Musings during break

I've been working a ton the last week and a half, and I fell back into the swing of things pretty quickly. Unfortunately, the more time I spend at my home store, the more I hate it. Since I started working there (early-mid 2008), we've had a ton of staff turn-over. We're up to 8 staff pharmacists in that time, plus a ton of techs. I work in a fairy ritzy suburb with a very demanding client base, and my store consistently does poorly on various customer survey parameters set by corporate. We've tried everything, and very little has helped. The current PIC basically carried out a coup d'etat last year to remove my old boss, and many hailed her as the answer to all of our problems. (The old partner was unwillingly made PIC at another store in May during a big run-around). Surprisingly enough, we still have bad scores. I've made countless suggestions to my fellow techs, to all of the pharmacists, and to our pharmacy and general district managers, and they consistently are ignored. I wouldn't mind half as much if our 38-going-on-12 PIC didn't trash me behind my back to techs and pharmacists who tell me. Don't complain when you treat me like crap and I find hours elsewhere. In general, I really don't mind working  for this company, especially since they have locations everywhere and can be very flexible about hours. Right now, the part-time pharmacist (with whom I work every Friday night) is the only thing keeping me at this store. Let's hope for some changes in the new year.

Holidaze

I worked 47 hours this week and am working another 40 this week. Exhausted! But going on vacation on January 4th- just need to get to that point :-)
Here's my favorite holiday song (well, one of them). If you celebrate, happy Christmas to you! Otherwise, bugger off...just kidding! Happy day off or time-and-a-half to you instead.

In Sickness

My group of friends from high school is pretty great. There are 8 of us in total and we've been pretty close since 9th grade- miraculously, we got even closer during college when we were all scattered. We now have our first group tragedy. One of my friend's mothers is about to die from advanced cancer. We don't even have any divorced parents among us (pretty lucky, I know!). It's so hard, because we don't know how to handle it. We're trying to put together a meal train, but it seems like we should be doing more as her best friends. It sounds so selfish to say we feel helpless, but we do! I don't even know how to bring it up when we talk, but now her mom has taken a turn for the worst. Her mom is like our den mom- she planned birthday parties, prom activities, and shore trips. It just sucks, for lack of a better word. Keep us all in your thoughts, especially during the holidays, and thank your higher power for all of the healthy people in your life.

Tours

I took a tour of one of the pharmacy schools in my city today. It's a pretty well-known university with a relatively new pharmacy program (keeping in mind that we're a saturated city!). So luckily, their admission stats are a little lower than the others (meaning I stand a chance to get in- keeping in mind that I have an abysmal GPA). The tour itself was quite boring, as tours generally go, but they did tell me that if I were accepted, I could finish some prereqs in the summer, so that's good.

Phone Calls

The company I work for puts out automated calls prompting people to refill or pick up their prescriptions. I'm assuming this lady thought I was a computer...
Me: Hi, I'm calling from the pharmacy, is Emily Post there?
Little Kid: Hold on. Mommy, the pharmacy is on the phone!
Emily Post: Oh. Just hang up.
Click. Guess we won't get your new insurance info, lady.
On an unrelated note, for those in America, PBS is re-broadcasting series (season) one of Downton Abbey this week! It might be my favorite show. I can't wait until the Christmas episode! The second season doesn't air until January here, but my friend and I (clever girls that we are) figured out a way to watch it online when the new episodes aired in Britain in the early fall. It's been so hard not to spoil it for our other friends!

Done!

The developmental bio final took 3 hours. I don't think I've ever taken a test that was 3 hours, uninterrupted, just writing. I hurt everywhere. Amazingly, it wasn't AS bad as I'd thought. Out of 170 pts, I was hesitant on about 25, but obviously I won't get zero points on those parts! So if I come away with a B, I'll "B" a happy camper (ha!)
Anyone have any fun break plans? I'm working nonstop for 2.5 weeks then I'm off to a sunny vacation :-)

Four down...

One to go! Only developmental left. Naturally, the two liberal arts ones were easy, the two sciences were hard. Oh well. I'm a senior...it's all good, right?


Gulp.