day 26-28: hello weekend!

Wuddup!! It's the weekend!! Finally! I can't really complain 'cause this week actually felt pretty short since my preceptor gave me today off to "study" lol. Can we get a wuddup for a 3-day weekend?! (wow... I just read what I wrote and I'm going to have to blame the coffee for my excessive use of exclamation marks lol). I thought we were supposed to go over HIV/AIDS regimen selection yesterday but apparently not, so yay! I'm done with my work for another week lol. Next up is opportunistic infections.

So I've still been going to Borders to study and Wednesday was my third day and the barista actually remembered my name! I was really surprised. It's probably because he was the one that signed me up for the Borders Rewards card and I had to give him my email and you know how my gmail one is pretty memorable lol. Anyways, on Tuesday, this guy (that comes to this Borders all the time with his guitar) randomly comes up to me and starts talking to me. I was like err? And then on Wednesday this guy comes up to me and asks me to use my phone because he left his phone at work. It was cute though 'cause he was calling his girlfriend and was telling her that he was such a fail and that he'd be home soon with dinner lol. I also forgot to mention that one of the baristas at this Borders looks like Lea Michele from Glee! I keep staring at her whenever she's working lol. I must look like such a stalker hahaha.

Anyways, I'm going to start getting ready to head out. I have to close my Chase bank account before they start charging me $10 a month for being poor and jobless haha.

I hope ya'lls have a great weekend! 

day 21-25: massive update

day 21: errands
My day started with a call at 6:30 in the morning from my dad who was calling to tell me to come to the emergency room 'cause he wanted to bring my mom's meds so that the doctor could see what she was taking. I switched places with my dad so that he could go home and rest for a little bit and stayed until 10:30. Since my prescription for my contacts expired, I had to go to the optometrist to get a new prescription. I eyesight didn't get worse! yay! I was thinking it was going to be worse since I'm so blind these days without my glasses. I think the thing that makes my eyes so bad is straining to see those powerpoint presentations in class.

In the evening I went to my friend Annie's birthday shindig at 38 degree Grill & Ale House. It was super packed (probably 'cause there was a Laker game). We had a party of 15-20 people and we couldn't get seated until everyone got there. We waited about an hour before we just left next door to Tony Romas haha. But I got to try the 38 degree mojito which was pretty good. My cousin was saying the tuna tartar is really good and shoestring fries. I guess I'll have to try that next time. But it was a good night of catching up with old friends. Although it is a little weird mingling with someone who used to date the same person as you. Maybe it's because I don't see her very often but I don't think that weird feeling ever goes away. It's like "hi, we used to date the same guy" haha.

day 22: history repeats itself
Remember the other day when I said that I was late for work because I set my alarm for the weekdays and I had to work on Saturday so the alarm didn't go on? Well, guess what happened again?! lol. This time I woke up at 9:30am, called the pharmacy and told them I was going to be late and then bolted out of the house. I didn't get to work until 10:30am. Luckily my preceptor wasn't mad and it wasn't busy. Whew. And I thought he was going to make me stay the extra 1.5 hours but he ended up letting me go home at 4:30! So I get in 1.5 hours late and get to go home 1 hour early lol. Not too shabby haha.

This was also the day that I got the "C" news from my preceptor so once I got home I was really determined to get started with my studying. Luckily Judy was online and we decided to go to Starbucks to get some hardcore studying done. Then we went to Tea Station.

day 23: lazy sunday
Had this under-the-bed storage bag thing that I had to return at Walmart and enlisted the help of Pearl :). I forget how cheap food is at Walmart! I bought a 24-pack of Coke for $5! I've been meaning to stock up when it goes on sale but I've just been so tired after work. So after that I wanted to go to TJ Maxx because I bought this king sized duvet from West Elm online and I thought I had a random king sized blanket lying around but apparently I didn't. They have some pretty cheap stuff at TJ Maxx. I ended up buying these Jessica Simpson sunglasses for $12.99. Deals! But I had no luck finding the blanket 'cause the king sized blankets they had were around $100 and I was looking for something less than $50. So I headed over to Target and they had a king sized down alternative blanket for $17.99! All sizes are $17.99 if you're interested. Let me just say that king sized blanket for a full/queen sized bed (I still don't know which one it is lol) is wonderful! My feet never stick out from under the blankets anymore and my bed seriously looks made everyday which is orgasmic! Ah, my obsession with bedding continues! I think I have 5 different duvet covers for my queen sized down blanket lol. Really should donate some of those away. I bought this Target one a while back and it totally got bleached by my benzoyl peroxide. That's why I stick to whites now lol... although the new duvet I bought is "Sea Breeze" and looks blue/green-ish.

day 24: magnificent monday
Monday was pretty awesome considering its Monday. So I've been stuck in traffic for pretty much over an hour to go from work back home so I was just thinking to stay somewhere in to kill some time so that I wouldn't hit so much traffic. The other day, my rotation mates and I went to Kavikas for happy hour and I realized that there's a Borders at the Pike. There's also 90 minutes of free parking with validation so I've just been doing some studying at Borders to wait out traffic. It actually only took me 30 minutes to get home so it definitely cut my commute in half. PLUS, I get some studying done too. I also signed up for a new Borders rewards card because I realized that my old card actually belonged to an ex-boyfriend lol. Plus the new card is nice white color :) (me and my obsession with all things white). Apparently, if you buy 5 drinks, they'll send you a coupon for a free drink. I think I should be getting there real soon if I end up coming here after work everyday. Plus, I always end up getting coffee at the Borders at the Santa Anita Mall before going to the movies so I don't fall asleep haha. (Btw, their white chocolate mocha is the bomb diggity!! They actually give you white chocolate shavings on the top.

