weekend

Well folks, it is officially the weekend.  Quite a Friday had to be overcome to get here but here we are none the less.  At work today I had to go to a immunization competency because it totally makes sense for an ICU pharmacist who has absolutely no desire to immunize people not given an immunization in over 2 years to be giving vaccines when you work in a hospital with a thousand nurses who give injections all the time.  I mean, I get it, our department can vaccinate themselves and not put the burden on the RNs, fine.  But we are also expected to "vaccinize" (one of the pharm residents made this word up today - I think she is working too hard) other departments and also some patients during flu clinics... I am going to actively avoid this like the plague.  On the plus side, the competency involved giving each other injections so I officially have my flu shot earlier this year than ever before :-)

In other news, B is on his way to Las Vegas now for his bachelor party.  He is one lucky guy :-)  I am happy for him, I know he will have a good time.  On the negative side, I am here alone this weekend and will probably feel compelled to clean the condo.  Good for sanitary purposes but not really that fun...  I will probably have to make up for it by sleeping in ridiculously late tomorrow :-)

Last weekend B was off and we had a fun weekend.  Sunday we went to an apple orchard because I really wanted honeycrisp apples and the store hasn't had any.  I thought up the plan before I looked for where the orchards might be so we ended up driving about 2 hours round trip to get to the orchard but we did get apples and we also got some apple butter, apple bbq sauce, and an apple pie!  It was a really nice day weather wise so that was lovely.

Ok, well, I think that is all for now... Thanks for reading happy people :-)

later

Blog re-invented

That's right happy readers, residency is over and as such this blog needed a shift.  As you may know, B and I are getting married in just about 8 weeks and recently moved to Massachusetts from our homes in the Midwest.  It has been quite a journey so far with both of us taking and passing the MA law exam, starting new jobs, putting together "our first place", and generally adjusting to life together as real people.

MA is pretty cool it seems.  We are living in the suburbs but have been into Boston several times even making a trip to Fenway when the white sox were in town.  Driving has been an interesting challenge here primarily due to the much larger number of people on the roads but also due to the fact that after the road crews do work on the roads the white lines that separate the lanes aren't painted back on with any level of consistency.  It can be challenging to decide if a road is one lane or two especially when it seems to change with the flow of traffic.  When busier, the road is two lanes but when fewer cars are on the road or when a little older lady (typically driving a Buick or Oldsmobile) decides to drive right in the middle, then the road is one lane.  This one vs two lane scenario typically changes at least once per commute.  Despite these oddities, B and I are successfully navigating the burbs thus far. :-)

Other fun things about MA:

1. Seafood - B and I have had multiple opportunities for great fresh seafood both at restaurants and at home.  We found a great place called Joe Fish that has lobster bisque worthy of a Nobel peace prize for awesomeness and we found out that our local grocery store will steam lobsters to order for a very low price.  B and I made lobster rolls for less than $10 the other day and it was amazing.

2. My friend K - she moved here a couple years ago and lives outside of the city - I have gotten to hang out with her a couple times and she has been super helpful with adjusting to New England living

3. Our condo - B and I got really lucky in finding this place.  It is convenient to both of our jobs and it is massive and beautiful for a rental.  We have recently been hanging our wall decor and gotten window treatments for the living room which is making it look more homey.  We are excited to hopefully have our friends and family visit in the not too distant future :-)

4. Living together - B and I have not spent much time actually living in the same city in the 3+ years we've been dating.  For the most part we have been spending our time traveling to see each other in weekends/time off and that gave us the perspective to really appreciate what we have now.

Alright, I think that's enough posting for now.  Happy hump day everybody :-)

goodnight folks

Residency complete

yup, you heard it hear (probably not first but maybe) - I have finished my PGY2 and am no longer resident Nikita but clinical specialist Nikita... I am so absolutely terrible at blogging that I don't even know where to start on what has happened since my last post so I will just go in chronological order

February/March - interviewed for jobs
March 21st, 2013 - B proposed and I said yes :-)
Later in March - accepted a position as a SICU clinical pharmacy specialist at a hospital in Burlington, MA (outside of Boston)
April-June - finished up residency and wedding planned because we are getting married in October :-)
June 29th - moved out of Ohio and back to Bloomington with B
July so far- went to B's family reunion in WA, made about a thousand decisions regarding wedding stuff, packed a lot to prepare for move to MA, worked on getting licensed in MA, tried not to stress about moving across the country :-)

Overall I am really happy with where life has taken me at this point.  I am ecstatic to be marrying B and am really happy to be starting our life together.  I have also realized that I may need a new blog title... I'll work on that :-)

growing up

growing up is hard work... I've been very busy lately trying to continue being successful on rotations, finish my data collection, work on my delirium project, and... oh yeah... GET A JOB! And not just any job, but a job that:
1. makes me happy
2. is in a location that works for B and I

I know, a list of 2 things is likely superflous and could just be listed in sentence form but in my mind those two things look more like this:

1. makes me happy
     a. challenges me
     b. has co-workers I'll enjoy
     c. won't totally overwhelm me
     d. will add to my accomplishments and serve as a stepping stone if I choose to move on
     e. won't make me work as much as I do as a resident
2. is in a location that works for B and I
     a. has CVS options for B
     b. is not in the top 100 worst cities in america
     c. is not terribly far from our families
     d. is somewhere we actually would enjoy living

and there are probably more letter options under each of those or at least it seems like it in my brain...

