told my parents that as soon as I got in, I was booking a vacation. My BFF and I are Dublin/London bound the 2nd week of May! But now it's really hard to stay motivated. I'm going to pretend this is really pharmacy school (I am taking baby pharmacology now...), and see if I can form some good study habits, because I know that I've done some slacking on/off through undergrad. If anyone has any tips, send 'em my way