When I got home, I had two awesome surprises! First was a package from Tanya which contained some awesome goodies (pictured below) hehe. And 2nd was my first People StyleWatch! woohoo! I'm so glad I finally got a subscription (thanks to my secret santa Juday!). Now I'm just waiting on my Cosmo to make its way to my house.

After reading through my whole People StyleWatch, I went on an organizing frenzy and organized all the stuff (OTC presentations, case presentations, drug charts, etc) I've gotten during my rotations into separate binders. Everything is just organized into the major categories but everything within the different tabs is still a mess. I'll have to finish that on another day. My next major endeavor is organizing all my school notes. I really didn't like how they organized all the disease state and drugs because I feel like everything is everywhere! The only thing that's semi-organized is ID.

day 25: terrific tuesday
Today was a pretty good day at the pharmacy. We had filled over 350 scripts by 3ish and it didn't feel that busy at all. Now I'm at Borders breaking the rule that I made for myself that I wouldn't update my blog that much lol. There's not much that goes on on the weekdays but I just wanted to update about the weekend. I'll do more studying once I get home. I need to start studying for my disease state quizzes.

Anyways, hope everything is starting their weeks off right and have a happy hump day :)

day 21-23: *sigh*

Welps, I got my mid-evaluation from my preceptor on Friday and apparently I'm getting a 3.2 which is a "C" because the cut-off is a 3.35 or something like that. A part of me is like "woohoo! I'm passing!" but the stupid Asian "you must get straight A's" side is a little disappointed. I mean, I'm pretty much doing community right now so there should be no reason I'm getting a "C". So I asked him what I needed to improve on and basically he said I needed to improve on my drug knowledge. He's right though. It's the 4th rotation and that means I have 2 rotations left to really step it up before the boards :/. I asked him what he did to study for the boards and he's like "oh I read the Lexi-Comp Drug Information handbook... twice." =O <--- my expression. Wha?! That thing is like 2000 pages and the pages are thinner than cheap toilet paper! So I guess what I'm trying to say (and what I'm beating around the bush about) is that I'll probably just be updating on a weekly basis now unless something.... supercalifragilisticexpialidocious happens :)... like if Snoop Dogg decides to stop by RiteAid in Long Beach to say hello lol.

Alright peeps, I'm going to finish up my HIV/AIDS regimen discussion that I'll probably have to go over on Thursday. Thank goodness I get a 3-day weekend next weekend, what-up! The week hasn't even started and I'm already looking forward to the weekend haha.

I leave you with my latest playlist. A mix of old and new songs. Enjoy! 

Hope you start your Monday off right with some Frosted Flakes... because You're Great! (ok I know "they're great" but you are too! lol)

day 20: work

Working 1:30-10pm today *barfs*. At least the load is coming today so I'll be kept busy.

Apparently, (according to all the newsfeed posts) today is the Cheesiest Day of the Year aka National Cheese Lover's Day! Look at this scrumptious dish!

Yum-o!

So my errand running yesterday was a big fail. I always thought contact prescription are good for 2 years but apparently they are only good for one so I'll have to go get my eye exam on Friday so I can get new contacts.

Things to do before I go to work:

1. Email Ms. Luevano and make sure she got my paperwork.
2. Thank you cards.
3. Email student about region quizzes.
4. Deposit Dividend reward check. 
5. Laundry

So my friends and I all use Google calendar to kinda know what we're doing because our schedules are pretty busy and lately we've barely had a chance to even talk to one another. It was easier when I was still in school because I could be online while studying and I'd get to talk to them even for a brief moment before they go to work. But now, I'm working as well and so it makes it a little more difficult to keep in touch. Anyways, so there's supposed to be this birthday party that one of my friends is throwing this Saturday and I saw that all my friends were going so I was like yay! But then one by one I saw it disappearing from their calendars and I was like "hrrmmm?" So I finally went on the event and found out that they changed the date lol. And apparently all my other friends had already changed the date on their Google calendars lol. I guess I was the only slow poke haha. Thank goodness for the date change though 'cause I am just absolutely exhausted from work these days. This weekend will be a nice way to catch up on school work and just relax.

Anyways, gotta go get ready for work. Toodle-loos! (haven't used that word in forever!)

day 19: wake up in the mornin' feeling like...

p. diddy :)

Finally got to sleep in today and by sleep in I mean get up at 9 lol. I moseyed around in bed for awhile though (45 minutes lol).

About to head out and start on the errands of the day.

1. I still haven't gotten my contacts yet so I'll need to go to Costco for that. 
2. Must buy this Living Social Amazon Gift Card deal! (http://livingsocial.com/deals/21336-20-amazon-com-gift-card)
3. Finish my HIV/AIDS drug chart.
4. Laundry.
5. Regional Meeting in Long Beach and then happy hour?

Have a fantastic Wednesday!

day 14-18: lotsa action

Whew! What an eventful weekend its been! So lets get right to business...

day 14: work
Super lucky. I had to work the 1:30-10pm shift which was super. It was super chill after 5pm until there was a huge rush from 9-9:30pm. Me and my preceptor went over NRTIs and NNRTIs on my drug chart. Still have to work on those PIs and random drugs. Not much happened today... *snores*

day 15: times when I wish I had a swiss army knife handy
So I woke up around 9-ish and got ready to go get my nails done. I hadn't gotten my nails done since I was back in Stockton and I only went to get my nails done 'cause I was in desperate need for a pedicure. So while I was getting my nails done, I realized they were playing Time Traveler's Wife on the TV! I had been wanting to re-watch it for such a long time so it was super perfect. I think the nail ladies must've thought I was crazy 'cause I was smiling the whole time I was watching it haha.

