So, what do you do?

Somewhere along the line, this blog became more or less a weekly column. I kind of like having that format attached to it. Let's make it official. Sunday night is now my official weekly post night. I might still throw in a bonus once in a while, but I'll make a commitment to you, my faithful reader: If you come by Monday morning, I'll have something new for you.

From time to time I have special moments with my son that catch me totally by surprise. It's usually witnessing a developmental milestone, like the first time he called me "Daddy." I'm still not convinced he really knows what that means, since he walks around the house saying "daddy, daddy!" to nobody in particular, but that was one of those times when I felt so happy to be a dad, and so totally in love with my little boy. A couple of months ago, when he was sick and we were in the waiting room at the doctor's office, we read a book together and he pointed out all the round objects in the pictures ("Ball! Ball!"). That was another one. This afternoon as I was leaving for work, I crouched down and spread my arms for a hug. I do this a lot. I say, "Hug?" and Xander looks at me and then goes wandering off after a ball or some crumbs on the kitchen floor. But not today. Today he walked right into my open arms and I gave him a big hug. Then when I let him go, he said, "Bye!" I probably could have cried, I was so happy.

I need these moments in my life to remind me of the reason I'm doing all the crazy work and school stuff I'm doing. It's not about me any more. I'm working 30+ hours while a full-time, professional student so that some day I won't have to be this busy. I'm doing all this so my son can be raised by his parents, not a nanny or a daycare. If it means I have to go days at a time without seeing them, it will all some day be worth it. Some people have a clear calling for their lives. They want to be pharmacists (or engineers, or astronauts, or presidents) from their early childhoods and never imagine doing something else. These are the people that would do their job even if it didn't pay anything. I admire people like that, but that will never be me. I'm not going to pharmacy school because it fulfills me. I think I'll contribute to society when I'm a pharmacist, and the field interests me, and I feel good about both of those things. I don't expect to have any difficulty doing it for the rest of my life. But if I won the PowerBall tomorrow, I probably wouldn't go on to be a career pharmacist. I'd finish school; I've invested too much time to back out now. I might even practice for a while, to make myself feel like I'd accomplished something. I just don't feel like my career as a pharmacist, or as anything else, will ever define me. Whatever I end up "doing with my life" will be secondary. To me, what I do with my life will be raising my family. That's my number one priority. Pharmacy is a means to that end. It's the best means I can find, because I don't know anybody who pays you to be a dad.

Since I'm hopelessly off on a tangent anyway, I might as well keep going. See, I think our society views work too seriously. One of the first questions you ask somebody when you meet them is, "So, what do you do?" And the answer? I'm an accountant. I work for IBM. I own my own business. I'm a poker dealer.

I don't blame people for asking, or for answering this way, because I do it, too. It's a social value. What you do to earn your living is one of the major characteristics of a person. But maybe it shouldn't be. What do I do? I chase my boy around the house. I play Cribbage and Scrabble with my wife. I love Wii Fit. I write a crappy little blog that so far has made ten dollars from advertisements but that fulfills me ten times more than the job that puts food on my table and a roof over my head. I tip well, I try not to speak negatively about other people, and I go to church every Sunday (even when it means I only get four hours of sleep).

I don't know if I'm trying to say we should change the way we make small talk. We probably shouldn't. Our society isn't based on forming substantial relationships with everyone you meet. What I'm trying to say is that we should stop defining ourselves, and our close friends and family, by how they earn a living. A job is a job. If you're one of the lucky ones who gets paid to do the thing they love the most, good for you. You're still allowed to answer that question with your job title. For the vast majority of us, I think we should change the way we think. My wife hasn't worked since May. When people ask me what she does, I proudly tell them that she's a stay-at-home mom. And I'm not embarassed to say that. I'm jealous of her.

Thanks for stopping by, and I'll see you next week.

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.

I think I figured something out

First, a side note. One of the ads on my facebook Tetris game just now said "Dads get Master's Degree." I thought it would have to suck to share a graduate degree with other dads. Maybe tuition is less that way.

Anyway, the past couple of weeks I've been riding the bus to class a lot and as a result spending more time on campus. Almost magically, my comprehension of course material has gone up concurrently. It's almost like interacting with other students is improving my recollection of the material. Also, I feel more connected to my classmates. So, if you're one of the unfortunate students upon whom I have forced my need to study in a group, I'm sorry. I know that sort of came out of nowhere and without invitation. I appreciate it, though, and I feel confident that I'm going to succeed in pharmacy school for the first time since the semester began.

That's not to say that I had any doubts about passing. In some courses I've felt very good about my progress. This week I feel like I'm getting it all at once. There's no single class that I feel is a weak spot. I don't know whether I'm bound for a 4.0 or anything, but I'm going to do better than just getting by this semester.

I don't have a whole lot else to say at the moment. Maybe over the weekend I can make a longer post. For now, thanks for stopping by, and come back soon.

I miss my family

I miss my family.

