I was reading an article in The Chronicle yesterday about how people who continually update their Education make themselves more valuable employees. In this day and age, when people are so worried about competing in the job market, I think that taking some courses now and then is a good idea.
But many of us have transportation issues, or schedule issues and need to be able to take courses online. Fortunately there are lots of schools that offer online degrees. One of those, Walden University offers a degree in Communications, which is something I’ve always been interested in. I’ll have to check and see if my company has tuition reimbursement benefits for their employees! Getting a college education with someone else’s money is a good thing!
It appears that today was the first day of school. I got stuck behind one of the slowest school buses on the way to work this morning, not a good way to start the day. Good thing that most of the buses had taken all the kids home by the time I was on my way home. Just one more thing to add stress to the day.
I love being spontaneous. I do try and plan things out but sometimes things just happen and I have learned to roll with them as best as possible. I don’t mind getting a last minute call from someone and running out the door in order to get somewhere in the shortest time possible. I did grow up here so I know all of the roads like the back of my hand and I’m sure that I know each and every shortcut that is possible around my hometown and the cities that surround it as well, so I can get places pretty darn quick if needed.
I love going to sporting events, even though I’m not really active in very many. I do however enjoy playing a game of golf every now and then. My folks brought us up playing golf and I’m grateful for that. It is a nice easy going game that just about anyone can play and they have golf courses and tee times just about everywhere.
My folks just got back from their annual Myrtle Beach vacation last week. They wanted me to come but I couldn’t really take the time off of work and I all ready have a long weekend planned for the last part of September. My mom was telling me last night that they had a good time, the weather was a bit wacky but all in all it was a success. My dad found a website at www.48hourteetimes.com that they had to utilized during their stay in Myrtle Beach. They are a full service hospitality group that helps people with their accommodations and their 48 hour tee times. Since so many people are flocking to Myrtle Beach S.C. this year due to BP ruining so many of the other beaches on the east coast a lot of the hotels and golf courses have been slammed with customers that need some help finding their way around and finding what is available and for who.
I’m glad that my folks are computer literate. Many people their age are a bit timid when it comes to maneuvering around on the Internet, but they have mastered it quite well and use it to their best advantage when possible. And I’m glad that they are spontaneous, that must be where I got it from, a double dose of it, to be sure.
One of the things that I dreaded while in school was math class. I had a few teachers that felt that girls should not go above pre algebra in their public education. There were even a few that would refuse to answer my questions in class.
When I went to college, I took every single math class that the college offered, and got “A’s” in all of them. I’d love to find those teachers now that I’m older and rub their noses in my college report cards!
But I digress. When I was taking pharmacy technician classes, I was surprised at how many times I ended up helping my classmates learn how to divide fractions and use Algebra equations to help in filling prescriptions.
Today was A’s last day at work at our store. He’s a nice young man that was a shift supervisor. He’s going back to college, and he’s taking a week’s vacation before starting school. Today was “truck day” so we could not take the time to do a proper good-bye celebratory lunch or dinner. When I arrived at work this afternoon I asked the store manager if we were going to have any kind of luncheon for A and he said no, we were too busy with the truck and we’d just have to say a quick good-bye.
Well, I’m the last one to take a lunch/dinner break, so during my break I went to Domino’s Pizza across the street and bought four pizzas and brought them back to the store. I offered pizza to everyone there, declaring it was my treat in honor of A’s last day. I just couldn’t see letting him go off to college feeling unappreciated by the crew at the store! One of the young ladies that works there DID bring in a couple of cakes, and we all signed a good-bye card. I also gave him a duct tape wallet that I made as a good-bye gift. He’s a sweetie-pie and I’m going to miss his smiling face at work! I wish him the best of luck and hope he stays in touch.
I was quite aggravated yesterday when my boss informed me that I was going to be taking on more work and responsibility without any increase in pay, or any extra hours to do the work. He won’t even change my status to full-time even though I’ve been working forty hours a week ever since I started there! I am not impressed. I already feel as if I’m underpaid and being taken advantage of! This will only increase those feelings!
My cousin Lynne sent me an email that her son Jarod is moving across the country and she has been helping him to pack his belongings to get ready. She was helping him to comparison shop moving companies and found a website called EZ removals that provides up to six different quotes from different companies that specialize in helping people to relocate their households.