Anyways, me and Tony decided to meet up at the Irvine Spectrum 'cause we were going to go to Great Park and do this:

but we were starving so food >>>> fun (spoken like true fatties haha). We ended up eating at Cheesecake Factory and I got the Spicy Chicken Chipotle (w/o peas :)). Soooo good! I've been craving it everyday since. After that, we did a little shopping and this was when the most embarrassing thing happened. It's been absolutely LOVELY weather in LA so I was wearing shorts that day but at night it got a bit colder so I decided to just get a pair of jeggings at Forever 21 rather than walk around shivering. So we head into Forever 21 and I find this pair of jeggings that zip up on the side and they have zippers on the ankles so I decided to go try them on. I get into the fitting room and these jeggins fit super nicely! Score! Looking at the pants more closely, I see that right at the calf area, they had completely forgot to sew one part so that there was a huge hole so I was just going to go outside to get another pair. So I'm trying to take off the pants and the zipper is completely stuck. I'm fiddling with the zipper when I realized that my panties (these RVCA ones that Tanya got me for Christmas which are basically like the super lace ones at Victoria's Secret) were completely stuck into the zipper. This wasn't a small stuck either! It was half-way stuck into the lace so that I couldn't even move the zipper at all!! So I'm thinking that calm is probably the way to go since when you have to untangle a knot, being all aggressive usually makes the knot even worse. So I'm calmly tugging (is that an oxymoron? lol) at the zipper and underwear. No budging AT ALL! >: O Now I'm growing impatient and I start thinking I'm like hulk status. I'm thinking I can probably just take the pants and underwear off and just rip the underwear from the death claws of the zipper. So I try that. Big fail! I obviously overestimated my strength lol. Finally after maybe 5-10 minutes of fiddling with this situation, I decided to just go ask one of the sales associates if they would lend me a pair of scissors. So I go up to the girl and I'm like "My underwear got stuck in the zipper. Is there anyway I can borrow a pair of scissors?" So she asks this one guy employee and he's like "Why do you need the scissors??" and she's like "We just do!" lol. So he gives me the pair of scissors and these were seriously the dullest pair of scissors on earth! I go back to my fitting room and I'm like sawing away at my underwear! Finally it comes apart! Gahhhd. I was so relieved.

day 16: scorching hot... weather!
Went and had Peet's Coffee for the first time. I had a white chocolate mocha which was alright. I think I'm not a huge fan of the bitter coffee. Gotta love the diabetes coffee with at least 6 spoons of sugar haha. Anyways, we went to Peach Cafe to meet up with Christina, Chris, Anna and Daniel. We waited soooooooo long in the scorching sun to get seated!! It was a beautiful day but I totally wasn't dressed for it. I was wearing boots and I literally wanted to take off all my clothes. At least the food was well worth the wait. Chai latte was friggin orgasmic as usual. After that we went to the Santa Anita mall and shopped for a little before heading to Disneyland. The last time we went we didn't get to go on Toy Story so I had to go on it. Ended up waiting 50 minutes to go on! So worth it though lol. Then we went and got a corndog :). I hadn't had a corndog in such a long time that I forgot how good it is! I've been eating the fried chicken the last few times I've gone.

day 17: mlk is not a drug holiday apparently!
Oh my friggin gahd. It was seriously sooooooooooooo busy. I walk into the pharmacy and my preceptor hands me 3 transfers to do (with one of them being the "transfer ALL my meds" from this other pharmacy). Then I was a filling machine for the rest of the day. We filled over 200 scripts before noon. It was crazy. AND the phones wouldn't stop ringing!! I was pretty much exhausted when I got home and then I was stuck in traffic. I wouldn't even have known it was MLK Day! I had to lay on my horn once 'cause this stupid person didn't know that green meant go at this left turn arrow. So I honked at them and by the time they actually started moving the light already turned yellow. I pretty much wanted to stab myself in the car. After dinner I went to Target with Sophie and Judy. We tried to go to Half & Half Tea House off of San Gabriel and Las Tunas and it was freakin' packed!!! The whole time we were thinking it was going to be dead because it was a Monday but now that I'm thinking back, it was probably so busy 'cause everyone and their mom's had MLK off (besides me :( wahh lol).

day 18: the day after
I head into the pharmacy and all is well. It was super calm and then around 2pm we're hit with a wave of new prescriptions. We seriously had maybe 10 waiters and they were all getting A LOT of stuff. When I left at 5:30pm there were still maybe 50 scripts that needed to be filled still :/. Thank goodness I don't have to go in tomorrow! But I have to work Thursday 1:30-10pm (blech!). I have Friday off... but I have to work Saturday (double blech!). At least this weekend seems like it'll be a very eventful one with 2 birthday parties (one of Friday and another on Saturday). Then I'll have Sunday to simmer down a little before another packed week. I get a 3 day weekend not this coming weekend but the next weekend (Jan 28th-Jan 30th) so I'm excited!

I'm leaving ya'lls with my current Temper Trap favorites that have been on repeat since the weekend! Enjoy :)

Have a happy hump day tomorrow!!

day 14-16: quick recap soon!

