The weather outside is horrible. It's so miserable that the pharmacist I was working with tonight offered to pay for a cab for me so I didn't have to walk and take the bus in the painful blowing sleet/snow. I hope that Adam's uncle doesn't have problems getting here tomorrow, but I have a feeling he will. By the way, Happy International Women's Day!

All right, so I found this article very amusing/interesting. My favorite line from it is "The types of tissues in the penis actually make it an excellent candidate for longer stretches in the ice bucket." However, Adam says that's only amusing for someone without a penis, and I can see the validity to that argument. The article about the guy in Alaska that was linked off the site certainly pointed out the stupidity of some people. Did you catch that comment about the surgeons having to shorten an appendage before reattachment? Ouch.

I love the time and in between
The calm inside me
In the space where I can breathe
I believe there is a
Distance I have wandered
To touch upon the years of
Reaching out and reaching in
Holding out holding in

I believe
This is heaven to no one else but me
And I’ll defend it as long as I can be
Left here to linger in silence
If I choose to
Would you try to understand

I know this love is passing time
Passing through like liquid
I am drunk in my desire...
But I love the way you smile at me
I love the way your hands reach out and hold me near...
I believe...

I believe
This is heaven to no one else but me
And I’ll defend it as long as
I can be left here to linger in silence
If I choose to
Would you try to understand

Oh the quiet child awaits the day when she can break free
The mold that clings like desperation
Mother can’t you see I’ve got
To live my life the way I feel is right for me
Might not be right for you but it’s right for me...
I believe...

I believe
This is heaven to no one else but me
And I’ll defend it as long as
I can be left here to linger in silence
If I choose to
Would you try to understand it

I would like to linger here in silence
If I choose to
Would you understand it
Would you try to understand...

-Sarah Mclachlan

On an unrelated, and happier, note, I made eggplant parmiagana. It was yummy. And I love shopping for clothes online. Yea for only one more day of work until the weekend. Okay, that was my attempt to not simply rant today.

When I started working, no one told me when paychecks came or where to pick them up. Apparently, because the store where I work is located in an area where most people live paycheck to paycheck, they come every week. Since I didn't know that, I didn't pick up the first few until a few weeks into the job.

When I was getting my checks, I discovered that one of the weeks was missing. Also, the first three days I couldn't punch in because I wasn't in the system, but the manager promised me he'd take care of it. When I got the check, though, I hadn't been paid for those days either.

Of course, when I told the store manager about not getting paid, his reaction was that he had no proof I worked those days. He told me I had to get proof from the pharmacy manager that I had worked and what hours. After the pharmacist told him I'd been working, he then tried to cover his ass by saying that he couldn't just pay me for those days because of the system, that instead he'd been adding hours on here and there to my paycheck. I'd been keeping track of my hours (in case of something like this), so I knew that only one hour had ever been added. The store manager finally said he would get a check for me, and look into the missing check.

Today he comes up to me and says that the missing check was cashed, so now I have to undergo a handwriting verification to prove it wasn't me. He really pissed me off, because his whole attitude both times was that I was trying to cheat the company. Of course, I told him I'd give them signatures or whatever the hell they wanted, because I didn't cash the damn check. I hate being treated like a criminal.

I mean, seriously people, think about it. As a pharmacist, I will most likely be earning close to $100k. Why the hell would I try to cheat a potential future employer of a check not worth more than a few hundred dollars? Not only would I never be able to work for them (not that I ever would now), but if my university found out that happened while I was on co-op, I'd get kicked out of the school. They must really think I'm stupid (and have criminal intentions).

As I was walking to the bus today after work I checked my messages on my cell. A lawyer from Texas left a message asking me to call him back regarding my grandma. That's all he said, but as I haven't talked to anybody in my mom's family in over 6 years, I figured out that she must have died.

When I got home I had an email from my dad saying that my grandma had died but she hadn't left instructions about her house, so it was being sold and the money split. I assume it's split 6 ways, to each of Grandma's kids, but I suppose I get my mom's part. My grandma left everything else to her favorite daughter Kay (my aunt). So I don't even get the paintings my mother did that my grandma had, but I get money, which is just so hollow.

The whole thing left me feeling really strange. After my mom died, I stopped talking to Kay (long story). As a result, my grandma disowned me from the family. If Grandma didn't talk to you, no one else in the family would (she already had done it to one of my uncles). As she had been sick with chronic leukemia for 10 years at that point, I had always assumed that she had died and no one bothered to tell me.

I had already expected and accepted my grandma's death, and I hadn't been close to her in years. It's hard to explain, but it's sad that I found out my grandma had died by a lawyer call and an e-mail from my dad explaining it was concerning an inheritance. It really hit me considering the problem in Adam's family that we learned about last week, and how they're all pulling together to get through it. My family just makes me sad sometimes.