I can remember how stressful it was four years ago when we moved down here, trying to find the most economical services. The Internet sure is a great source to help people to compare prices and services on just about everything anyone needs in this day and age! And I really like the fact that it can take you beyond your local neighborhood when need be. I think that being able to comparison shop on a wider scope helps keep your neighborhood businesses competitively priced.
One of the things that is difficult for me to work in the pharmacy is the fact that only the pharmacist is allowed to bring a coat or lunch box or purse into the pharmacy. And we are not given lockers for our personal belongings. So I’ve turned to wearing men’s pants to work a lot of the time. The reason for that is I want to put my wallet and keys and cell phone in my pockets. And for the most part, women’s clothes just don’t have pockets large enough to accommodate all of that.
So when I go shopping, I often go to the Menswear department to see what kind of nice looking clothes I can find there that I can wear to work. I don’t want to look too masculine, so it is a narrow line that I have to walk. But one of the interesting things is that my son and I wear the same size, so we often go shopping together. I depend on his fashion sense to keep me up to date on what the latest in men’s fashions so I don’t look too ridiculous!
I can remember back in the 1980′s when disco was all the rage. Many of the nightclubs that used to have live bands converted to using disc jockeys. That was a very sad time for my family, because most of the men in my family had music jobs as a second income. From what I understand, our family has been in the music industry since the 1800′s! So I was pleased when my kids expressed an interest in taking band in school. I did find it discouraging, however, at how expensive it was (and still is) to buy musical instruments for the students to use. We spent a lot of money on instruments that are no longer being used, and have very little re-sale value. Most disturbing.
I recently located a cousin of mine that lives only a couple of hours away from where we live. He used to play in my father’s band back in the ’70s and 80′s. I found out that he is stll playing in a band, and his sons play too. I was glad to know that the music is still alive in our family, and if I ever need to find musicians for a party, I know who to call! It’s in the blood, and we are keeping the music alive!
I’m always annoyed by the doctors that order eye drops for people to use to get rid of their conjunctivitis. I know that there is an oral antibiotic that they can take to fix the problem. And the eye drops really hurt! I’ve had to use them myself a few times, and let me tell you, they REALOLY HURT! So I fell really sorry for the poor kids that have to use the eye drops. I wish the doctors would just prescribe the oral medicine instead.
One of the things that the other ladies that I work with in the pharmacy and I agree upon is that we find it awkward that right in front of our work space is the shelving unit for the display of condoms and sex enhancement lotions. There are too many customers that start to ask us questions about the products that we don’t have any idea what the answer is, and since it really is not our job to know those details, we really don’t any desire to learn about them for purposes of work! Sometimes I think that these people are trying to embarrass us!
I have to admit that I’m not very sophisticated when it comes to dealing with my 401K and IRA. I know that it is a good idea to have them, to help provide for financial security when I finally reach retirement age. But I thought that these accounts had to be stocks and bonds. It was only recently that I discovered that I could have a gold IRA investment as well.
The next time my investment counselor calls me I’m going to ask him about IRA gold, and whether I should put some into my account.
To be perfectly honest, I’m not even sure at this point if I have a 401k or an IRA! I just remember a few months ago doing a rollover from a 401k plan. So I guess I’ll need to ask him about 401k gold too.
I know he is always talking about diversification, but lately I’ve been leaning towards the conservative side. My head starts to hurt just thinking about it!
There is a pizza parlor right across the street from our pharmacy, and today we decided to order pizza for lunch and have it delivered. That is a treat for us – we only get 30 minute lunch breaks, and when we order pizza in we are allowed to eat the pizza at any time and still take a 30 minute break too.
The four of us split three pizzas, and there was a lot left over, so we put the leftovers in the refrigerator and will have pizza again tomorrow! I like it when we do that – when I bring pizza home there usually aren’t any leftovers for me to eat the next day!
There is one young lady that I work with that has a lot of learning to do about life. I find myself biting my tongue around her a lot. She is a very opinionated young lady, who seems to think that she is smarter than anyone else in the world. And she has absolutely no sympathy or empathy for anyone who has become addicted to any kind of substance. She aspires to become a pharmacist, but I really don’t think that she will make a very good one, because she is so judgemental.
I guess maybe I’m a little bit more sensitive to the dilemmas of substance abuse because I have had several close friends and family members who have had to go through some kind of alcohol rehab in their lives. One very discouraging fact is that for most people, they have to go to an alcohol treatment center more than once to get their addiction under control. I think that there is a need for more alcohol treatment options for low-income people. Addiction strikes people regardless of income levels!