Hi ya'lls!

Just got home from a fantastic weekend! I will update soon! Here's a picture from the weekend!

I got braggin' rights!! yayeh! :D

Outfit of the day

Here's my outfit of the day courtesy of miss tiff lee! Thanks Tiff!

day 13: off today, yay!

The day has just begun and its a really beautiful day, again! Oh sun, how I've missed you! I really want to just go outside and tan (gotta love that skin cancer) but I've got some work to do :/.

Here's my to-do list for the day:

1. Contact my next preceptor.
2. Turn in all my VA paperwork for my next rotation.
3. Work on my drug charts for NRTIs and NNRTIs. 
4. Order contacts at Costco.

Hmmm... guess there wasn't as much as I thought... although travel time may take long since I have to head to the VA in West LA.

Since today has just begun, let me recap on my day yesterday.

So either my preceptor really enjoys those blank looks/deer in the headlight looks that I give him whenever he asks me a question or he's warming up to me 'cause he's been asking me lots of questions throughout the day lol. Today was an overload of questions and I had to write these things down. Hopefully this will be helpful to the pharmers reading this and if you're not a pharmer... well, maybe one day this will help you out when you're on some kind of game show like in Slumdog Millionaire :).

1. Did you know you have to take metoprolol (both succinate and tartrate) with food? I had no idea but apparently you take it with food so that the absorption is stable otherwise absorption is erratic. 
2. Apparently maraviroc (Selzentry) is a drug that you have to worry about a soy/peanut allergy because the film coating of the tablets is made from soy. There's 2 other drugs (to the knowledge of my preceptor) that also has this allergy and those are Atrovent (ipratropium) and Prometrium (progesterone). 
3. Pilocarpine is apparently used for dry mouth associated with Sjogren's Syndrome (pronounced show-gren's).
4. Isoniazid is used for TB. I got it confused with isosorbide and said it was for the heart lol.

So here's my dozo moment of the day (at the pharmacy). So this patient was getting 240 dronabinol (Marinol) which is a cannabinoid and so I'm like counting away. At least the tablets are small (not like freakin' Metformin where you need like 3 counting trays =P). Anyways, the techs always try to mess you up by saying random numbers while you're counting (it's great lol) and so I'm still counting away until I'm at 100 and I put the 100 in the vial. Then I count out another 100 so that there's 40 left on the counting tray. Here's where I messed up. I go to put the 100 into the vial and BAM! totally forgot that there were still 40 capsules left on the counting tray and they flew everywhere (all over the counter, trashcan, my pocket, drawers)! It was friggin fantastic! lol. So the original bottle had 240 which was perfectly enough but I go to count the whole 240 again and now I only had 223... uh oh lol. So I'm like looking everywhere but they are nowhere to be found! So finally I fessed up to my preceptor. Thank goodness he was chill about it haha. It was funny 'cause he was just like "What happened to the other 17 tablets?!" and he gave me that "did you take them?" look haha. 

Later on in the day this lady comes to the pharmacy and asks for a consultation so I go to help her since the pharmacist was on the phone. She tells me that she just bought a diaphragm at another RiteAid for like $50 and thought it would come with spermicide... but it didn't (what a rip right?!). Anyways, she's been all over town looking to purchase spermicide and she was wondering if we had any. So I point her over to the condom/lube area (which is right in front of the pharmacy). She says she's looked but didn't see it. Then she goes on to ask me if the foam would work as well as the gel (and being that I did my OTC presentation on Contraceptives, you'd think I would know...). I had no idea so I said I wasn't sure and she kind of looks at me with her judging eyes and responds, "Oh you probably wouldn't know anything about these things." Her tone was basically, "You probably haven't even taken a look at a penis." Thanks lady! 

Anyways, I realized that I better start getting ready to head out to turn in all my paperwork. I totally forgot that I would have to go all the way to West LA. 

Hope everyone is having an awesome Thursday because that means the weekend is near!! I'm really excited for this weekend but first I have to get through Friday which I have to work 1:30-10pm *barfs*. 

P.S. I've been meaning to post that I got an awesome package in the mail from Tanya's sister Tiff! I must seem like a real clothes whore because everyone has been getting me stuff from Forever 21 but she also sent me this adorable penguin!

You may be wondering why he's missing an eye (or he could just be winking at me ;)) but that's exactly why he was bought. Her reasoning was that because he's missing an eye, she was afraid that no one would buy him so she found him a happy home :).

day 12: top 25 most played

Here's the top 25 songs on my iTunes Top 25 Most Played playlist. Unfortunately some of the Far East Movement songs were nowhere to be found on the site but Don't Look Now ft. Keri Hilson and Fighting for Air are among the top 25.

Happy Hump Day!

day 8/9/10/11: my main squeeze ;)

Oh boy, I've been so bad at keeping up with this blog thing. I think it's so time consuming because I describe every little inkling of my day in such detail so that when I look back later I can really experience what I felt at the time.

day 8 continued...
So after leaving CA Adventures, we headed over to Disneyland. We wanted to take a picture in front where the train is and there was no line so we asked the photographer if he could take some jumpy pictures for us. We kept asking the guy to retake the pictures because there was always one of us that was on the ground lol. Our first ride ended up being Buzz Lightyear which I hadn't gone on in a really long time 'cause I basically suck at it. I mean shooting a laser that I can barely see (as you all know, my vision is fantastic *sarcasm*), in the dark is not exactly easy lol. But Tony showed me his little trick hehe and I ended up scoring my highest score on that ride ever! *pats self on back* hahaha. Here's a collage I made of the progression of my Buzz Lightyear scores lol. As you can see, I am pretty horrible lol.

