Hello 2008!

Wow! It has been forever since I posted something on here. I haven't had much positive news, or so I thought. So I have avoided being a negative Nellie. Until now, my cup runneth over.

The beginning of the new year is also known to those of us in the retail pharmacy business as HELL ON EARTH. It has been 16 days of.... I've never paid that much EVER! Why did my co pay go up? DEDUCTIBLE? What do you mean DEDUCTIBLE? Why isn't it four dollars? Aren't ALL Generics $4? At Wal-Mart they are. No I don't have a new insurance card. We get this ALL DAY EVERY DAY. On top of that I had a pharmacist quit two weeks before Christmas and he gave me exactly two weeks notice. If any PharmD candidates are reading this, it is NOT professional courtesy in our profession to give two weeks notice. Your employer will not place an ad, conduct interviews, get someone hired, AND train them in two weeks. Professional courtesy is 4 weeks, nothing less. This is important information and it might just save your life one day. I really did want to squeeze the life out of him with my bare hands. No worries though, he went to Walgreens, and I hear they hire anyone with a pulse and a license.

Now we were able to get some part time pharmacists hired. It is far from perfect because they are still learning our system. I can say this though, things are so much improved from where we were the past two years. Night and day. And 2008 is only going to get better.

I did make a few resolutions this year. I always hesitate to get too crazy with New years Resolutions. Sometimes I think its just setting ourselves up for failure. So far so good though. So here is my failure....err resolution list.

Work out consistently. Nothing is worse than working out for a few months and then stopping. The pain your body goes through. Every time I'm berating myself for the pain I'm in.

Tying in with working out more is eating less fast food and losing some weight. This requires me to be organized and actually put something together and take to work.

Drinking less. This is tough to do during Shuffleboard season. I know I can hear some of you laughing. But really, shuffleboard does require a frosty beverage. We have two more weeks left. Work can leave me very very frazzled and I need to have a better outlet for my stress than meeting up with everyone at the bar. Not that I don't enjoy that, I enjoy it too much.

Doing better with financial planning. I bought Microsoft money and I'm totally organized at this point. I received my year end credit card statement and it is scary the amount of money I spent on complete crap. My credit cards will be paid off in three months and I am going to attempt to keep them at zero balances for the rest of the year. Remember the word failure.

Getting up earlier in the morning. This is going to be the toughest of them all. Those who know me well know I love my sleep. It might be my favorite part of the day. I'm not a happy camper in the mornings. Unless of course you're Ellie. Then I'm the worlds best snuggler. And how can I be angry with a wagging tail while she's still laying down looking at me.

So now that I have put all of this in writing I hope my chances for success with be higher.

Von Maur Re Opens

Von Maur reopened yesterday, fifteen days after the deadly shooting spree. I was a bit surprised they re opened before Christmas but I am glad to see them trying to move forward. I was thrilled to see so many people turned out to show their support. I can't imagine how incredibly difficult it must be for those store employees to return to work. In this day and age of news broadcasting its incredibly easy to get sensory overload on these kinds of events. The chilling 911 calls with sounds of gunfire in the background, the images of people fleeing the store. All of these things make it that much more difficult. I plan on going to Westroads and Von Maur today. I haven't been to the mall since this happened. I need to go there to support those employees and I need to do it for myself. We can't let some deranged madman define how we live. Thanks for all the kind words for those of you who called, emailed, or left comments here.

Lost returns Jauary 31st 2008!

Check out the latest gem from over at DarkUFO.....



Holy hell this looks good! You should also head over to the trailer section of Dark's website to check out the mobisodes. The mobisode Room 23 definitely made my jaw drop.

Trans Siberian Orchestra rocks out to Carl Orff!

Trans Siberian Orchestra, can I hear a huge whoo hoo? I LOVE LOVE his work. Here are clips for the highlight of my night at this show. Very similar performance in Omaha. I will post more on my craptastic day and a review of this week later! At least I had a blast with Josh and Angie at the show! Enjoy!




And one more with a little bit more detail and better sound. Can't see the light show as well though.



And for Angie, b/c the girl next to her had ear plugs in AND covered her ears. And still no signs of life, even through this song.



Finally, any band that rocks out with a bitchin hot pink electric violin is good by me. Check out Anna Phoebe.

Westroads Shooting

I am completely stunned and freaked out. You never ever imagine this kind of thing happening in your town. Westroads is two minutes from my house. I'm there all the time. Totally random violence. And some of these reporters need to take some sensitivity training. Yes, ask someone who just witnessed multiple people getting shot and killed if they can make any sense of the situation while she's sobbing.

Christmas came early this year

A warm welcome back to Nebraska for the Pelini family! I can't believe in all the excitement the past few days I forgot to post about the biggest story of them all!


From the Omaha World Herald,




Go Big RED!

