notageek

“It seems bizarre to me that anyone would design an appliance that sounds like it has indigestion when it’s functioning properly.”

All hail the coffee-maker!

What I did not say to a patient today:

Should I hang up now, or would you like to continue insulting me?

What I did say to a co-worker today:

You should have contacted the doctor for X. You should have documented Y. Z is a transfer patient, we need to retain him, and to do that we need to maintain a high quality of service.

Both calls were unpleasant. All the younger versions of me seriously overrated this grown-up thing.

One summer at $Chain_Drugstore, I rang up a Spanish-speaking woman and counseled her clumsily in Spanish. This endeared me enough to her that she transferred all her husband’s prescriptions and wanted to chat next time she came in. Specifically, how many children did I have? None? When I explained that I have a husband but no children yet, her face relaxed.

This spring, in the midst of a rotation at $Big_Hospital, I was cooing and making faces over a Somali baby, when his mother asked how many I have. She has, well, more than five, and she knit her eyebrows when I didn’t immediately come out with a number.

“Boyfriend?” No, I explained, I have a husband. I am just still in school. She grinned. “In my country, no boyfriend, no girlfriend. Better. Good to be married.”
Secretly, I am heartened to know there is a worldwide stratum of busybodies who are looking out for me. Just don’t tell them, or I’ll never hear the end of “WHEN YOU HAVE BABY?” in any language.

This is the first week of the rest of my life. My license is activated, I’ve pulled my first few shifts as a staff pharmacist, and it’s all far, far better than I had feared.

Actually, it’s as good as I had hoped. I jumped ship on the contract I signed with $Local_Chain before it became valid (i.e. before I got licensed), and I’m working at a pharmacy where I did one of my rotations. The front end and the tech adore me, I get to compound again, my manager is sane and I can walk to work.

Also, there’s a yarn shop upstairs.

You can release my license from “pending” any minute now.
Not that I am entering my name into the online credential check every 2 hours or so, or anything of the sort.