After that, we headed over to Space Mountain. We ended up sitting in rows 5 and 6 which I thought was really enjoyable for me lol. I was actually able to keep my eyes open for the whole ride and not screaming the whole time lol.

After Space Mountain I was pretty much starving 'cause I didn't really eat much besides some Lay's BBQ chips and a churro so we headed to Gyu-Kaku. It was pretty good. This was my first time at a Gyu-Kaku on the mainland (hehehe :)). But yeah, I still think Gyu-Kaku is a little bit on the expensive side.

day 9: inTENTs
Started the day off by going to this place in Culver City called Grand Casino Bakery to try their empanadas (I almost spelled it empandas hahaha). They were pretty darn good especially when you combine it with this pesto-ish sauce (Friends reference: Phoebe: Is your pesto the besto? hehe). I also got this custard pastry. Boy that was delicious. It was funny 'cause I think I scarfed the whole thing down before anyone else even started eating so when everyone was asking if anyone wanted to try their food, I was trying to look as invisible as possible 'cause I obviously had nothing to contribute lol.

After that we went to Westside Pavillion to watch Black Swan. Man, that movie was really creepy and intense lol. I loved the music though since I've always loved ballet. I think afterwards we were all pretty exhausted from all the action. There was one part in the movie (I wont mention it since some of you probably haven't seen it and I don't want to ruin it) where we all jumped back in our seats and it was just so funny 'cause our reactions were so genuine haha. And it's one of those scenes where you're like "ok... something's going to happen.... HERE!" and then nothing happens and you just keep saying that until you're like "hmm.. maybe nothing's going to happen after all..." and then BAM! Hit by a bus!

After the movie we headed back to Alfred's place and played some more Wii Party which is super fun! Then we got hungry and headed to Honey's Kettle Fried Chicken which was freakin' delicious! The skin was sooo good. Their biscuits tasted like Church's except not as crunchy. I was literally exploding from stuffage after we were finished.

It was around 8 when I started driving home and once I got home I realized that I hadn't updated all weekend! lol. Whoops! Mah bad haha. I really need to utilize the email posts more often. I just feel like I'm so much more prone to spelling and grammatical errors when I'm typing on the phone and it's definitely a pet peeve of mine to see errors (even though I'm a bit of a hypocrit 'cause I hate proofreading so most of my posts probably have tons of errors).

day 10: common ground
I think I'm finally breaking the ice with my co-workers :). One of my co-workers was wearing a Mickey tie today and so we got to talking about Disneyland. Apparently him and his partner have annual passes to Disneyland too! And he was telling me about their trip to Disneyworld and how he bought this meal plan thing for $600 where you would get 3 meals a day and you can pretty much eat anywhere in the park. I had no idea they even had meal plans haha. Reminds me of my UCLA days... time to go to Puzzles to hoard drinks haha.

My preceptor and I haven't really gone over the HIV/AIDS regimens yet but I still felt like a complete idiot when this situation presented itself. He was explaining to me that a certain regimen for a patient was not very smart because one of the drugs was unnecessary so I was trying to see which two were in the same class. So I found out there were 2 NRTI's so I'm like "Is it because there's two NRTI's?" and he's like "There's always two NRTI's..." BOOM! Knowledge bomb! lol. So basically the regimen that the person was on had 3 NRTI's plus some other stuff.

Another question that I got asked today was: What's Saphris? I wasn't sure if I was allowed to use my phone at work so I usually use my Tarascon. Turns out Saphris is not even in Tarascon! :O. So I quickly asked if I could use my phone to look the information up. And I say quickly because my preceptor likes to say, "When I'm done QA-ing this prescription, I want you to tell me what Saphris is." So I'm basically like scrounging to find out the answers sometimes lol. Well, FYI it's a pretty new atypical antipsychotic drug (which I totally should have known because I had my psych rotation like 2 months ago :/).

Anyways, the traffic on the drive home was pretty bad and I hate how dark it is when I leave :(. I got home and caught up on my Kendra (teehee :)) and watched Kindergarten Cop 'cause I've never watched it before. The kids in the movie are so adorable!! But oh man there were some parts of the dialogue that were so bad lol.

day 11: time management
So I'm actually writing this post in my car as I sit outside RiteAid (at 8am in the morning) lol. It really surprises me that there's not that much traffic on the 710 freeway. I figured that I can get here in 40 minutes no matter what time I leave my house so I've been getting up a little later. I used to get up at 5:15 but now I'm getting up at 6:30 and I still manage to get here early enough to either take a nap or do other things (like blogging haha). I think I'm super awake today because I took a Sudafed and a Claritin. I've been super congested with a runny and stuffy nose so I wanted to take some before I got into work. I hate being sick and working in the pharmacy because I think people pretty much expect you to be healthy and so they kind of look at you like you should be staying at home.

A question that my preceptor asked me today was to look up Lysteda (tranexamic acid). Interestingly it's FDA approved indication is Heavy Menstrual Bleeding. Just FYI!

Alrighties guys, I've got to go make my stupid drug charts now lol so that's all for now!

day 8: fell off the horse... again!