Showtime

If you aren't watching any of the Showtime original series...........stop what you are doing and get your hands on some of these episodes! Itunes, amazonUnBox, or get a subscription. I don't watch a damn thing on Cinemax and HBO has left me longing for more lately. I am completely hooked on Weeds, Brotherhood, and Dexter. Dexter has me on the edge of my seat every Sunday! I was hesitant to see Michael C. Hall after Six Feet Under, but he is doing an amazing job as Dexter Morgan. Brotherhood is everything the Soprano's should have been. And the entire cast is amazing! I have only seen a handful of episodes from the Tudors but I plan to catch up this spring. Last but not least it is great to see David Duchovny back! Californication had me busting a gut on more than one occasion. And to top things off the ad's are freaking brilliant.

Check it out, the best shit on television. Warning, strong language and adult situations ahead!

Odds and Ends

First, I am getting my Christmas decorations up today. No ifs ands or buts about it. Last year I don't think I got around to putting the tree up until half way through December.

Ellie and I are getting ready to go for a walk. We both slept in today and she is napping again. Long week for both of us.

I have my last flu shot clinic today. Whew! That was a looooooooong stretch. I received a great compliment this week from one of our long standing customers. She said that things run so much better when I'm back. She also mentioned that it was good to see someone who wasn't frazzled back there. She's right. We have to set the tone and people feed off that tone. If I'm stressed it trickles down to everyone else. Now that's not to say I don't cuss like a sailor under my breath to help keep my calm cool and collected appearance in check. One of our employee's once said they thought my boss and I strive on chaos. She re enforces our answer, we don't strive on it, we just deal with it really well. Retail pharmacy is a lot of things but predictable isn't one of them.

Earlier this week I called one of our customers to remind him he had a medicine ready to be picked up. He's 98. When I called he said, "Hey baby whats going on at the pharmacy" This is also the same man who told me I needed to wear more make up at work so I could find a man. I responded that I didn't' think my boss would think to0 highly of me trying to pick up men at work. He said he'd call him up and get it okay'd. LOL! He also said not to worry all the good looking girls find rich men and I had no need to worry. Oh he is a hoot.

Yesterday, another one of our customers was moved to hospice care. I almost cried. She called me on Wednesday night to get a script filled for her husband. She's worried about who will take care of his meds while she's gone. They've been married over 60 years. I can't even imagine. She's finally to the point where he can't take care of her anymore. I told her to write my number down on a card and to call if she needed to talk. "Oh I don't need a card I have it in my head" She usually calls at least once a day. Easily the lowest point of the week for me.


Finally, I give you something from my childhood. Minden, NE the Christmas City. Check out the link. I have some memories of freezing my ass off out there watching the pageant. I had no idea the court house was listed on the National Register of Historical Places.

It's going to be a long work weekend and Monday is definitley going to suck. So I hope everyone has a great weekend. Think of me working away.

In other news.....

Barry Bonds is indicted. Holy mamma! Five charges carrying a total of 30 years in prison and a 1 million dollar fine. Looks like whether or not the ball ends up in the Hall of Fame with an asterisk is the least of his concerns right now.

A-Rod resigns with the Yankees. Blah, blah, blah! I'm still looking for the right words to fully encompass my disgust for him.

Arizona upsets Oregon. The fans stormed the field. It was crazy and looked like one helluva good time. I had so hoped our Huskers would have one of those moments this year.

Dear, dear Katy how I have missed thee!

First things first. WARNING! Strong language and adult situations contained in the following video link. Put the ear muffs on the kids and make sure you have the volume turned waaaaay down if you are listening in at work. Now on to the juicy stuff.

Its no secret that Nebraska fans have been suffering through one of the worst seasons in recent memory. Hell, in my lifetime. The debacle two weeks ago that was supposed to be KU vs NU will unfortunately leave a bad taste in my mouth until the day I die. The video here is made by a Jay Hawk fan and one of the main stars is a very dear friend from high school. Oh the trouble Katy and I managed to get ourselves into. We played competitive softball together and traveled across many states and pissed off many. She was the queen of talking shit from right field to the opposing teams bench and then yelling at me playing second base "ain't that right seven" Its easier to run your mouth when you can't see the whites of their eyes. Although, with Katy it wouldn't have made much difference. There were even a couple fights and an issue with a girl using her cleats inappropriately while sliding into second. And one time I had the unfortunate luck of being the recipient of a kick to the nose meant for her sister. Oh good times.

Katie and I have lost touch over the years so this video totally came out of the blue. My brother heard a clip from the video on unsportsmanlike conduct yesterday. So without more reminiscing and warm fuzzies from the early nineties I give you this gem. And people thought I handled the loss badly. Way to represent NPHS class of '94 Katy. And to all you men out there, I have no idea who Nikki is. Apparently, she did her part that day.

Hey Andy

I know you don't read anything on here. Thanks for being paranoid for me.

I still love you though.

Bambinos

Seven.............to two. Chris and I finally showed up.



Whoo!