No one at work follows the dress code. No one. So I was quite annoyed when my boss told me that I could not continue to wear cargo shorts to work. He said that shorts are against the dress code. He said that they are too short. The other ladies wear capris (which are technically shorts) and that is OK, but cargo shorts are not. I was annoyed because the customer only sees me from the waist up most of the time!
I don’t like capris on me. I think I look stupid in them. But I’ve bought a few to wear to work; it is just too hot for me to wear slacks in the pharmacy. But you know what? I’m going to start wearing dresses and skirts too – they are allowed at work, and they are not as warm as slacks. Too bad that they are shorter than my shorts! The dress codes does not limit the lenght of a skirt or dress! I wonder what my boss will say when he sees the new dress that I just bought on my last day off!
I remember hearing Kermit The Frog sing his hit song entitled “It Isn’t Easy Being Green” it was a heart breaking song to hear him sing back the. Now a days the big buss word is “Green” people are flocking to find ways to become as “Green” as possible and I’m loving it. My parents were from the 70′s era and were totally into the hippie and Woodstock scene. They brought us kids up trying our best to recycle and not abuse our Mother Earth, which we all embraced and learned from.
Today at work we were discussing “Green” issues when someone popped up with the subject of webhosting and how there as many that are doing there part in providing green web hosting sites. He found this information at webhostinggeeks.com, which is a Web Hosting Reviews & Rating Directory that we all took a quick gander at during our lunch break. I have to say that I’m impressed to see that many web hosting sites trying to do the right thing at the right time. FatCow advertises that they are 100% green, which is a mighty big challenge, I’m glad that they are up for it and I hope that more companies soon start to follow suite.
My mother was telling me that she heard on the radio or read on the Internet that the famous Beatle Ringo just recently celebrated his 70th birthday. She was surprised to find that he was as old as that and it made her feel like an old lady, bless her heart. The good news was that the other still living Beatle Paul made a surprise cameo appearance which I’m sure was an awesome site to witness. I wish my mother could have attended that concert, she really would have enjoyed that being as she is still an avid Beatles fan and listens to their music still quite often.
Ever since summer started I’ve been wearing men’s cargo shorts to work. The pharmacy gets very warm, and I have to wear thick compression stockings because of my varicose veins, so I switched from slacks to shorts. These shorts come down to my knees, so I thought that it would be ok to wear them. After all, skirts are allowed, and skirts are often shorter than the cargo shorts I was wearing. And I prefer wearing men’s pants because they actually have pockets that are big enough to put my wallet in! Women’s clothes don’t have deep pockets; and often have no pockets at all. Since we’re not allowed to bring our purses or jackets into the pharmacy, and we aren’t given lockers to put our things in, I was leaving my purse locked in my car and putting my wallet in my pocket.
Well, now I’ve been told that shorts are against the dress code and that I can’t wear them anymore. The other ladies wear capris (which are technically shorts) but I can’t wear cargo shorts? So I bought a few pairs of capris to wear, but I really don’t like them. I think I’m going to sew some lace trim to the bottom hems of my cargo shorts and call them capris! Just thinking about doing that makes me laugh!
I think that the pharmacy I work in is very strategically placed in our town. We are the closest pharmacy to the town’s hospital, and right across the street from a nursing home. Because of the, a lot of our customers come from those locations. I never know, though, when someone shows up wearing medical scrubs if they are picking up for the nursing home, or if they are on their way to or from work.
I do find it interesting to see how many cute nursing scrubs there are out there! I think it is really nice that nurses can wear scrubs to work now instead of the old fashioned starched nurses uniform from back in my youth. I can remember when I was a child that I always thought that those white uniforms were rather scary! I’m sure that the scrubs are easier to take care of, and probably a lot more comfortable to wear, too!
Last Saturday we had a substitute pharmacist cover the pharmacy, and it was my weekend to work. J is an elderly gentleman who retired quite a long time ago. I’m not quite sure why he bothers to keep his foot in the door. He only works about six times a year. So he is never caught up with the new changes, and how to do things. So Saturday was a very busy day for me; I spent much of the day training and retraining J. He’s a sweetheart, and I’ve worked with him before when I only worked a four hour evening shift, so I had a good idea about what to expect. The poor guy gets flustered very easily….. Let’s just say it was a real challenge, and I was plum tuckered out at the end of the day!
