Happy Birthday, Nova Sophia!

{One year ago: November 26, 2012}

 

One year ago today, my sweet little niece was born. Nova, you are the sweetest, smartest one-year-old I know. So much has happened in the last year, but most importantly, you helped to expand our family and bring us all closer together. We love you so much, Novy-Bear! Happy, happy birthday, Sweet Pea!

 

Some highlights from Nova'a first year with Aunt Mo-Mo (are you ready for picture overload??):

 

{Christmas 2012-just a teeny, tiny babe!}

{Even though Mommy Heather is a Jayhawk,
Auntie M always provides the proper purple apparel.}

{Valentine's Day 2013}







{Six months!}

{Halloweenie 2013}

 

Bama-Rama



{Welcome to Selma, Alabama!}



I am currently getting ready to wrap up my second solo trip. It’s going well! I am truly starting to enjoy the travel and the actual job I have when I arrive on site at a pharmacy. Everyone has been super nice and I haven’t had any major issues yet (cross your fingers and knock on some wood…I have heard horror stories involving dead robots and irate pharmacists). So, yeah! Getting in the groove. This trip sent me to Selma, Alabama. I had never been to Alabama, or really anywhere in the south, and this trip was an eye-opener. So, I have put together a little collaborative list of tidbits I have gained so far from my ventures in Bama.

Southern draaaaawls? They’re real. I love them. I especially love Mr. Alfred, who is like 70 years old and has worked in the pharmacy for 40-something years. And he talks like a true southurn gentleman, all long, drawn-out syllables and soft vowel sounds. The colloquialisms down here are lovely: “How you be this mornin?”; “Now, I’ll see ya’ll real soon”; “I’m fixin to head on ova to the store here in a bit.” It just sounds friendly. And they call everyone “mister” and “miss,” and say “yes sir” and “no m’am.” I LOVE IT.

Alabama has the best drink selection at fast food restaurants I have ever seen. I’m talking purple Fanta in the fountain at McDonalds (“MacDonalds,” really). And one restaurant has the COOLEST drink fountain I have ever seen. It’s touch-screen and there are over 100 drink choices. I had lime ginger ale tonight. Have you ever had lime ginger ale? Didn’t think so.

 

{Umm, yeah. That's a touch screen drink fountain. And yes, I took a pic of it.}

Umm, hello Zaxby’s! You should head on up north and open up a few franchises. (Hmmm…retirement plan…) Zaxby’s is amazing! It’s kind of like a Chik-Fil-A in that there are a lot of chicken choices, but it has way more fried sides to choose from (spicy fried mushrooms? Spicy white cheddar bites? Onion skins? Yes please!) and the afore-mentioned ah-mazing drink fountain. I may or may not have eaten dinner there three nights in a row. But that is also because this little town has nothing but fast food restaurants to choose from. Fast food and churches. There are a LOT of churches. And loan stores…? Like, every other building is a loan place. Speedy Cash, Payday Loans, Speedy Loans, Car Title and Loan, I mean….it goes on and on.



{My poor picture quality does not do this place justice.}

Small town pharmacies have the best candy selection. (Not just in Selma; Kinsley was pretty kick-ass as well.) Who knew there are such thing as cinnamon Mentos? Also, I have discovered I eat a lot of candy when it is readily available. Today, I ate two sleeves of Mentos (rainbow, also delish), a bag of sour gummy bears and a bag of peach rings. And…some Reece’s Pieces. My teeth are currently tingling.

Selma is very historic. I didn’t really realize it when I arrived, but I found out that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  led several now-historic walks through Selma on the way to Montgomery. I crossed the bridge they marched across several times. (Pic is above.) Many of the buildings in the downtown area are over 100 years old. In fact, the pharmacy I am training at has been around since 1870. The reverence and history are palpable here. In fact, today, my new-favorite pharm staff took me exploring through the floors above the pharmacy, and those pics deserve their own post, because it was SO. DARN. COOL. Check back soon for a full post devoted to the fab pharmacy that is Pilcher-McBryde Drug Company. 

Canada, Oh Canada

{Apparently, mine is pointing north.}

I have had a week. You know, one of those weeks that you sit down at the end of each day and just go, “ughhhhhhh.” Nothing catastrophic, per say, but just enough little things that add up and start to wear on you. (Basically, this post falls under the “poor me” category. Get ready for some self-indulgent venting. And yes, I realize that I have a wonderful life and these are not true problems. But again, see the previous self-indulgence disclaimer.)