Hey, here in Boston it's technically been Christmas for an hour. Adam made me sad though, because he pointed out that we don't have a chimney here, and since our windows only open about six inches, I'm pretty sure Santa can't squeeze in that way. Stupid fat old man. Oh well, this year I bet he's getting low-carb cookies that taste like crap anyway, so ha!

Anyway, here's to surviving family get togethers, actually getting what you want under the tree, and maybe even remembering that whole spirit of giving and love thing.

Merry Christmas everyone!

So, I thought the artwork was better than the optical illusion aspect, but it's still pretty cool.

By the way, I'm not sure if people were scared away by the title of Adam's "farm slut film" post, but for those of you who like dark humor I think you would enjoy the short film. Nothing quite puts you in the holiday spirit like seeing someone with a life much much worse than yours...

So I had a fun trip to Philadelphia. It was really nice getting caught up with my friend Miranda and let my brain chill for a few days after finals.

The only part that sucked was getting home last night. So my flight was supposed to leave at 5:40 pm and get in at 7:00 pm. I checked the flight before I left and it said it was delayed, so I didn't show up to the airport until 5:20. We didn't end up boarding the plane until 9:00 pm. Then we got to sit on the runway for 2 hours waiting to be de-iced. So the plane lands in Boston at 12:10 am. Luckily, I was able to catch the last blue line train and the last green line train so I didn't have to pay for a taxi.

Good luck to all of you who will be flying over this holiday break!

By the way, it's 9 degrees here, but supposedly feels like -7. Think I'm going to stay inside for a while. :)

Yea!!!!!!!!!!! Finals are done, and I don't have another class for 4 months! Of course, I'll be working full time on co-op, but no homework. In case it wasn't obvious, I'm really excited.

In four hours I'm going to be on a plane to Philadelphia. I can't wait to get out of here for a couple days (it's not you, Adam, honest). I'm going to visit my friend Miranda who goes to school down there for the weekend before coming back here.

In case I don't get on a computer until I get back....
Adam (and others), good luck on your tests. May, I hope your interview went well (I'm sure you knocked their socks off). And Patrick, you can't breathe? What's up with that?

So, when I transferred to Northeastern I was told I would need a physical and to submit my immunization record. When I make my appointment for a physical, they tell me not to worry about the immunizations for a few months until I need clinical clearance (so I can work in a health setting in January). At any rate, I decided to bring a copy of my immunization record to my physical, so it would be in my chart.

At the beginning of November, I suddenly see that I have a registration block due to health reasons. I go to the health center and ask what's wrong. They claimed they never received any immunization information on me. When I told them I had given it to the doctor, the receptionist gave me this look with a raised eyebrow and said, "Oh, you gave it to the doctor. You should never have done that. You should have given it to us." So then I gave my argument that the doctor I saw was in that health center, and shouldn't my medical record be easily accessible on file? The woman continued with the scathing look and said I would need to make a special appointment to deal with the immunizations and this time I better give them the record.

So I come back a couple days later, get my TB test, and the nurse jots down some of my immunization info. I asked if I should take the record to the front desk people like they had told me. She says no, that she's the one who needs it. But apparently the way my hep B shots were recorded was insufficient, so I had to go over to the lab (in the same health center) and get blood drawn. Let me tell you, I don't think I've ever had a more violent, angry person take my blood. It hurt so bad I was trying not to cry, and I had a huge bruise for a week.

I go back a couple days later, and my TB test is fine, but my blood work isn't back yet. So the nurse says she'll call me next week and let me know if I need shots or not. Nothing.

So the week after that I went back into the health center, and tell another receptionist the whole story. She looks up my ID number, gets this puzzled look on her face, and disappears into the back office. When she comes back, she makes up some excuse about how they're having trouble finding my stuff because I brought some of it in by hand, and had some of it done there (don't ask). She swears up and down that they'll call me this time. Nothing.

I go back the week of Thanksgiving, but they've decided to close the health center a day early, so I had to wait until Monday after. Now, that's the day I have to register, and it's time sensitive, with fierce competition for a specific lab in the summer. The center doesn't open until my first class starts, so I go in afterward. I tell yet another receptionist my whole story and how I REALLY need the block lifted in the next three hours. She also can't seem to find out any information about me, so she sends me back to the waiting room and promises a supervisor will come out.