I hate to beat this point to death, but I am far too busy. This isn’t what I thought pharmacy school would be like. I don’t know exactly what I was imagining, but involved me working much less and my wife working more. Instead, she’s not working while I’m working too much. In one sense, I’m happy to do this, because it lets her stay home with Xander, and I think that’s important. I don’t want my children to be raised by strangers. But on the other hand, I’m stretched way too thin. I’m exhausted on three or four days of the week, and on the others I’m just trying to catch up on sleep and school work. The thing that’s getting neglected her are my wife and my son.

Wednesday night I came home after not having spent any waking time with my son for three days. Suddenly he’s transformed into a walking, talking, tantrum-throwing toddler. This isn’t the same kid I was playing with even a week ago, and I missed it! Something changed while I was away at class and work, and I’m just worried that so much will change he won’t know who I am. He obviously prefers his mother, which is a pretty normal attachment, but I don’t feel like I’m his parent any more. I miss the days that I would be with him from waking until dinner time when Jaime finally got home from work. I miss taking him to the mall with me and I miss playing Dance Dance Revolution while he watches me and I know I’m missing so much right now that I’ll probably never experience. It makes me cry.

The last time I spent time with my wife without practically falling asleep or biting her head off because I was so exhausted was two weeks ago when a foot of snow closed just about everything in the city for a day and a half. That was a great time, but it was so brief and it only happened because of some lucky and well-timed weather. I hate that I’m doing this to her, and I don’t know what to do about it.

I know this might be a little awkward to read, depending on how well you know me. I’m not writing this to ask for your help, and I’m not trying to get anybody’s pity. I wanted to express these feelings in some way because I don’t have time to talk about it with anyone, and I don’t process my feelings verbally. When I started this blog I thought it would be an outsider’s guide to pharmacy school, but it very rarely is. If anyone’s still reading, I’m sorry, but thank you for sticking around. If you want, you can pray that I’ll have the wisdom to be a better husband and father. If you’re not that kind of person who prays, keep me in your thoughts. And please remember your loved ones. I know they drive us crazy sometimes, but trust me, you’d miss them if they weren’t around.

Thanks for stopping by, and come back soon.

Let me give you a bit of a rant here

I am not getting a pharmaceutical degree.

Increasingly, friends and coworkers and strangers have been asking me how my pharmaceutical studies are going. Let me clear a matter of vocabulary for you all. (Please note: this is not a dig at anybody in particular nor is it a personal attack. If you've been saying "pharmaceuticals" you shouldn't be offended - just keep reading.) I used to just let this go, since I know they're just trying to be interested in what I'm doing and make friendly conversation. But it makes me cringe inside every time I hear it.

Pharmaceutical sciences is a real field. My school offers a PhD program in it. This is the study of drug mechanisms, chemical reactions, kinetics, and so on. It's hard science. The guy behind the counter at Walgreen's does not get this degree. The guy at Pfizer who invents new drugs gets this degree. And I'd rather be the first one than the second. (Another note: I'm not committed to Walgreen's in specific or retail chain pharmacy in general; this is purely an example.) To be explicitly clear, I'm pursuing the Pharm.D. degree, or doctor of pharmacy. I will be a healthcare provider, not a scientist. I study existing drugs, not new ones, and well-established drug classes, not theoretical chemistry. So next time ask me how my pharmacy classes are going. I know it's tempting to adjective-ize (this is a word; look it up) it to pharmaceutical, but it's more appropriate to use the noun as an adjective. It's pharmacy school. Thank you for your time.

New house, new job, same crazy schedule

Well hello there! Let me get you current. We got the house I mentioned last time, and we got it for an even better deal. I can't help but think the hand of God was on this one. I locked my mortgage at the absolute lowest rate available (4.875%, can you believe that?) and then this crazy wrinkle with the appraisal happened. The house listed at 187.5K and we offered 195 with the seller paying 5000 in closing costs (so the actualy price is really 190). That was a payment we could afford, and still 5K less than we were budgeting for. So far so good. We did the inspection, and given that the house was bank-owned it's in great shape (probably better than the one we just sold). Still looking great. Then the appraisal came back at only 180. What? I thought I was getting a good deal, not screwed. Well, you can't get a loan for more than the value of the house, so 195 is now out of the picture. It turns out there was a short sale in the neighborhood for 175, a very comparable house, and the most recent and overpowering comparable the appraiser had to look at. So all he or she could stretch it to was 180. OK, so we went back to the seller and told them the situation. If they wanted to sell to us, it had to be at 180, not 195, or we wouldn't be able to get a loan. And the thing is, no one else would be able to either. They'd have to wait for that short sale to get ouside the six month window that appraisers use and then cross their fingers that the market went up or another comparable sold for more and who knows? Well, they took the sure deal, so we ended up offering high and getting it low. How's that for a deal? And the loan approval went through with no problems. I closed Thursday and we moved in Saturday. Already, Jaime (my wife, if you don't know her) has the house half unpacked. We put in new, stainless steel appliances and a laminate hardwood imitation floor in the dining room and I'm starting to love the house. There's less closet space, but the master bedroom is bigger and the laundry room is on the top floor, which should be very nice. The picture for this entry is our kitchen, pre-appliances. It's the best I have at hand (sorry).

