It's almost December already

This sign appears on the Anschutz Medical Campus between the north and south wings of Education Building 2. I think it's hilarious. Not even the illustrative stick man wants to go see the dentist.

The semester is winding down! We don't have any more academic sessions in Skills. Finals start in like two weeks. Most classes have one exam remaining. There is no class Thursday or Friday. I'm almost certainly going to pass the term.

In fact, I have a good chance to make a 3.5 GPA or higher. That's exciting to me, given the struggles I've shared in this forum. I wonder if this is my own ego talking, or if maybe my readers feel the same way. Almost like, "Aw, look at li'l Buffalo Pharmer... he's come so far!" Well, I think having this outlet has helped, so even if you don't feel like you contributed to my success, you did. Thank you.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It's pretty much the only one that still means what it's supposed to mean. And Labor Day, maybe. But Thanksgiving is, and has always been, a day to get together with family, feast on some fantastic food, and be thankful for all the blessings in your life. Christ is gone from Christmas, and definitely gone from Easter. Memorial Day is a day to get drunk. So is St. Patrick's Day, although that may be more appropriate. Fourth of July? Drinking holiday. New Year's? That shouldn't even be a holiday. I'm still not clear about what we're supposed to celebrate on that one. MLK? Sweet, a day off! Halloween? Let's dress all skanky AND get drunk! You see my point. Thanksgiving remains true to its roots. I like that.

I think that's all I have right now. The Nuggets look pretty good, don't they? Yeah, they do. Thanks for stopping by, and come back soon.

Blogging from class

Hello, faithful reader. I come to you today from room 1102 in the Education 2 North building at the Anschutz Medical Campus. We (well, some of us) are presently listening to a presentation about the Colorado Board of Pharmacy and licensure requirements. This is important for us to know, yes, but that doesn't make it interesting. All week has been like that. Monday: Introduction to the library, learning styles, and a personality inventory. (Free breakfast and lunch, though!) Tuesday: professionalism, pharmacy care, finding your strengths, and teamwork (the "corporate retreat" day), as well as intro to campus services. Wednesday: curriculum-related, extracurriculars fair, and a really good nap (not really). Thursday: clickers, ethics, career pathways, and medical terminology. Friday (today): Half day! I think I'ma take a nap later. Probably not, but it'd be nice.

This week begins the semester-long, non-stop sleep deprivation experiment. That's not 100% true; I get to sleep in on Saturdays and can probably go to bed early on the days I don't work, but I don't have a day off from both work and school until Thanksgiving. I'll let you sit on that for a second. Thanksgiving is 97 days from today, and my last day off was last Thursday (the 13th). So that's 105 days without a break. And I work the day after Thanksgiving, so the break is one day. I feel a little like Superman. I hope I get a prize at the end (other than the Pharm.D.).

So Tuesday is the first class that counts. This week is a course, and I have to pass it to continue into the Pharm.D. program, but it's not really pharmacy-related. 8 a.m. on Tuesday is the first lecture of Pharmacy Law. That should be fun after working all night. If I had to pick one potential problem for this semester it's that combination of working 6-2 Monday night and going to Law Tuesday morning. So if you're awake late Monday night or early Tuesday morning, think of me. And give me a call maybe. I won't be sleeping.

The pharmacy career paths exercise was sort of interesting. It asks you 48 questions like "How important is vacation and time off?" on a scale of 1 to 10, then tells you which areas of pharmacy are the best fit for you. Mine came back pretty high for compounding and clinical pharmacy, which interest me. Compounding is preparation of custom doses, medications with short half-lives, and special dosing methods like lollipops and creams. Doesn't that sound fun? Clinical pharmacy is a specialty field where you generally deal with patients in a hospital and with a specific disease, type of disease, or patient population (such as pediatrics or geriatrics). If I had to pick today, I would specialize in psychiatric pharmaceuticals or in addictions.

I'm not giving up just yet, but it looks like the Cardinals are going to run away with the NL Central and the Giants and Rockies will be the only players in the Wild Card race. If true, it means no playoffs for my precious Cubs. That's OK; they'd have lost in the first round anyway. The Cubs need to work on developing for the future right now; I think this season pointed out how thin they are beyond their top talents. I haven't looked at the free agent crop, but they do have money to spend, so that's one way to get better in a hurry. Time now to focus my fan energy on those lovable Colorado Rockies. A four-game series with the Giants begins tonight, and the Rox find themselves just three and a half games back in their division. A good homestand could put them in place not only for the Wild Card but for the outright division win, something they've never done in their fifteen seasons spent as also-rans (and one as National League champions).

I'm like 98% certain that the logo I used for my picture here is not a copyright infringement. I don't want to step on anybody's intellectual property toes here, so if any of my pictures belong to you and you don't want me using them, just let me know. I'll take them down immediately.

That's all on my end. Thanks for reading, and come back soon.

My adventure in Aurora

I love my new campus.

On Wednesday, I met my wife for lunch and then an old friend for coffee, both in Aurora. We live on the opposite side of Denver, about thirty miles from the CU medical campus, which is close enough not to need to move but far enough that I don't know the area at all. Several of my future classmates have asked where the good places to live are, and I really can't tell them anything. The general buzz is that the area immediately around the campus is not the safest, but that as you move south the neighborhoods get better. So I thought I would travel back home by driving up Peoria, which forms the western boundary of the campus.

I started at Peoria and Parker Road, which is absolutely gorgeous. Heading north on Peoria, the houses are well-maintained, the fences are wooden, the cars parked on the street are newer models, and everything is pretty green. All the way up to Mississippi, things look pretty good. From Mississippi to Alameda, the houses are older and some of the lawns are overgrown. The cars aren't as nice, and some of the fences are crappy chain-links, but it had the feeling of an older neighborhood. I did see kids walking around, which is a good sign, and my thought is that it was still safe enough to live in, just on the bottom end of middle class instead of the top.

At 6th Avenue is beautiful Del Mar Park. It's huge, with a new playground and lots of people recreating. That seems to be the boundary between nice and sketchy. After that park - immediately - the older but still nice houses were replaced with abandoned businesses, empty lots, dilapidated housing, and a general vibe of unease for me. It doesn't get any better until Colfax....

....where the beautiful brick and glass edifice of University Hospital suddenly appears, set against the matching backdrop of all those medical campus building. The other three corners are still run down, and the businesses on the west side of Peoria still make me nervous, but the campus is just perfect. I fell in love with it the first time I saw it, and I still love it. There's also a slowly growing wave of gentrification surrounding the campus. To the north is the apartment complex 21 Fitzsimmons, which is new and literally across the street from the new pharmacy building. If you're looking for a place to live while you go to school, you can't go wrong there (it is expensive, though). I think in about five years all the areas immediately around the campus will be pretty nice.

Anyway, I love the campus, and I can't wait to make it my home away from home over the next three years.

Happy Mother's Day, too! Call your moms.