About an hour after I walked in, another woman comes out and I have to give the entire story again. She gives me the identical look of scorn when I tell her I brought my immunization record during my physical, and repeats, "Oh, you gave it to doctor. That means it's in your medical record." I blink a few times at her, wondering why this is a problem since my file is probably less than fifty feet away. I've decided that they must send medical records to Pluto and then set the spaceship on fire just to make sure they're never accessible again. When I ask about the blood work, she says they can't find the results. She says that she will lift the block for me (as a big favor), but I have to come back in and see her again so we can sort things out, and I better bring my immunization record this time. The whole time, she's kind of edgy, like she's expecting me to start screaming at her, but I stayed very pleasant. You know, that syrupy sweet voice you only get when you're really pissed off.

On Wednesday of this week I went in to see the woman like she told me. She looks at my record on the computer and gives me this look like I'm an idiot for coming to her. She then informs me that she can't do anything, because I have to see a nurse for clinical clearance and have the nurse fill out a form. I tell her that I've done that over a month ago, and that I've come back several times since and that the last time I came she told me to see her. She insists again that I have to make another appointment to come in on my day off, and once there the nurse will have to go over to the lab and hunt down the results. Oh joy.

Today I went in, but fortunately the nurse had actually gotten my results already. I didn't even have to get any more shots. This surprised me, since as far as I knew I had never had chicken pox, but I seemingly have (I guess I didn't get the rash). Anyway, I stand waiting in a tiny room for twenty minutes while she wanders off to make a copy of the clinical clearance form, wondering why I even needed to be there for this.

Once I had the damn form, I headed over to the pharmacy office to turn it in, because I sure as hell didn't want to deal with it anymore. The girl at the desk takes it and asks if my CPR is up to date. I look at her blankly, racking my brain for what the term means, wondering if there's some other pharmacy thing I was supposed to do that someone had neglected to tell me. When I asked what she meant by CPR, she and the other woman at the counter look at me like I have a third eye sprouting from my forehead. "CPR?" the other woman asks. She helpfully demonstrates with her hands while explaining, "You know, where you press down on a person's chest to resuscitate them?" At this point I feel like a total idiot, and explained I thought it was some pharmacy thing, not actual "CPR". The people at the counter then realize I'm not a nursing student, and no I can't turn the form in there, but they're not sure who I'm supposed to turn it into instead. They make several calls, but almost no one is there because classes ended on Wednesday. Finally, someone knows the name of the person, and I got to trek all the way across campus to drop it off.

Thus ends my sad tale...hopefully. I must say, the whole experience has really gotten me excited about working in health care.

See, our wishes for good luck worked!

By the way, Susan, I read your comment about the Garden State soundtrack and decided to check it out. I knew I already liked a couple of the songs (I like Iron and Wine), so I went out and bought it (shock of all shocks, she paid for music?) and now I'm obsessed with it. Especially Remy Zero's Fair. So now I'm also thankful for reading the thankful post. Except for Adam's comment. :p

Thanks Susan!

Too bad I haven't gotten to see the movie yet...

I just wanted to wish May good luck on her interview and Adam good luck on his hard, hideously long test tomorrow!

You guys will both kick ass!

It's way too freaking early to be awake. Unfortunately, I have actually been awake for 2 hours already, studying for a test I have this morning that I didn't have time to study for until yesterday since I had a hard medicinal chemistry/pharmacology test yesterday morning that took up most of my time for the last week.

Sometimes I HATE SCHOOL!

I've decided I'm masochistic. What was that? You want to go to four more years of school? What a prick. Someone should fire the idiot in charge of that girl's brain.

When I talk to you next, however, I will be insanely giddy with joy, partly due to lack of sleep, but mainly because I don't have to do a damn thing until next Monday except go to a one hour class tomorrow!!!!!! Maybe it doesn't totally suck to be a student....

Right now I'm sitting in Worcester, MA typing on Gina's laptop. I'm a regional meeting for a pharmacy organization that I'm in. It isn't as interesting as I thought it would be, but it's been awesome hanging out with Gina (my friend from OSU) and catching up. We were really bad and played hooky for most of the day, but it still seemed long.

There was an entertainer who was an illusionist/mesmerist (I think that's the term) who was actually really good, if not extremely rude and obnoxious. I would love to know how he did some of the stuff, because I have no idea how he possibly could guess. For instance, he told all of us to think of a shape. After we did that he told us to think of another shape inside the first shape. Then he pointed to a girl and said that she hadn't thought of any of the shapes, so he called her up (and she seemed genuine, since we're all pharmacy students) and he stood behind her and drew a tree and then drew two lines coming down with a line connecting it. Then he had the girl draw the image she had thought of, and she drew a tree with a swing in the exact same way that he had drawn it (same squiggles for leaves, swing on the same side, same tree shape). Somehow he must have planted some subconscious thought in her head or something, but it was still pretty cool.

We have to be there at 8:30 tomorrow, but then it's over around noon. Ah, then comes homework time. And buying boots, since it snowed and there is now brown slush everywhere. The trees and buildings are really pretty though.