So yesterday I started my new job. It's nothing too exciting; I just moved from one casino to the other. The thing is, business had gotten very slow at the Lodge. In fact, it was so slow that they were cutting schedules like crazy. I, and everyone hired after me, had been sent back to our sister property, the Gilpin. The money isn't in the same category over there. They pool tips which means nobody's working for their own money and the tips in general go down, both in frequency and amount. There was no way I could work there for very long and expect to make my bills. Even if I'd stayed at the Lodge, though, business was so far down that I wouldn't make my bills that way, either. So I bailed. I got hired by Ameristar, the company I used to hate, the looming, 32-story hotel tower that casts a shadow on the whole town (not literally; it's on the northern side of town so it casts its physical shadow on a mountain). I can't say a whole lot about it because I don't fully understand the company's policy on communication via blog about your job, but I like it so far. I made as much last night as I did in my entire week at the Gilpin (I only did one week there before I got out), and if I make that much again tonight my bills are met for the week. They're on the gravy train there right now, which is a place I've been before (last summer and fall at the Lodge), so I'm going to ride that while it lasts. I'm not going to sleep a lot, since they're working everybody 40+ hours per week, but if I can get some solid savings established from here to the end of the year, I think it's worth it. I think.

Side note: How bad does it suck to be a Cleveland sports fan? It's like their sports teams only look at recently fired coaches and managers to fill their vacant positions. I guess you have to get them from somewhere, but isn't there a reason these other teams fired them? Well, at least they have LeBron. And the Big Aristotle. And the Rock'n'Roll hall of fame. And.... Lake Erie?

My final grades in Science Foundations I and Drug Information turned out to be B+ and A-, respectively. I'll take it. Now I get a fresh start on Science Foundations II, which is mostly biochemistry, and I am killing it. No points missed so far, although we haven't had many. We just took our first test and I feel good about it. I may have missed a point or two, but I feel solidly in the A range. The other new course, taking the place of Drug Information, is Public Health and Economics. That should be easy but boring.

I think I'll stop here for now. Thanks for stopping by, and come back soon.

Well this all blew up in a hurry

A lot has happened since I last posted.

We got a house. It's in Thornton, which is closer to several of our friends and also (a little) closer to school for me. It's also not much further from work. It's a great balance, and it's a lot smaller payment than we used to have. That was the entire object of this move, after all. We're getting a nice house of the same size in a good neighborhood for something like $70,000 less than we sold the old one for. And if the real estate market turns around like everyone says it will, that house will go way up in value. So that's all good news.

Now the loan approval is tricky. In the last month we've seen business levels at work drop from near-record highs (largely due to the novelty of 24-hour gaming and higher bet limits) to all-time record lows. My paychecks are half of what they used to be, and still going down. I believe we'll recover, and if we don't I'll find a different job to get the bills paid, but the loan underwriters may not agree with me. So at this point I feel like I'm holding my breath and hoping. I should find out at some point this week, which is good, since we have to be out of our house by the 26th. (If you live in Denver and want to help me move, that'll be the morning of the 24th.)

Yesterday I took the last exam in Science Foundations I. That class is done. I will pass it, although not with an A. That's OK. Your GPA doesn't show up on your pharmacy license. I'm thinking I'll probably have a B in the course. It feels good to have finished something already. That was quick, wasn't it? Tomorrow is the final exam for Principles of Drug Information. I've already earned a C in that class (if I skip the final) so no worries there. The potential sad news is that we could lose people from our class this week. Actually, I think they let you finish the semester first, but you can't continue in the curriculum if you have one F or two Ds, or a GPA below 2.0. So anyone who fails one of those classes, or gets a D in each of them, it's no more pharmacy school for that student. I don't want to see my class shrink. We've already dropped from 161 to 158 students (I don't really know what happened to those three, but they were gone after the first week - probably accepted somewhere else or realized that pharmacy school wasn't the way for them) and I know we'll lose some more along the way, but it still breaks my heart to see someone put in that much work (and tuition money!) just to fail out.

The ethics committee met for the first time last week. I can't discuss anything that was said in the meeting, but it looks like it's going to be a busy year for us. I dig it.

How about those Bears? That week 1 loss was a little bit of a fluke there, but JAY CUTLER is lighting it up. Now imagine what he could do if he had some real receivers! Maybe the Bears can sign Brandon Marshall in the off season, or trade for Calvin Johnson.

It was cool to see the Rockies make the playoffs. It was heartbreaking to see No-clutch Troy Tulowitzki make the last out of two home games with runners on first and second. But the Rockies are for real, and everyone important is under contract, and if ownership forks over a little bit of money in the off-season, the Rockies will contend for the National League West next year. We can talk about the Cubs later. I like to stick with a winner.

And thankfully, basketball season is soon upon us. I'm sure the Nuggeys will be a frequent topic for me in the near future. Plus, I'd like to see more of those cool NBA ads on my blog. They look more professional than the little text ads that pop up normally.