It started on Monday. I was working in the office (not traveling this week, which is fine, but consequently less hours, which of course equals less paycheck, a headache in and of itself) and talking to a few other trainers who had been with the company for a while. We were talking about the Schedule (the oh-so-important Excel-spreadsheet-trainer-schedule that shows where everyone will be, when; hence, the capitalization) and checking out the upcoming months. Okay, so I’m going to Alabama, Texas, North Carolina (southern states! Hooray for warm climates!) and then….ON. ON? What state is ON? Oh, let me tell you friends. It’s Ontario. As in Canada.

 

Okay, so Canada. I can handle Canada. I have my passport. It will be chilly, but I have lots of cute coats. And then I look at the dates. December 28-31. New Year’s Eve. Okay. My first question (a dumb one, I’ll admit) was, Canada celebrates New Year’s, right? Shouldn’t everyone have New Year’s Eve off? Why is this silly Canadian pharmacy training people on New Year’s Eve? I’m a little bummed at this point; I mean, New Year’s is an overhyped holiday for sure, but I already found a cute dress, which is half the battle right there.

 

So thoughts are racing through my head…I’ll have to pack my dress and shoes and makeup and change as soon as I land, and then just head to the party, wherever that may be….that’s not so awful. I can handle getting ready in an airport bathroom. No biggie. And then I GoogleMap where my actual site is—Ontario, sure, but Ontario is apparently ginormous. It is also a good three or four hours from the international airport in Toronto. (Who can tell the exact time, because why does Canada use kilometers? I HATE CANADA ALREADY.) And we can’t leave a pharmacy site before 2:00pm. And I will have a four hour drive. And there are no international flights out of Toronto at 6:00pm. And I will have to get a hotel room by the airport and leave the next morning. Thus, I will be spending New Year’s Eve in a hotel, by myself, in Canada. By myself. BY MYSELF IN CANADA! It’s sad. It’s a tragedy. I am throwing myself a pity party. My friend Kelly said that we could Facetime with bottles of champagne. To which I replied wailed, “you can’t even get cell reception in Canada. Sniff.”

 

So, I will be all by myself on New Year’s, huddled in a crappy old hotel room (actually, probably a nice Doubletree, but STILL) in another country while the rest of the world rings in 2014 with friends, family, kisses, killer beats, champagne and party poppers. (I think I will miss the poppers the most. Nothing says “celebration” like confetti. Or champagne-induced dance moves.)

 

I’m sure I’ll have more to say on this subject as the time draws closer, but I’m going to end my lamenting on that subject for now. The rest of my week? Let me just share: Rascal killed a baby mouse and brought it in my house on Monday night. He was proud. I gagged. And then I picked it up in a baggie and threw it in the trash. Also, I messed up my timecard for work and got a tersely worded email from my boss. She was also not impressed (read—I got a look) with me when I mentioned that maybe someone else would like to spend New Year’s in Canada. And I forgot to set my DVR for Vanderpump Rules. (I know, I know. It's a trainwreck of a show, but I just can't stop watching.) Sigh. It’s just been one of those weeks.

How Western Kansas Celebrates Halloween

I love Halloween. It’s always been one of my favorite holidays. I think the time of year definitely has something to do with it. It’s no secret that I love fall. Like, X’s and O’s, doodling “I heart fall” on my notebook, day-dreaming about pumpkins and gourds kind of love. And so, I thought that this decoration that I spotted while in Kinsley, Kansas deserved a post on the ol’ bloggity-blog. It really put me in the spirit of all things Halloweeny.

First of all, yes. This?

This is real.

Second of all, I made my training partner drive by this house no less than three times because I could.not.stop.laughing. And I proceeded to giggle every time I looked at the pic on my phone for the entire 40 minute drive home…each of the three days we drove back to Dodge City. (My trainer friend was not as amused as me. Boys.)

I would just like to point out that

A.) this has to be reconstructed roadkill from several different animals (those legs! They look way too big for whatever bird that was. Also, the buzzard-y beak thing kept making me think of a pterodactyl.)

B.) these people added feather-boa wings to said reconstructed roadkill (if they had added a bowtie, I would have knocked on their door and asked to shake their hand, because that is just too much. Toooo much.)

and

C.) they took the time to climb up on their roof to proudly display what I can only hope is décor for the Halloween season (and not a permanent fixture on their roof), right in front of their redneck weathervane-slash-cable antenna.

