One Step Closer

My life sitting in a classroom is finally over! Today, I finished my last class and I took my last final of pharmacy school! Yipee! It's been almost two years since I moved out here and started pharmacy school and now I only have one more year left which is just doing externships. The hard part is over. The scary part is that there is no way that I have retained even half of what I was taught (I'm posting some pictures of all my books and notes from the past two years to illustrate this point) and now I'm expected to go and apply things that I don't know. That's why I bought a Palm so that I can look lots of things up over the next year. It's gonna be interesting, to say the least. I thought I was done with the books and notes, but maybe I will use them now more than I ever did before. I have 290 days left until I graduate on May 17, 2009 (who's counting...). Everyone save up so you can come celebrate with me!

A new memory

I love reading all the memories that people have posted on my last entry. I had forgotten some of them and it was fun to remember. I have had lots of good times with some pretty fantastic people. Well, Sunday night when I came home from Boston, I found my cousins home with a babysitter. My aunt and uncle decided to go down to Providence for two days. Keaton, Rylee and Bentley were gathered around the table talking and having a great time. I joined them as I ate a snack and it turned into quite the discussion. As I was sitting on the counter just talking with them, it reminded me of the talks that my siblings and I had on a number of occasions. The subject matter rolled from one topic to another and all of a sudden it was nearly midnight. It was so fun. It's one of the memories that I will always have of living with them. I have two others that I love. One is night swimming in the pool with them trying to be quiet so the little boys don't wake up and wanna come out and join us. The other one is driving home from something with some of the kids and their cousin Shawn blasting "The Sweet Escape" by Gwen Stefani. We were singing it at the top of our lungs, even Gage. "Woo Hoo, Yih Hoo..." It was awesome!

Lame excuse for a blog entry

Not originally my idea, but it seems like it could be fun. It's always nice to take a trip down memory lane and remember some of the good ol times! So, here's the game:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It could be really fun, so post away... And see if we can't have some good laughs

JULY 4TH

I love JULY 4th and all of the traditions that go along with it! This is my second year in Boston for the holiday and last year we toughed out the rain and the crowds to watch the Boston fireworks as they were lit off on the Charles River with the city skyline as the backdrop. This year, I went with Trisha and her roommates to a more secluded place to enjoy the holiday. Marblehead Neck is a little penninsula that jets off from Marblehead which is about 1/2 hour north of Boston, near Salem (where the witch trials occured). I was a little bit skeptic at first because I love big crowds and big parties on this holiday, but I was proven wrong. It was such a great experience. We got there around three and drove out to the tip of the penninsula and found a nice patch of grass between the rocks and just underneath the lighthouse. We had a picnic, played games, some of us (not me, its too blasted cold here and I already had a sweater on because it was only sixty degrees outside) went swimming in the ocean and just enjoyed each others company. We were in a bay, so across the water from us was the city of marble head, to our left was the bay with lots of sail boats and private houses that ligned the shore and to our right were some smaller islands and the wide open ocean. When the sun started setting it was phenomenal, one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. Then, about fifteen minutes before the fireworks started, they coast around us started lighting up with red flares that had been placed along the harbor. It was so cool! Trish and I found a nice, cozy spot with naturally made chairs in the rocks with our feet dangling above the ocean and waited for the fireworks to start. I was not disappointed at all, it was a great show! The barge was maybe one hundred yards in front of us in the harbor as it lit off the fireworks! Not only that, we were able to see Salem's fireworks, and Manchester-by-the-sea's (I love that name) fireworks and 3 or 4 other cities do their show while we watched the one right in front of us go off. It was incredible! As we drove off of the penninsula, we blasted Neil Diamond, "We're coming to America" and Toby Keith's "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue" it was the best way to end July 4th! Here are some pics...