We've been calling this week "hell week." We had two tests (Science Foundations I, Law) yesterday, one tomorrow (Drug Info), and one Thursday (Professional Skills Development). My case gets especially fun because I had a training class (Advanced Customer Service) at work yesterday and I get to go in to pick my new, less money-making schedule this afternoon. So that's two of my days off that I go up to Black Hawk for instead. I'm going to make a total of nearly 22 dollars for those two days. That will at least cover my gas for the trip. I'll have to make sure I stop off at the Golden Gates casino to enter their football pick-ems contest. It pays $250 to the weekly winner, and I was close two weeks ago (13-1, but three people were 14-0).

I don't really want to overload you any more at this point. I'll try to get a picture of the new house up and talk a bit more about it next time. Thanks for reading, and come back soon.

Figures

This is what I get for trying to manage my life. I had worked it all out so that I could spend Monday and Tuesday evenings chilling and hanging with my family and friends, respectively, provided I devoted all of Wednesday to homework and studying for the quiz in the morning. I probably didn't budget that time quite right, but it would have meant for a late-but-not-too-late night tonight. Unless.

At 6:30 this evening, right as we were heating up dinner, Xander started vomiting. We're not sure if it's a delayed reaction to Monday's immunizations or a reaction to the soy yogurt that he tried for the first time, but it was pretty bad. He's thrown up after shots before, but this time was a lot more severe than anything we'd seen before, and it didn't stop. He was miserable, and he started to get clammy and a little out of it. We ended up at the Children's Hospital Urgent Care an hour and a half later. It's 11:30 now and we're getting discharged, finally. They couldn't say for sure what caused the vomiting, but they were able to make it stop and get him rehydrated, so it looks like the storm has passed. That was a scary few hours.

And now it'll be midnight or later before I get home, and I have a quiz at 8 a.m. that I haven't studied for. Sometimes we need a little dose of humility in our lives. God had to step in and remind me that I'm not in control, and that procrastination is not the best policy. I'm just glad Xander is OK. I can do a day on limited sleep (especially with the help of my good friend Starbuck) and I'd much rather fail the quiz and have a healthy baby than the alternative.

In other news, the spellchecker man thinks "rehydrated" is not a word. It also thinks "spellchecker" is not a word. While I'm on rabbit trails, where did the name Starbucks come from? Is it from Melville? I might have to look into that.

They're letting us go home now, and I need to study. Thanks for stopping by, and come back soon.

P.S.: It's October.

Home Alone

My wife and son are in Seattle this weekend. They left yesterday afternoon, and I miss them already. It turns out that a three-bedroom house is awfully big when it's empty. It's just me and our dogs right now, and I feel like there are tumbleweeds rolling by when I walk into a room. On the one hand, it was really nice to be able to study all night and watch some TV without interruption, but I was pretty much over it by the time I went to bed. Bedtime is the worst, actually. It's really hard for me to fall asleep in an otherwise empty bed. I curled up on my wife's side to get a bit of her scent, and that helped, but it wasn't the same. Anyway, my weekend is pretty rigidly structured, and I have myself pretty much sleeping or out of the house all of the time, which should be all I need to keep my mind off of it, but I'm still counting down the minutes until Monday afternoon.

I need a hair cut.

Pharmacy school is harder than I thought. I got my test results from the exams I took last week and the week before. I got a B on one and a low A on the other, so I'm hardly at risk of failing out, but that's not what I wanted. My whole life I've never really needed to study. I mean, right now I'm blogging from a lecture, and I'll retain enough of it to pass the related questions on the exam. But I need to start reviewing a little bit more for these exams. Other assignments haven't been an issue at all; so far it's only been the tests. I wanted to make the Dean's List this semester, and to accomplish that goal I'm going to need to find ways to study both harder and smarter. Also, the material is getting more challenging as we go on, so the effort I put in for the B and the A- will quickly become only enough for a C+ or a B. I don't think I need to draw you a graph to show you where that will get me. (If I do, let me know, and I'll make up a presentation for my next entry.)

Short blog today, I guess. We made an offer on a house, and we're waiting to hear back about it. I'll post again when I find out. We find ourselves once again in a multiple offer situation (same thing happened two weeks ago and we didn't get it), so it's not a guarantee, but we have a better chance this time because we're not contingent on the sale of our house (I go to the closing this afternoon) and we offered a lot more than their asking price (last time we were already at the top of our budget).

That's it for now. Thanks for reading, and come back soon.

Thanks for reading,

Almost flat-lined for a second, didn't I?

Hello, faithful reader. We almost lost this blog... two weeks between posts? That's unacceptable. As it turns out, pharmacy school is time-consuming. To this point I haven't run into anything that's hard, but I've had to devote significant amounts of time to study and assignments. I'm still working 30 hours a week (although that goes down to 23 this week, and then we'll see), and I like to spend time with my wife and son, too. There are times when my wife works, and I have to spend time with Xander (I'm not complaining about that "obligation!"), and it's pretty hard to say no to some family time if we're all home. I end up with very little time to do the studying. You can see how I have even less time for the blogging. So now I am blogging from Science Foundations class.