But I'm hopping right back on! lol. I can't believe this weekend passed by so fast! I'm sure having to work 9-5 on a Saturday doesn't help haha. Hmmm... so where did I last leave off... ah yes, my uneventful Friday leading to my very eventful Saturday :).

day 8: first disneyland trip of the year!
So this year has been a big cell phone alarm fail (it was really negligence on my part :/)! On Saturday I was supposed to go through all this HIV/AIDS stuff with my preceptor but I got super duper sleepy at night on Friday so I told myself that I would wake up earlier and then go over the stuff so I would be prepared. I really don't know why I do this because I pretty much know for a fact that I'll snooze away and just wake up at the regular time to get to work lol. Anyways, so I had to work on Saturday at 9am so I set my alarm at 7:15. I wake up naturally at 7:50 and I'm thinking "well that was a decent amount of sleep and I still have some time since my alarm clock hasn't rang yet..." *takes a look at phone and sees that it's way past 7:15 and jumps out of bed*. I was thinking "what the freak happened?!" and then I realized that I had set my weekday alarm for 7:15 and being that SATURDAY is NOT a weekday, the alarm didn't ring. I am just so S-M-R-T smart! Second time this has happened! Maybe I should just make all my alarms daily instead of on the weekdays.

Anyways, I finally make it out of my house and thank goodness the 10 and 710 freeways were completely clear. I was about 5 minutes away with 10 minutes left until 9am when BAM! they closed off the exit to Downtown Long Beach so they made everyone exit off of Anaheim St. Keep in mind I am not at all familiar with the Long Beach area so all I do is head towards the "Downtown Long Beach" exit off the 710. So I manage to find my way and I'm 10 minutes late. Fortunately, my preceptor was cool and didn't make a big deal. AND he ended up letting me leave an hour early since we were done discussing the HIV/AIDS stuff. I think I definitely need to take things up a notch when it comes to drug knowledge. Example... he was telling me that I need to make drug charts for the NRTIs and NNRTIs for next week and know the drugs so we can discuss next Friday. He was saying that if I wanted to get ahead, I could also do PIs and the other random drugs like Selzentry, Fuzion, Isentress... and being the dumb ass that I am, I was like, "What about maraviroc?" and he says "That's Selzentry..." lol. Another question that I totally aced... "So what's a normal CD4 T-cell count?" My answer: "Well, I don't know what's normal but I do know at what CD4 count we should start therapy lol *with the biggest smile on my face like this =D*.

So after work I headed home to drop off some stuff and then I headed to Disneyland! Yay! They removed the California letter outside of CA Adventures!!! :( Good thing I already have all my California pictures :). So my first objective was to find food lol. I wanted to get the BBQ Chicken Pizza that they have near Mulholland Madness but they're CLOSED!! To make matters worse, Toy Story Mania was CLOSED! arg! Toy Story Mania happens to be my favorite ride at Disneyland :). So to make myself feel better, I got myself a churro :) hehe.

We're making our way back to the front of the park when we decide to go on Soarin' (another one of my favorite rides except I never go on it because the wait is usually super long or it's broken). The wait was actually only 25 minutes! While we were in line, we were making plans to meet up with our other friends Pearl & Alfred. So Tony calls Alfred and they were trying to figure out a place to meet. After he hangs up, I ask him what's the plan and he's like "oh, they're saving a spot for us in line for Tower of Terror". I definitely felt palpitations at that point lol. There are 2 rides at Disneyland I absolutely refuse to go on: Tower of Terror and Splash Mountain (call these absolute contraindications if you will haha for my pharmacy fellows :)). I absolutely HATE drops. My friends joke all that time that they are going to blindfold me and sedate me to go on those two rides one day... NEVER!! lol.... never say never haha =P. Anyways, he keeps trying to convince me to go on Tower... (example: "don't worry they only drop you once..." lies lol). This lady in line even tells me "It's just a little butt lift.." haha. I spend my time half concentrating on reasoning why I am not going on the ride to thinking of an escape route (... I can get to the part where they seat everyone and then say "oh yeah, I have a heart condition..."). So about 15 minutes of me freaking out goes by and then he finally tells me that originally Alfred said that they would wait in line for us at Tower of Terror but he heard Pearl in the background saying "Nooooooooooo!!!!" lol. They were actually waiting for us at the drawing studio thank goodness!

After Soarin' we headed over to the drawing studio and ended up drawing Jack Skellington! My comprehension skills have clearly gone down the drain because the lady tells us to start with a circle about the size of an orange. Being the rebel (or dumb ass) that I am, I drew a circle a little bigger than a dollar coin! So that after we were done with our drawings she asked us to show her what they looked like and she's like "Looks like we've got a lot of good drawings here... we've got some jumbo jacks... *takes a look at my Jack drawing* and some small Jacks too!" bahahahaha. Here's what my drawing looked like (don't laugh at my horrid drawing skills lol):

After finishing up with the drawing, we went to check out elecTRONica. It was really hilarious watching the kiddies dance haha. Although I have to admit the beats were pretty good and it did make me want to shake my booty just a bit... (it'll be our little secret haha).

Oh boy... this post is taking much longer than I'd like =X and I'm so freakin' congested right now so methinks I'll be going to bed. Just wanted ya'lls to know I was still alive and wasn't killed this weekend =P.

Have a Happy Monday!

day 7: TGIF

Hope everyone is having/had a fantabulous Friday! I spent most of mine sleeping in (11am baby!) and studying (poopities). Today was pretty uneventful so I'll talk about my work day from yesterday.

