PING!

I hate it when bathrooms don't have paper towels! When bathrooms don't have paper towels to wipe your hands on after washing your hands, it usually means two things. 1) Some article of clothing is going to get wet. 2) You're going to have to touch the door handle to exit the bathroom. (This is especially disturbing seeing as the majority of guys that touch that door handle just got done handling their business with no hand washing in between)

So, the other day I used the bathroom before leaving the library at school when, after washing my hands, I realized that there were no paper towels. DANG IT! Now keep in mind this is one of those small bathrooms with a single stall, a urinal, and a sink, with the floor covered in small 2 in. x 2 in. tiles. I was alone, so I decided to "air-dry" my hands by jerking my arms violently about. After a couple of seconds of this I heard a sound that made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. I recognized the "PING!" sound as the sound of my wedding ring bouncing off of the tile floor. The few seconds that followed reminded me of those cartoons where someone shoots a gun and the bullet just ricochets off of everything in the room, completely defying the laws of physics. My ring was bouncing off the walls and floor, and I was terrified that it was going to land in the urinal or toilet. Luckily, after what seemed like an eternity, my ring finally came to a stop, and I left the bathroom completely disregarding the germ-coated door handle.

Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television, North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe

How was I supposed to know they were still hot? They were gray......and ashy.

I had grilled chicken several hours ago, when I decided to go ahead and empty the grill and clean up my mess. I dumped the coals into a paper bag and took the bag to the community apartment dumpster. I had a brief moment where I wondered if I had waited long enough to let the coals cool off, but quickly assured myself that a couple of hours was plenty of time and happily went about my evening.

About 45 minutes later, I hear the faint sound of a fire truck's siren. I, of course, thought nothing of this because our apartment was less than a mile from the Hernando fire department. Seconds later, the siren was loud, but rather than quickly fading away as it normally did when the fire truck zoomed past the apartment, it maintained the same volume, and I daresay was getting louder?? Panic poured over me as I sat there, frozen in fear, next to Anna. I rush to the blinds to see where the fire truck was going, only to see it parked next to the dumpster, which was emitting a beautiful orange-glow that made it easier to see the pillar of smoke rising from it.

"Uh-oh....." I whisper from the window.

"What do you mean 'Uh-oh'? What is it?" asked Anna.

"Umm...there's a fire in the dumpster, and ummm....I think...maybe I started it." I admit, slowly turning to face Anna.

We quickly decided that the best thing for us to do is rid our porch of all evidence. I put the grill in the storage closet, and swept away all evidence of ash from our porch. The firemen put out the smoldering trash within 20 minutes and left the apartments shortly thereafter.

The next day, while working at Fred's Pharmacy in Hernando, a police officer who frequently came into the pharmacy to chat came in, and I decided to ask him about the fire.

"Oh yeah, some idiot put something hot in the dumpster, and it caught fire," the officer said.

"Pfft, yeah....what an idiot! I mean, who would do something that dumb?!"

Kevin McCalister said it best after unintentionally stealing the toothbrush from the convenient store in Home Alone, when he said, "I'm a criminal."

Spelling Bee

I've got many-a pet peeve--people whistling when I whistle, idiots that don't know how to work 4-way stops, etc. One of my biggest pet peeves, however, is misspelling. Probably the one that grates on my nerves the most is when people wrongly substitute "your" for "you're". It drives me nuts! Another really, really annoying one is spelling "definitely" wrong. The most common misspelling is "definately". UGH!! Anyways, Anna and I came across this quiz containing the top 25 misspelled words. We took it together though and made a 17 out of 25. I guess making a 68% doesn't really give me much room to judge :)

Anyways, here's the the quiz. See what "your" made of, and post "you're" scores in the comments :) http://www.businesswriting.com/tests/commonmisspelled.html PS: we didn't answer #'s 26 and 27 because those were the British spellings

Welcome mat or invisibility cloak?

I've always been weird about having packages shipped to my address while living in an apartment. I think that a package just sitting on the doorstep would be too much temptation for any sticky-fingered or even slightly curious neighbor. But I should have known better. FedEx and UPS have been delivering packages for years. They do it every day. They know a lot more about delivering packages than I do, so I should have known that they would have a plan for preventing packages from getting stolen when they have to leave it on the doorstep. I came home to this today:

Sub-scrizzibe!

For those of you who enjoy my blog (and I can't fathom anyone NOT enjoying it :)), there is a way to get an email containing my new blog post each time that I post a new blog! I know; how exciting!! All you have to do is type the email address of your choice in the "Subscribe via email" box to the right of your screen, and each time I write a new blog the message will be delivered to you in your email. No catches and absolutely no strings attached.

BUT WAIT!!! THERE'S MORE!!!! If you subscribe now...............just kidding :)

Faux Pas

As I have progressed further in my pharmacy education, it has been my desire to be more knowledgeable in every aspect of the field of pharmacy. I hate it when I do not know the answer to a drug/medication question, and I aspire to be able to answer patients' questions. (I will really feel like I have arrived at the pinnacle of pharmaceutical knowledge when I can answer a single Corrie Aldinger question ;))

So, while working at Fred's Pharmacy during my PY3 year, an elderly gentleman came up to the counter asking for some OTC help. "I'll handle this one," I thought to myself as I approached the counter.