This course covers all of general chemistry in like three weeks. It's pretty intense. I see why they make you take all those prerequisites, because if you were seeing this for the first time you would be in way over your head.

I didn't get the class president position. That may turn out to be a good thing (see above paragraphs about not enough time). I did, however, get the student ethics committee position. I told almost nobody that I was applying for this because it all happened at the same time as the student council madness, but this is actually the position I wanted more. The ethics committee is a student and faculty body that meets to decide issues of ethics violations within the school of pharmacy. Most of these end up being academic issues, such as cheating on a test. The ethics committee reviews all the facts of the case and then makes a recommendation to the Dean about what sort of disciplinary action should be taken. For those of you who didn't know me then, I did a similar thing in my last year of undergrad. It was called the judicial board (J-board) at CCU, and most of those cases were student life violations, but it was the same principle (and we dealt with a really hairy academic dishonesty issue that probably shouldn't have come to us at that point). I love doing this. I think one of the greatest ways to serve a student community is in pursuing justice and figuring out how best to apply the rules to a variety of situations. I guess I could have been a lawyer, but for the fact that lawyers represent their clients, not the truth.

We sold our house. That was exciting. We close next week, but the buyer has agreed to rent the house to us for an extra month. His mortgage is better than ours, so we save some money in this deal, and have until the end of October to get out. Now we're doing house-hunting, which takes up so much of my time. It's exhausting. Hopefully we'll find the perfect house today.

Football started yesterday. That was great. It was a good game, too. The reigning Super Bowl champions always get the first game of the year, and the NFL used to schedule them an easy opponent to sort of guarantee a win. The last time the Patriots won the Super Bowl, they got to play the Raiders in the kickoff game. That game was over almost immediately. Now they give them a really good non-divisional opponent. It makes for much better football. Even though it was a 13-10 overtime game, the game was fun to watch. There were key turnovers, blocked field goals, drives that picked up steam only to abruptly end in a defensive stand. I loved it, and I'm glad football is back. Especially because Sunday night sees the regular-season debut of Mr. Jay Cutler in a Chicago Bears uniform. He looked like his usual self in the exhibition game in Denver, and I look for that to continue (although the Green Bay defense should be a little better) this week. I was especially encouraged by the way he handled himself under the surprisingly strong pass rush of the Broncos. I think all those guys just wanted to knock him out for skipping town in the offseason, but he remained composed under the pressure. That's a good sign. He also hit a bunch of different receivers, often in pretty tight coverage, and managed the game well. Plus, Matt Forte is a stud in that backfield. I'm excited.

Well, I'm starting to get rambly right now. I think I'll leave you here and save some of my other thoughts for another post. Hopefully it won't be two weeks from now. Thanks for reading, and come back soon.

The 'stache needs your vote

I decided to mix it up with the facial hair and went down from the full beard to this really sweet '70s cop mustache. I think it makes me look creepy, while at the same time demanding that I never be taken seriously.

Having established that as my general image, I have decided to run for president of my pharmacy class. I give a brief speech tomorrow. The speech aspect doesn't worry me; I don't have that phobia. What worries me is that there are about half a dozen candidates, and those who I know are well-qualified. If I don't win the election, I won't be upset by it, but I would like the opportunity to serve my class. I like that the position is defined as a liaison between the students and the faculty, and between the students and the student council. That means that the biggest requirement of the job is listening to my fellow students and bringing their input back to council meetings. I like the sound of that, and it's something I'd be pretty good at.

I also think I have the right background for the position. I'm 26, and the average age of the class is 26. I'm only five years removed from my undergrad work, and I went back for two more years of science classes that ended a year ago, so I can relate to anyone younger than me. On the other hand, I've been working for the past five years, am married, and have a kid, so I can also relate to most of the older students. I'm very approachable, and in conversation I prefer listening over speaking. I don't consider myself a leader, and yet I somehow always end up leading in whatever I do. In my senior year of college, I was the student advisory member to the faculty library committee, and in my junior year I was editor-in-chief of the school paper, so I've worked with both students and faculty. I have absolutely no agenda of my own; my entire goal in seeking this position is to bring the ideas and opinions of my class to the table. Plus, I have a sweet softball coach mustache. So, wish my luck tomorrow. The worst that can happen is that I won't get it and I'll have one fewer commitment in my life, which would really not be so bad.

In other news, my wife had a job interview that looks really promising, and we have a buyer who is "very interested" in our house. He may make an offer this weekend. If both of those came through for us, I might be able to stop working at the casino, and that would be just fine by me. Thanks for reading, and come back soon. And if you're a member of the CU SOP class of 2013, vote for me, too!

It's trans-tastic!

The other night after work I was downright starving, so I stopped at the 24-hour Burger King drive-thru to try the new double crispy cheesyburger, an item that makes up for its lack of taste with an abundance of the letter y. I wasn't too impressed with the burger, but for two bucks (I got two of them) you can't go too wrong. After I ate it, though, I started thinking about how bad for me that thing really is. I tried to find the nutrition facts online, but Burger King only has info on their permanent menu and I couldn't find it elsewhere. I'm not going to let that stop me, though.