Mike, Trisha, Katie, Tristan and EstherPanoramic view looking out into the ocean
We sat right under the lighthouse

Me and Trisha and the harbor

The sunset

The sunset a little later, it was amazing

Panoramic view of the sunset in the harbor

The flares lit up along the harbor

Fireworks

Fireworks

Ask Esther about this one, hahaha

Trisha and I perched on the rocks watching the fireworks

The lighthouse all lit up

PS- I cannot claim these pictures as being my own, cause I didn't take any. These are courtesy of Trisha. I must say they are great pictures and if you want to see some additional pics of our adventure, check out her blog

Lessons learned the hard way

We've all learned lessons the hard way, right? In fact, just this week I was on a date with Trisha at a beautiful botanical garden and she locked her keys in the car. Well, a locksmith at nine oclock at night in the sticks is not cheap. $150 dollars later and we drove out of that parking lot, thank goodness. As if that wasn't enough, we also found out that she has a AAA membership that would have done it for free. Ooops. But an even bigger lesson learned the hard way thankfully had nothing to do with myself. Apparently you can watch tv shows on your phone... I never knew that, and I'm not sure I would ever have that desire. But beware, if you decide to do this, it may end up on your bill the next month as nearly $500 dollars! Not very cheap. My poor cousin "R" (I will call her this to protect her identity) has been begging for a cell phone for quite some time. She finally got all her payments lined up for like 6 months and had enough savings to purchase the phone itself when she approached her parents to get one. They saw her dedication and realized that she was ready to have a cell phone. She has been so excited to have it and very careful not to exceed the 750 texts that are allotted to her each month. Well, yesterday my aunt and uncle got the bill and on top of their usual amount, was a charge of almost $500 dollars. Oops. Not really sure how that one is gonna turn out, but it will be a funny story in about two years when the situation cools down.

Average days

Day: friday night

Time: somewhere around 5pm

Place: CVS pharmacy 481 Lincoln st, Worcester, MA.

So, I'm at work and I am just going about my business of typing a prescription in half a second flat and a guy walks up to the counter who is of mexican descent. He hands me two prescriptions and I start asking him all the questions that I have to ask and start typing away. He tells me he will come get the medications tomorrow, which shocked me because nobody waits a whole day to pick up the infamous percocet (everybody wants it yesterday cause they are in so much pain). About two seconds later, he tells me he needs to wait cause he is in pain right now. I say okay and proceed to finish typing. I look over and he is holding his hand to his head. Not out of the ordinary for someone who is at the pharmacy trying to get pain meds. I look over a second later and he is resting in arm, and essentially his whole body on the counter in front of me. I start to think something is weird. It happened in slow motion, I can still see it in my head. The guys slowly falls to the floor. I can see his eyes roll back in his head, the color just flushed right out of him and down he went right in front of me. Around the counter and out the door I ran as I yelled in a very stern voice for the other intern to "come here now." I'll be honest, I didn't really know what to do, except to tell the guy to remain on the floor. We took his pulse and realized that it was not normal while also realizing that his hands were sweaty and cold. Not a good sign. I ran back into the pharmacy and called 911. The firemen were the first to respond and take his blood pressure before calling the ambulance with the EMT crew. A translator (friend of the guy that passed out) was also called to assist in the fiasco because communication was rough at that point. It turns out that this guy was in the hospital for kidney stones and had just been released. He immediately came to the pharmacy to fill his prescriptions. I don't know what they do at this hospital, but that guy was in no condition to be out of the hospital. So, off to the ambulance he went to recieve fluids because he was severely dehydrated and then back to the hospital. I'm glad it turned out okay, but it got my blood flowing and I had a serious rush going on. It may be inappropriate to say that it was exciting, but it was.



Saturday afternoon: I found out that my uncle, whom I live with, was called as the new stake president. There was a lot of fear and humility and anxiety associated with the whole event. I decided to go support them at the conference when he was sustained. I don't think I have ever actually seen the depths of humility on a person's face until he was called to stand up and then take his place on the stand. Maybe its because I know he and my aunt hadn't slept for two days, they cried for many hours of those two days and I saw the process as it unfolded, but I could feel it as well. I thought it was too bad that the old stake presidency was more concerned with jokes and good times than actual spiritual thoughts or experiences. It's always a good thing to have change in the church, cause you could tell they were done. However, when my uncle got up to give his talk, the tone of the meeting immediately changed. He started off with goals for the stake which hit me pretty hard. "Practice holiness," he quoted from the scriptures and then, "Do good, be good and become better," quoted from President Hinckley. Simple things, yet important principles of the gospel. Their stake lacks foundation and to strengthen your foundation you have to go back to the basics and start from there. It was a great meeting. I found a new respect and love for my uncle and I know he is gonna do a great job.

After thought...

Here is a video from my phone to give you an idea of the utter loudness of the cars as they zoom by. Never knew you had to wear ear plugs at a nascar race... Notice that you can't even hear the announcer as the cars go by. I know it's a crappy video, sorry.