This RiteAid apparently gets their orders on Thursdays and so I helped put the order away yesterday. It was maybe 8pm (I had to work 1-9:30pm...) and I was talking to one of the technicians (she is really amazing at her job) and she told me that the pharmacy used to be a morgue. I guess there was a hospital at this location before they made it a RiteAid and where the pharmacy sits is where the morgue used to be... I was like great! I just LOVE scary movies and being scared *sarcasm*. And I have to work a few night shifts too :(.

Things I've been asked by my preceptor so far:

1. What is galantamine used for and what is it derived from?
• It's for Alzheimer's Disease and it's derived from a plant. (I originally said flower haha. Close enough right? :))
2. Give me some of the really bad things about Amiodarone.

• It turns you into a smurf (blue) because of the iodine. (I actually learned about this from a drug rep for that new drug that me and Tanya thought was a misspelling of amiodarone, dronedarone (Multaq) hahaha. That's one of their advantages.)
• You need an annual eye exam because it causes corneal deposits.
• It's pro-arrhythmic meaning it causes arrhythmias. 
• Its also hepatotoxic and also has pulmonary toxicity.
• When given with warfarin, you need to monitor INR. Most likely you'll need to decrease the dose by 40%. 

I was reading my subscriptions and saw this. Thought it was pretty awesome haha. I want to make one for my TV now :).

Here's my really random current playlist :). Enjoy!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

day 6: sleeping in

So my preceptor is working the late shift today which means I am also working the late shift :/. I used to love working 1-10 because it's less busy at night and you get to wind down. Let's hope its the same for this store. The silver lining is that at least I got to sleep in this morning :).

Anyways, I was trying to catch up on my blog reading (over the break I went a little crazy from all the boredom and subscribed to a bajillion blogs and now my google reader has 32 new posts I need to read :/), and I came across this post. I think it's a fantastic post haha. Maybe it's not that hard to figure the male species out after all? lol.

I have to get going... and may not be able to post tonight depending on how tired I am but at least I get tomorrow off! Although it'll probably be spent reading my HIV/AIDS guidelines since I have to discuss and be tested on it on Saturday (blech!).

Until then, its almost been a week since the new year! Hope everyone's been keeping up with whatever new years resolutions they made!

Good day mates!

day 4/5: gahhhh I already missed a day :(

So I missed a day already :( lol. But the really important thing we learn throughout teaching smoking cessation lessons is that sometimes you fall off the horse, but the important thing is that you get right back on! I've been using this for everything! Last year I made a conscious effort to start flossing (bad teeth run in my family) and sometimes I'd forget (or "forget") but then the next day is a new day and you just gotta doo it!

So before I forget, I was watching the Katy Perry special on Monday night and one thing she said really stuck with me. She said,

"Sometimes the things you want to happen in your life don't happen on your schedule because it's all about timing."

I feel like its a really positive statement and a really positive way of looking at things. Anyways, I think I've got some explaining to do right? Here goes..

day 4 - light at the end of the tunnel
So I my preceptor told me to come in at 9am today which means extra hour of sleep right? Wrong. LA traffic is all about timing. You leave 15 minutes later? BAM! You're stuck in maybe 30 minutes to 1 hour more of traffic. So instead of leaving at 7:30 to get to my rotation site by 9, I got up at 5:30, got to my site by 7:10 and just slept in my car until 9 lol. I've got a blanket and pillow in my car now so it looks like someone is literally living in my car.

So I get in and once again I'm a filling automaton with no idea how to work the computer and because of that I feel like I shouldn't even attempt to answer the phones! What am I supposed to say "Hi, please hold on for someone that can actually help you 'cause I'm just incompetent". It's weird. I need someone to lay down the ground rules you know?

I get out around 5:30 and it's seriously pitch black outside. The drive on the 710 is great until the dreaded 10 interchange. There has to be a way to make that thing better isn't there?! But I make it to the interchange in less than 30 minutes but from there, it literally took me an hour to get to my house. I want to say it's about 6 or 7 miles. Freakin ridiculous!

So I got home and thank goodness my mom bought food for me! Yes, I'm spoiled now haha. I actually spoke to my mom about this the other day. I was saying how I wasn't spoiled as a kid 'cause they never let me buy anything that I wanted. And so my mom was like "well look at all those pretty dresses we bought for you." and I was like "I hated those dresses! They were so itchy! I mean like toys and stuff." And she was like "well we got you Barbies!" lol. I had TONS of Barbies. I actually stored them in a suitcase haha. Anyways, in the end we both agreed that NOW they spoil me :). I hate to say it but it is very nice =D.

I did get a nice surprise in the mail today! My Ugg wannabees from American Eagle just came in! So warm! I've been wearing them in the house hehe :).

I was supposed to work on my Depression presentation and case presentation for the meeting but I was just a tad... distracted lol. We'll just leave it at that ;). A little mystery never hurt anyone haha.

day 5 - joy to the world
A little late for Christmas you say? Those closest to me will understand why there's a need for celebration hehe.

I woke up around 9 today and managed to crank out both my Depression presentation and my case presentation :). Skills... I know *brushes dirt off shoulders*. Then I headed to Long Beach which was a pretty smooth ride except there were about 10 cops on the 605 giving people speeding tickets. Every time I pass a cop I hope and pray that they don't tag me. The meeting went very well and I did both my presentations EXCEPT for the fact that quizzes are being reinstated *barfs* (Lauren's influence finally kicks in haha... I guess she was the one that started "Yumes" too haha). Oh well, I guess I better get started with that studying for the boards stuff lol

Anyways, as I mentioned earlier I got some Fresh & Easy coupons I want to use so I'm going to head out. I need to make stuff that doesn't need to be heated up because I don't get to eat in the break room and so I don't have access to a microwave :(. I just eat in my car lol. And plus one of my sisters posted this recipe on Facebook and it looks delicious!