I figure the two patties are comparable to a double hamburger with no toppings on it (since the only topping on the little hockey puck patties is cheesy sauce and "tiny, crispy onions") which comes in at a modest 400 calories/22g fat/9g sat. fat/1g trans fat/26g protein (good!). So we just need to figure out the sauce and the tiny, crispy onions. I figure if we take the values for the sauce and "angry onions" found on the Angry Whopper, we're going to have a pretty good estimate on those. So, we dress up a regular Whopper with all the other items an Angry Whopper has (pepperjack cheese, bacon, no ketchup or onions) and subtract. That's an additional 130 calories/7g fat/3g sat fat/0.5g trans fat/12g carb/5g sugar. You can figure the cheesy sauce is more oil-based than the angry sauce, so some of that sugar is probably more like fat, but I'll leave it for purposes of this calculation.

So that tiny double crispy cheesyburger has 29 grams of fat, 12 grams of saturated fat, and 1.5 grams of trans fat. And I ate two of them and was still hungry. A growing young man like myself could conceivably have four of those in one meal. I don't think anyone should consume nearly 120 grams of fat in a single meal, even if you're knocking out your caloric requirement for the entire day.

I guess what I'm trying to tell you is don't eat at Burger King. Or maybe just don't get the double crispy cheesyburger. It's not even that tasty. Fast food companies drive me crazy. The dollar you spend on that double crispy heart attack burger could buy you some fresh fruit or a sizable portion of nuts. Organic, even. King Soopers is open 24 hours, too. What I really don't like is that BK and Mackey's are getting so expensive it isn't even worth the health risk to save money any more. Combo meals cost as much as eight dollars if you get cheese on the sandwich. Take your eight bucks to Subway and get a fresh fit meal, or to Chipotle (if and only if sodium doesn't cause you a problem, although there's plenty of sodium in the BK, too). I mean, it'd be better still to make a fresh sandwich for yourself or a nice, fresh salad, but I understand if you're on the go. I don't want to go so far as to say that fast food should be illegal, but I think what we should do is stop buying it. Let's take control of the free market and push it away from this unhealthy crap. There's been some of this already, but now companies have figured out the magic $1 menu rule. People will buy a Tasty Double Garbage Burger if you charge them a buck for it. I want one right now.

Rabbit trail. Wow. Sometimes I get all worked up about things like this. I think I'll stop there. Thanks for reading, and come back soon - and don't try the double crispy cheesyburger.

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.

It begins!

For the first time since I started this pharmacy school blog, I actually have some pharmacy school to blog about! Today was orientation. Technically it wasn't class, but it was a lot closer than I have been in the past year. I took Biochemistry last fall, and that's the only course I've taken in the past academic year. Getting back into school might be a little rough on me. Luckily, next week's classes are pretty soft material. It's things like how to use the library, the Kiersey personality test, and basic medical terminology. That ought to get me up to speed pretty well.

It was nice to put a bunch of faces to some names. I'd communicated with a number of my classmates through facebook and a Google group that I set up for our class, but before today I had only met five of them, and four of those interviewed with me. Today was the first time all 161 of us P1s-to-be were on campus at the same time. I think officially we're not P1s until the white coat ceremony next Monday, but I am a pharmacy student at the UC-Denver Anschutz Medical Campus (see picture for evidence).

Xander is walking all over the place now, and starting to talk. We've been teaching him baby sign language, and he's picked up a few signs, but last night he said his first meaningful, communicative word - "up." He's said some other things, like "cat," "da" (that either means "Dad" or "that" - I'm not sure yet), and something close to "dog," but "up" is definitely the best communication he's exhibited so far. He really means that he wants up when he says it, which is great. He's also a lot more mobile than ever. The other day he was chasing the cat around the house with a fly swatter and giggling. The cat hates him, I think, but he loves to go after it.

Someone pointed out after my last point that spiders are meat. I knew this, actually. My complaint was that he won't eat the clean, safe, cooked meat that we give him, although this isn't as true any more. I guess the live spider experience broadened his horizons. He's now interested in some meats, particularly at breakfast. We took him to Denny's last week and he dug in to some bacon like it was the best thing he'd ever tasted. I have to admit bacon is pretty good.

What encouraged me about the spider comment on my last post was that I actually have at least one reader! So, faithful reader, thank you. I hope you keep coming back.

The Final Countdown

This might have just been an excuse to put that sweet picture in a blog post. But we are in the last week before classes begin. Friday is orientation! Technically, the first class class will be next Monday, but I'm sticking to my original August 14 date. After all, if I fail to appear on campus and get my ID that day, I will lose my spot and and it will be filled by someone from the wait list. I thought that was a rather harsh policy. And honestly, how many people are sitting around waiting for that call? "Yes, this is the CU School of Pharmacy. Can you be in Denver in three days? I know you've been waiting for four months for this call and made a bunch of other plans for next year, but if you happen to have $18,000 lying around to pay for your tuition, you can totally start right away!" I'm guessing they have that policy just because it's the only way to guarantee that students show up to get their IDs that day.

