I turned and snapped this picture on one of our trips to Paradise at Mt Rainier. Mt. Rainier is so huge and powerful, one cannot stand near it without being overwhelmed with God’s glory. His creation is a marvel. Fantastic.
Here is what lay ahead of me…
Life is a journey. Look back and see the beauty of experience, look forward and see the power of what’s to come.
>It’s my last day at the pharmacy. What ever shall I do? I am terrible with goodbyes. No, I am not a big crier, or a gift giver. I am downright weird. With all the emotion of the moment, one would think I would just burst with the weight of it all.
Me? Nope. I freeze. I go blank. I think in my mind, “Hey, I should be streaked with mascara, covered in boog’s , flying through tissues!” It just doesn’t happen. There is a safety protocol that I have running in the back ground that stops all emotional response until I am alone. I drive home, blinded by tears, crying my eyes out.
What is that? Why not share those moments with people I have told all my wacky stories to for years? The ones who have advised me, loved me, have done gift exchanges with me during the holidays? Great people who have loved, lost, (in one case lost everything in a flood!), struggled, and triumphed all while standing with me shoulder to shoulder in the pharmacy. It has truly been a wonderful blessing, and I have grown so very, very much.
It will take some time to remember some aspects of pharmacy fondly. A LONG TIME. Like the lovely folks who come in 3 minutes to close with prescriptions for Percocet, Ambien, Keflex, Diflucan, and some obscure cough syrup that was pulled 25 years ago. Or the husbands that call at closing on Sunday and tell me their wife forgot her meds and it’s a REAL emergency, can we please fill it now? Sure, of course sir, what’s the medication? It’s her birth control.
Or the fine people who can’t seem to EVER figure out how to pay for their meds. They slide their credit card before the register is even open, then when prompted to slide again, they gripe then demand to know if they will be charged twice. (Most could avoid this whole scenario if they just READ the prompts on the machine!!!)
Another fave for me is the person who has to have everything BRAND, because generics give them a rash, a headache, eye twitches, or they just “don’t work”. So we have bottles of Vicodin, and Tenormin just for craps and giggles. To top it all off, most people that demand brand drugs blanch at the sight of the cost, then make us switch it to generic anyway.
I will NEVER miss the addicts. It’s both heartbreaking and infuriating! I feel like a chump! I have heard every excuse in the book. I know my co workers could write a set of encyclopedia’s on this subject.
I know I have barely scratched the surface of a rock the size of El Capitan, but I want today to be bittersweet, not just bitter. Oh, but I have to throw in the customers who yell and scream at the pick up counter that they have NEVER paid that much for a medication (or that ALL their meds are COMPLETELY covered) but then we go back in their profile and look…lo and behold…they’ve paid the same price for MONTHS! One customer picked up a certain medication then when he got home and told his wife what he paid, she picked up the phone and chewed my butt out. It was my fault that they had spent all of their grocery money! She also let me know that WALMART had only charged them four dollars for that medication. After hearing that I was purposefully overcharging poor people, (she was going to bring in a NOTE from WALMART showing what they had paid, and show my store manager!!!!!!!!), I was told that I made too much money and not everyone has a job, she hung up on me.
Sigh.
I called WM. They had been paying the same price over there. (NOT FOUR DOLLARS!!!!) For months.
Double sigh.
Things I will miss:
1. Birthday cakes.
2. Kari’s red hair. I love it!!!!
3. Sheila’s love for her boys, grandkids, and HOT MEN!!!
4. Brenda’s infectious laugh, and sharp wit.
5. Phil’s drugs. (and his sarcasm)
6. Sunday’s with Susan. I could talk to her for hours.
7. Mike’s sweet songs that he sings under his breath on a busy Saturday.
8. Sweet loving Shawna.
9. Justin!
10. Laurie and her soft pretty curls,
11. Shouting at Steve for overrides. His love for puppies.
12. All the other great folks I have worked with, who made work fun. Corrina, Dean, Charity, Reid, Kyla, Megan, Marlee, Dave, Gordon, Judy, the bakery gals, the Starbuck’s gals, the deli gals, checkers-Tina, Tony, Kathy, Ashlee. I’ll miss Phyllis (sp?), Alana, Ralph. I can’t forget Garth, Lana, or Amy.
So many, who have touched my life. I know I will remember more after I post this.
It’s been real. I love you all! XOXOXOXOXOX!
>
Now that we are leaving the great state of Washington, I thought I would put up some cool facts about it. Here’s what I managed to dig up:
1. Washington State is the birthplace of both Jimi Hendrix and Bing Crosby. Jimi was born in Sensational Seattle, Bing in Terrific Tacoma!
2. Mt Rainier (my favorite Mt.) boasts Washington’s highest point. Its namesake is Peter Rainier. He was a British soldier who fought against the Americans in the Revolutionary war. (There went my theory that it was after Prince Rainier of Monaco.) (I kid, I kid.)
3. The state insect is the Green Darner Dragonfly.
4. An Olympia Dairy Queen had the world’s first soft serve ice cream machine. ( So they claim!)
5. The city of Tumwater was the first settlement in Washington. It was then known as New Market.
6. November 11, 1889 (oops! Happy Belated Birthday!)- Washington becomes the 42 state of this greatest nation of God’s green earth!
7. Washington is one of seven states without an income tax.
8. The oldest yet still operational gas station is in Zillah, Washington.
9. “The State Flower is Mildew” (Overheard)
10. Washington is the only state named after a United States President. You can Google it to find out who.
It was really hard not to put some super snarky ones in there. My restraint amazes me. Okay, okay here is one I found that just tickled me:
“Washington is home to the only rainforests in the US. Sadly, these rainforests contain nothing but wet trees, and don’t meet the minimum requirements for malaria and naked savages that would make environmentalists give a crap about them.”
PharmGirl Follies 