"Ya got anything for diarrhea?" he asked.

Now let me stop the story right here, and let you know that what came out of my mouth next was something that I wished I could have grabbed out of the air and shoved back into my mouth the second the words left my mouth. Diarrhea is one of those simple cases that we pharmacy students learn how to counsel very early on in our educational careers. However, in what I like to call a "Brain Fart" moment without even thinking, I responded with "To stop it?"...............To STOP IT?!?!? What was I thinking?! No, Nathan, I'm sure this gentleman would like to crank his diarrhea up a couple of notches!!

Needless to say, the pharmacist told the story to anyone with ears to listen, and they all even got me a plaque with the conversation on it so that I may always stay humbled :)

Summer of Trust

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. --Proverbs 3:4-6 (NASB)

Then Jesus said to his disciples: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! --Luke 12: 22-24 (NIV)

I went to these passages again and again over the summer. Anna had been looking for a teaching job in the Jackson area in order to provide for us while I am in school. We went 2 months with ZERO luck in her finding a job, praying fervently. We were moving in less than a week, and yet, strangely, both Anna and I had a complete peace from God. We knew that God's plan is always best, and for whatever reason, He did not want Anna to have a teaching job down here. And then it happened; Tuesday (4 days before the move), Anna received a phone call from a principal at a Jackson Public Middle School with a teaching opportunity for Anna. Anna drove down to Jackson the next day, had an interview, and was given the job! Praise the Lord! Great is His faithfulness! God used this summer to teach us to trust in Him and bring us closer to Him as well as bring us closer together, and it could not be more worth it!

For his merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the Lord endureth forever. Praise ye the Lord. --Psalm 117:2 (KJV)

The world of Pharmacy

There is no lack of humor in the pharmacy, I assure you. I only wish I had been keeping track of all of the funny/strange/annoying things that I have experienced in my 5+ years of retail pharmacy. I'm positive that this list will grow as I continue to pursue my career in pharmacy, but this ought to be a good start :)

1. At least 10 times a day, someone calls in wanting to get a refill on their "white pill" or their "round pill". Do you realize how many pills are white? Or round? Trust me....a ton of them.

2. I was helping an elderly gentleman check out the other day, and he told me that at his old age he "never buys green bananas because he never knows if he'll be around for them to ripen"

3. A woman was waiting with her daughter for her prescription to be filled. The daughter asked if she could get some candy (a discussion that takes place 100 times a day because the candy rack is conveniently located right next to the pharmacy). The mother replied, "No, it's like I always say, 'Be true to your teeth when you're young, or they will be false to you when you're old.'" The kid was like 3.

4. [I didn't actually experience this one, but the pharmacist I work with told me about it.] A customer came in asking if the pharmacist knew where she could find the "Kentucky" jelly. After a couple of minutes of trying to figure out where this jelly might be, she finally realized that the customer was talking about KY jelly.........................

5. I filled a prescription the other day for birth control. It was written by a Dr. Semen. Dead serious.

5a. There's also a dermatologist in Memphis named Dr. Whitehead.

More to come, I'm certain.

Things you can't look cool purchasing...

Making trips to Wal-Mart for a single item is bad enough, but I have found that there are some single items that it is impossible to feel confident or look cool while buying.

Item number 1: toilet paper. Ok, first of all, everyone goes. But it's not necessarily something that is exactly comfortable to bring up in everyday, casual conversation. With that said, being out of T.P., when you've gotta go might be the worst feeling ever. So, when you're speed-walking through Wal-Mart shouldering a 12-pack of jumbo rolls of T.P. (because in these economic times, everyone knows the 12-pack of jumbo rolls holds the most bang for your buck), it's extremely hard to look cool, seeing as everyone knows what those jumbo, double-ply rolls of softness will shortly be used for.

Item number 2: a plunger. This one's still fresh on my memory. There's nothing worse than a stopped-up toilet, regardless of the cause. And there's also nothing more humbling than walking through Wal-Mart with the mighty plunger. There's only one use for a plunger, and you can rest assured that everyone else in the store knows what problem you have.

Item number 3: tampons. It is impossible for a guy to look cool purchasing tampons. There's really no explanation need :)

This list is obviously not exhaustive, so feel free to add your humbling, single-item purchases in a comment.

Intervention

So, I've been trying to think of something that would be worthy of my very first blog, but it seemed as though nothing would ever be good enough. But finally I found it: my wife has a problem. And I could think of no other way to help rid her of this addiction than to "out her" on my first blog. So...here it goes...

Anna is addicted to Diet Coke.

And we're not talking some normal petty addiction. This is the real deal. Several months ago (I don't think she knew I was around), Anna hugged her can of Diet Coke and said, "I haven't had you all day!" I was seriously waiting for Gollum voices and mutterings of "My Precioussssss"! And just today, as we were going to lunch, I asked Anna what she was going to get to drink. She, of course, replied "Diet Coke". I suggested that she pass up her addiction and try water instead. "But Diet Coke is what I look forward to most in a meal! I'd rather get less food and get my Diet Coke! I look more forward to Diet Coke than I do the food!"

I'm just saying...this is pretty serious.