Ohh, Kinsley. Thanks for putting me in the Halloween spirit and adding a little laughter to our trip. (PS—the training went well! I felt much more confident and one of the pharmacy techs told me she couldn’t believe that this was only my second training. She said she would have thought I had done it for years. Next up—Sweet Home, Oregon. Wish me luck!)

It’s Official—I’m Employed (Feel Free To Throw Me A Party!)



An official business card...



+ an official nametag...

= a very, very happy girl

So, it’s been a hot minute since I posted my last blog update. Life has been moving FAST! I feel very fortunate to have been offered a fantastic job at a great company. And, since my business cards and super-duper official nametag have finally come in (note the cheesy visuals above), I guess that makes it officially official. (You know what else makes it official? My paycheck that came last week. Heck yeah! And wow…I now know just how much the government was stealing from my teacher’s salary…I get to keep almost all of my money now! Hooray!!)

 

So here’s what I’m doing, in a nutshell. Basically, I go to pharmacies and hospitals that have purchased robotic prescription dispensing systems, workflow software or pharmacy management systems from my company. I get to spend a few days with the pharmacy, training the pharmacists and techs on how to use the systems. Sounds do-able, right? I mean, I’m thinking, I was a teacher for seven years! I’ve made up lessons on the fly! I’ve taught Shakespeare and books I really actually hated! I’ve dealt with irate kids and parents! I am good at teaching and training!

 

Well. Let me tell you—this job so far has been tough. Like, super stressful and I may have cried during my first week.  To my manager. At the office. (Cringe.) But, before you start thinking I am some poor lil lady who can’t handle a “grown up job”, let me lay it out for you—this is what my first week looked like:

 

Day One: Orientation, where I walked around the huge campus and tried to remember where the twelve buildings were and what they were named (Outlook Building 1? What does that mean?). Okay. Not too tough. And I got a work laptop and an iPhone, so score!

 

Day Two: My manager gave me the training on the robot. This training is two and a half hours long. No breaks. Then, she tells me, “here are the annotated notes over what I just gave.” These notes are 15 pages long.

 

Day Three: I gave the training back to her. The training I just received the day before and had less than 24 hours to look over material. YEEEEAH.

 

Let me interject and say that everyone is so nice and helpful. I love my manager. She is kind and understanding and let me know from the beginning that I wasn’t expected to give everything perfectly. She expects me to make mistakes and to have a rough time during my first presentation.

 

Okay, fine, but do I comprehend this? Do I feel okay that I know I will do poorly? And do I make the executive decision that I am going to be super woman and do amaze-balls on my presentation? (If you know me AT ALL, you know the answers to these questions.)

 

So, day three goes okay. I make it through. I get a lot of feedback. I know what I need to work on for the next presentation. (I do NOT do amaze-balls, by the way.)

 

Day Four: I attempt to give the training presentation again. It goes worse than my first try. This is when I have my super embarrassing mini-breakdown and sob, “I was a teacher! I should be able to da-da-da-dooooo this.” (That’s the sobbing. It was bad.) And my wonderful manager says everything I need to hear, that she knows I can do it, that it will get easier, that this is just how the company does it, etc. However, I’m still freaking out because…

 

Day Five: I went over Site Prep. For my FIRST TRAINING TRIP. AT A REAL LIVE PHARMACY. Yeah. They sent me out on the road, six days in. Granted, I went with an experienced trainer who was very helpful, but I still had to give my two and a half hour spiel to a pharmacy in Andrews, TX. And I’ll admit, it was not great. I stumbled, I read from my notes, I felt like I pretty much looked like an idiot. (The trainer I went with said I didn’t. I think he was just being nice.) It was rough. But, I made it through (even though I wanted to cry afterwards). (Also, side note—unless you’re really into oil wells, or like to check out pick-up trucks that are all blinged out, don’t go to Andrews, Texas. You’ll be super bored.)

 

Fast forward a week and a half, and here I am, prepping for my second trip. I’ll admit, my first training was a doozy. But, I’ve been preparing this week and already feel much more confident about Kinsley, Kansas. I mean, I have color-coded. I have streamlined my notes. I have practiced to Rascal about six billion times. Get ready, Kinsley. You’re gonna learn about the CRS and let me tell you, you’re about to have your socks blown clean off.

 

Oh, and if anyone has two and a half hours and is interested in hearing about robotic prescription dispensing systems that hold the pharmacy’s fastest moving tablets and capsules, and that fill and label vials using information sent from the pharmacy’s host system, let me know…I'm sure Rascal could use the break.