My son won't eat meat. This doesn't really bother me other than the fact that he wants to eat everything else he finds. Dog hair? Yep. Batteries? Sure. Live spiders? You betcha. I'm extremely grateful that I was asleep for this one. My wife got to witness him pick up a sizable spider by one spindly leg, look at it, and try to put it in his mouth. Of course this would scare the crap out of anything, so the spider took off down his arm, causing Xander to laugh, probably because it tickled. Just thinking about it gives me the heebidy jeebidies.

I got CPR certified Wednesday morning. I was a little intimidated about going to a CPR course for health care providers, but it turned out not to be so bad. It was also very asocial, with almost no student-student interaction. I'm glad to get that out of the way. Plus, if you collapse in front of me, I have a vague idea of what to do about it. It would really help if you were a limbless torso that clicked whenever I compressed your chest with enough pressure to pump your heart.

We have our first showing of our house tomorrow. It was pretty exciting to get that call. We actually got a call Thursday evening, but my wife and I were both going out with my brother watching Xander for us, and the house was a mess, too. I didn't want him to have to get out of the way of a showing, and I didn't think it was in very good condition to show, either. We did a total cleaning/painting/organizing blitz and now we're all set. Hopefully the potential buyers will fall in love, but I'm realistic. It's going to take a good deal of time to sell this house, if it sells at all, and that's fine.

The official countdown to school is five days, including today. Also, I have homework! I guess I'd better get working on that. Well, I still have five days. That's a ton of time, right?

Blogging just to blog

Yeah, I think that's what I'm doing right now. I can't say I have much to report, but I feel the old bloggin' itch, so here goes.

My son is great. My wife took him out shopping with her yesterday and ran into an old friend. She said, "Hey, buddy!" and Xander (my son) reached right out to her to be picked up! Then her husband walked into the store and said, "Hey, buddy!" and Xander reached out for him! Later, he walk/crawled over to a complete stranger and pulled himself up on her legs. I think that's great. At some point we'll have to teach him about "stranger danger" but I love not having one of those babies that cry whenever someone besides mommy or daddy is holding them. He's a doll in the church nursery, too. All the workers half expect kids of that age to lose it when their parents walk out of their room, but Xander just wants to get down to business and start playing with all the cool toys.

Of all the things I'm going to hate about the rigors of a professional school program for the next four years, not seeing him enough is my biggest worry. I'm comfortable taking out enormous loans in order to get through, and I don't mind getting a good night's sleep less than once a month. I can handle all the pressure of rote memorization and mindless regurgitation. None of that scares me, or at least not as much as it would most people. What I'm worried about is missing four incredible years of my son's life. I already feel like he's a different kid by the time I get done with my four-day work week. How much am I going to miss over the course of four months of school?

Xander is putting himself to sleep this week. You don't know how incredible that is. Feed him a bottle, change his diaper, set him in his crib, pull up the blanket, and seeya later! I hope that lasts, though I'm sure it won't.

Orientation for school is 11 days away. Now I feel like it's too soon. I guess I can't make up my mind about what I want.

Here we go, Cubbies!

Well, it took long enough, but that Cubs rally beard finally worked! I don't think that was it; it was probably the return of Aramis Ramirez and a mental adjustment at the All-Star break, but they are now a half game ahead in the NL Central. That's what I'm talking about. And in the meantime, the Rockies went ahead and took the Wild Card lead! Even after today's loss (and Giants win), they're a game up. That's sweet.

So there's this deal in Colorado - when the Rockies score seven or more runs in a game, Taco Bell will give you four tacos for a dollar. Last year there was no other condition; this year you have to buy a drink. It's still a good deal, but I think it's probably a major factor in my high triglycerides. I think I've missed it six times that they've qualified, and for three of those I was in Hawai'i.

We have two more weekends before school starts. I'm freaking out. We also put our house on the market today. I'm not thinking it'll sell, but if it does we have the chance to chop about 50 grand off our mortgage by moving into a cheaper house. That would certainly ease some of the financial strain of going to school full-time.

Just a quick one today; go Cubs!

20 days isn't a very long time

The first day of class is 20 days from today. That's three weeks from yesterday. I have this weekend and two more, and then I'm officially a pharmacy student. Now all the prep stuff is swinging into high gear. I need to send back my financial aid letter so I can get some loans, and order some books, and go to a CPR class in a few weeks. I also need to buy a printer and Microsoft Office, but I guess those could wait for the first week of classes.

The big news in my life is that my car got totally boned by the hail storm we had on Monday. All of the severe weather missed my house (thankfully) and my workplace, so how did my car get so badly trashed? Well, I decided to car pool to work that day, and I didn't drive. We parked at 44th and Ward, which Denver residents will know was the area hit the hardest. When I got back to my car, my rear windshield was all over the inside of the car. Both rearview mirrors were shattered and both tail lamp assemblies were damagaed. And any panel of the car that faced up or toward the rear was thoroughly dented. The body shop said it could take a month - or longer - to get it fixed. Apparently they have to replace the roof panels, and apparently that's a touchy part to deal with. So I have a 2009 Dodge Charger for the next month. That thing can really haul.