Goodnight friends :)

day 3: what a freakin' boner of a day

I don't know how it started but my friend started using the term "boner" to describe events that are total doozies and ever since then, the term caught on and I've been using it ever since. I really don't know why boner would be a bad thing lol but I guess it's more of the sarcasm? Anyway, today was a total boner. First of all, I couldn't sleep ALL FREAKIN NIGHT!!! I think I might've gone to sleep at like 3am. I was basically Chandler from "Friends" all night long... "If I sleep now, I'll get 5 hours of sleep"... "If I sleep now, I'll get 4 hours of sleep"... "If I sleep now, I'll get 3 hours of sleep"...

So I wake up at 5:30 after snoozing for 30 minutes and left my house for Long Beach at 6:10am and got to Long Beach at 6:50am. Then I just debated, read HIV/AIDS guidelines... or play bejeweled... you can just guess which one won lol. After an hour of playing bejeweled (I know... such a hard life... my index finger was tired :P), I finally went in to meet my preceptor. He was really nice, quite funny and he talks to himself a lot haha (I mean I do that all the time being an only child haha). It was like I was doing my community rotation all over again... except more intense because instead of doing around 160 scripts a day at Target, I'm doing 400-500 scripts a day. Thank goodness for "automation" aka "Peggy" or so they call her.

I seriously felt like I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off. The thing about working in a community setting is that everyone has their little quirks and how they like things done. When you're a newbie and especially as an intern, you kind of feel like you have to earn the respects of everyone in the pharmacy. Respect isn't just given to you, you really have to earn it. I feel like a lot of interns walk into the pharmacy with this "holier than thou" attitude. Honestly, pharmacists are nothing without their techs and techs are nothing without their pharmacists. So I finally managed to figure out how to use the freakin phone (I must've made so many mistakes) and called for a few copies and took a few new ones.

So finally in the afternoon after 2 other pharmacists came in there was finally time for my preceptor and I to talk briefly about expectations. I guess he only wants me there when he's there so this week he has Friday off but has to work Saturday so I have to do the same. Total boner right? Really dude? Saturday? I seriously wanted to punch him in the face but hey, my grade depends on me not getting in trouble for punching a preceptor... or possibly just hurting my own hand lol. I've never punched anyone before but I really want to punch someone really really hard just to see what it'd be like lol. Would I even make a dent? haha. Probably not... But yeah... he wants me to make drug charts and read about the virology and epidemiology of HIV/AIDS so that's what I'll probably be doing after work. Thank goodness there was no traffic when I headed home and my mom had bought me some Vietnamese food to eat (yumes!).

Just finished watching the Katy Perry special on E! It was really cute to see her talk about her and Russell. I can't believe she's only 25...

Ooo! I got some coupons for Fresh & Easy! Time to go buy some food for work. Probably going to call it night... I know.. super grandma status but seriously I'm running on 2 hours of sleep.

I'll leave you with the super cute packages from my pharmacy school besties!

pharming besties! :)

thanks for the presents lauren!!

That's all folks. Have a good night!

day 2: stupid alarm clock

Stupid alarm clock... but more like stupid me!! So I have tons of reading to do for my rotation that starts tomorrow and I was going to wake up at the break of dawn (aka 8am) to start reading so that I wouldn't feel as guilty later on when I'm going shopping with Judy (kekeke :)). So I wake up naturally and I'm thinking, "My alarm clock didn't ring yet so it must be 7:30am" and I grab my phone and see that it's 10:35am. I was like ":-O". Por que alarm no ring-o? Did I sleep through 2 alarms (I set one at 7:45 and another at 8)?? So I go to crack down on what the heck happened and realize that both the 7:45 and 8am alarms were for Weekdays Only >:-|. Big fail on my part haha.

Anyways, I can't believe break passed by so fast :(. It will be so hard to get up tomorrow morning... hopefully my preceptor will get that we just had two weeks of break and give me a break? Like a Kit-Kat bar? =D

Have a Happy 2nd Day of the New Year!

day 1: happy new year!

Happy New Year everyone! So one of my New Years Resolutions is to make a post everyday. After having lunch with friends I made my way home from ringing in the new year in Palm Springs. I wanted to leave a little bit earlier to scope out the outlets but they were packed up the wazoo (I guess it's a given being that it's new years but still lol). So I thought "I'll just go to Ontario Mills instead"... fail lol. They were just as packed. So then I was just like screw it and I just drove home. But then I realized that I wanted to get one of those photo memory boxes so I stopped at Ross, Marshalls, and Target. Yet another fail. They had some but not exactly what I've been looking for. I've been trying to organize my bookshelf and I was looking for this very specific drawer letter tray. It looks something like this:

See how they're like drawers? You would think Ikea would have something like this but I haven't been able to find it there. And they are white :). I'm thinking I would probably find it at The Container Store? Help would be greatly appreciated!

Anyways, here's some excerpts from NYE in Palm Springs!

the boys

the girls

 I'm trying to make a list of New Years Resolutions haha. We'll see how many I actually keep :/

Well, that's all for now kiddies. I'm off to organize my life for Monday :(. *sigh* Please let my preceptor be nice!

-j