Anyway, life is interesting and busy and I can't wait to see what the next big adventure is going to be with B.  Wish us luck :-)

I don't always blog -- but when I do I like to blog about ridiculous trips to the post office

Right, so I was in Vegas last week from Saturday to Wednesday and during that time not one but TWO postal workers brought a package to my apartment and tried to deliver it -- neither of those kind people decided to take said package to the leasing office when I didn't answer the door and instead left me a little note saying that the package would be at the post office.  Now, this probably seems rational to you doesn't it readers?  That is because you are missing the one critical piece of information that the post office has NEVER DONE THAT BEFORE... they always leave the packages at the office... or outside my door... now, this is only the beginning friends

I decided on Thursday to go to the post office and pick up my package b/c it was a present for B and I wanted to bring it with me when I came to visit him this weekend... and that is where the real fun starts -- I had called the post office and, because I am the most unlucky person ever, the package was sitting at the post office with the most restrictive hours in the world city.  The little card said they were open until 5:30pm but when I called they said oh no, we are only open until 4:30 now because we want to make your life miserable and we just haven't changed it on the forms.  Right, ok... whatever.  I didn't need to stay at work past 4pm anyway... So I leave at 4pm and drive over to the post office thinking I'll get in right before they close and get my package quickly and get home... and that is exactly what didn't happen.

As I walked up to the post office I could see that there were about 15 people in a waiting area that was no larger than 12x8 feet... as I got into line I could hear the first lady talking to the mail lady about how "someone" kept getting her address wrong" on all her mail... as if it were the mail lady's personal fault that this was occurring... and then she just stared at the lady who stared blindly back at her as if to say "what the crap do you want me to do about that"... she eventually got stabbed taken care of, I assume, since I got distracted by the next guy in line who went to the other window -- he was a special kind of crazy.  He was holding maybe 10-12 manilla envelopes and asked the guy if he could get them weighed so he would know how many stamps to put on them... the guy weighs one and tells him the postage is $1.95 stamps and then the guys says -- "it's a good thing I didn't do what I was going to do"  ::long silence:: post office guy: "what was that"; envelope guy: "put two stamps on it and cross my fingers" <<insert most obnoxious and painful laugh/cackle/ridiculousness known to man>>

At this point I looked to the heavens to ask what fresh hell I was being put through and why... Suddenly however, I was distracted yet again by a woman asking about postage on her 7+ manilla envelopes as well as her spawn with neon green hair... the post office lady told her that it was between 2 and 3 stamps and that she could either put two on and they would charge her the difference or she could put three on and be over by a little (she was holding a book of stamps out in front of her like a shield) and then this moron kind person spent no less than 45 seconds deciding whether to put 2 or 3 stamps on the envelopes... I couldn't make this crap up

Finally I get to the counter and get my package and go to head out to my car and as I'm putting it in the passenger side along with my purse I see a car in my peripheral vision obnoxiously creeping into my personal pedestrian space waiting to park in the spot IMMEDIATELY next to mine despite the fact that there were NO LESS than 10 other parking spots within my immediate viewing area... to top it off, this asshat was wearing headphones -- while DRIVING... at that I got in my car and got home quickly so that no more stupidity could infiltrate my evening...

Ok, that is all.  I hope this was at least mildly entertaining :-)

mantra reclaimed

Reading through some old blog posts and came across what I, at the time, dubbed to be my mantra -- I think I have changed/grown throughout the past year and I think my alteration of said mantra would be this: I am capable, I am growing, I will work to see each day as an opportunity rather than an obstacle

I have blogged before about how I feel like my whole life I've been waiting on the next thing and even though I am getting to a point in my life where I've gone through many of the these landmark things I still find myself seeing this year as an obstacle to my future happiness, a hill that I just have to get over to get to the fun part on the other side -- now, in some ways this is true since I did kind of have to put my life on hold to move here and complete my training but at the same time, I have felt recently that I am just unhappy and I think it stems from the fact that I go to work everyday thinking about what I "have" to do and not what I have the opportunity to do.

Now, those of you who know me may be thinking that I've had a stroke or been abducted by aliens or something of that nature but I haven't :-)  Also, I'm not saying that I'm suddenly going to become ecstatic about living away from all my friends/family and B but I just feel like I have to put an end to this cycle of my going into work Monday with a negative opinion of things that only gets worse as the week wears on.  And maybe some of this stems from the fact that tomorrow will be day 1 of 18 and I just don't think I can face 18 days of being angry with my life... and maybe I am trying to have a more positive outlook because B is coming in a couple of days and I want to be happy while he's here... I don't know, but I do know that I want to try to just be content for the next 244 days.  And I want to be productive.

On that note, I'll go try to get my handout ready for my topic discussion tomorrow... wah wah...

Happy Halloween Week kiddies :-)

lyrics

and I have to speculate
that God himself did make us
into corresponding shapes
like puzzle pieces from the clay

and true it may seem like a stretch
but it's thoughts like this that catch
my troubled head when you're away
when I am missing you to death

Iron & Wine
Such Great Heights

I love this song.  Period.