Driving into the aftermath of that storm was cool. It had stopped hailing and the wind had died away, but there was a thick, soupy fog remaining (probably from all of that hail evaporating). It was like a scene from a movie. We drove into what looked like a solid wall of condensation right before we got to my car. Also, all of the trees in the area were completely bare of leaves. There was a pine tree in the parking lot that looked like the Charlie Brown Christmas tree. I'm pretty sure it was healthy and robust when I left that afternoon. So after we surveyed the extensive damage to my car and I drove off (with no mirrors and no rear glass), I drove right back out of the fog. For about two minutes I had no idea whether there were any cars behind me because there was almost zero visibility, and then it abruptly cleared. It was eerie.

I'll probably be posting again this week as the school prep takes off.

The slowest day in sports

Today is the slowest sports day of the year. There are no games in baseball, and the other three major sports are in their off-seasons. The NBA and NHL drafts have already taken place; NFL camps don't start for a few more weeks. Golf brings us the British Open, but that won't start until the wee hours of tomorrow morning. Even Major League Soccer is dark today. If you're desperate for action, the WNBA brings us five games and the NBA summer league has six. When I used to work on Wednesdays, this day was just torturous. Wednesdays are slow days in the casino, too, and having literally nothing to watch while sitting around is just... yuk.

My wife suggested I tell some antidotes in my blog. So, for carbon monoxide poisoning, fresh air and oxygen is best. Amyl nitrate, sodium nitrate, and thiosulfate are indicated for cyanide poisoning. I think she meant I should share some anecdotes, but if you want more info click here or read the Wikipedia entry on antidotes.

How can you make an error in the MLB All-Star game? How can you do it if you're Albert Pujols, playing at home in the middle of an incredible, Hall-of-Fame caliber season? How can you do all that and go 0-3 at the plate? I guess he's trying to prove he really isn't a machine. Josh Hamilton had a throwing error, too, but he didn't belong on the All-Star team to begin with. It's disappointing to me that in the game that's supposed to showcase the best talent in the big leagues we end up with two errors. Seems to me the best of the best ought to hold it together for a couple of innings. Dan Uggla had two in one inning last year. In fact, the last All-Star game without an error was in 2002, and that game ended in a tie. Maybe this is the reason baseball isn't taken seriously by many people any more.

I start school in 30 days. Now I'm sort of in freak-out mode. I went almost instantly from tired of waiting to needing more time. What happened?

YOUR HEAD A SPLODE

I really meant to post an update somewhere along the way in the past month. Sorry. I've been way too busy to do the little things like sleeping and blogging, which is really too bad, given that stuff has actually happened now.

First things first: July 2, 2009 was the first day of 24-hour gaming and $100 bet limits in Colorado casinos. I was off that day. July 3 was a madhouse. I'm not scheduled to work later than 2 on any day, which is pretty much the same schedule I had when we closed at 2. The difference is that with 24-hour operation I have the chance to be kept late if we're busy, and we definitely were. I should have seen that coming, what with it being the start of all this new gambling and a holiday weekend... I left at 5:00 Friday (the 3rd; scheduled until 2), 4:30 Saturday (scheduled to 1), 2:45 Sunday (instead of 1), and 4:30 Monday (instead of 2). Last Friday I left at 4:30, and last night I set a new personal best by working 5 p.m. to 5:15 a.m. On the one hand, I'm making much, much more money than I ever have. On the other hand, I'm squeezing 40+ hours into four days of work when I'm scheduled for 31 and I'm seeing the sunrise more often that not. It's just a good thing I took a part-time schedule, because those full-time dealers are getting really hosed.

Anyway, on last Saturday the big packet from the school finally arrived. A lot of it was advertisements and order forms for various books, lab coats, study guides, and the like that we can buy from different student organizations at the school, but it also included all of the instructions for the week-and-a-half of orientation that starts in just 33 days. It looks like that week will be a nice, gentle easing into school, which is nice since I've taken just 4 credits in the last academic year. The same day my financial aid award letter arrived, too. It looks like I'm going to have enough to pay the mortgage, which is fine. Between Jaime and my own hours at the casino and/or my intern job, we should be able to put food on the table and keep the lights on. I hope. I'm a lot more relaxed about it than I have been because 1) I'm making a killing right now, 2) Jaime finished her internship and can start looking for a job, and 3) We hacked the crap out of the budget and got it a lot more manageable. I don't know that taking on new debt to pay existing debt is a great idea, but sometimes you gotta do some weird stuff to get by.

Xander turned one a week ago. He's so BIG! We had a really nice party for him at the house, and then I put on my uniform and worked a 10-hour shift. I can do this for a while, so I guess I'm not complaining, and if I can put away a few bucks this month I won't have to work so much over the next four, so... yeah, it's worth it.

I should be able to post a little more often over the next few weeks as school gets closer. Thanks for reading!