Life After School

I've spent most of my youth dreaming of what this time of my life would be like. I'm satisfied to say that it's everything I expected and wanted it to be and yet none of it all at once. The hardest part for me is learning to have spare time again. I just haven't figured out exactly how to utilize it yet. I can't remember how to have hobbies and it's like I'm re-discovering them. I've had either homework or a test to study for for so long that I can't remember what I ever did before that. Even so, it's been more refreshing than I could've dreamed to have this time. To have an overabundance of time.

My job has been going very well! I feel like I'm learning fast and I'm more committed to the training process than I ever have been before because this is the real thing. This is a career I have invested myself in, so I don't just want to be 'good enough,' I want to be excellent. I'll let you know how that goes. ;)

Ionia is very beautiful this time of year. There are so many crop fields right now and they just take my breath away when I drive past them every evening. Lots and lots of wildflowers too. There's this old chapel on the way to the highway that I love so much. I drive past it and think about all the years it must've seen sitting on that lonely corner of road. Someday I'll have to take a picture.

Changing my name legally has been a lot of work, along with figuring out our bank accounts, health insurance, and how in the world Amanda McDonald is going to cash Amanda Jobin's first paycheck next week. Slowly I'm learning though and I can't really complain. It's a little exciting when I sit back and think about it. :)

This weekend is the Ionia Free Fair and I'm so excited!! It's a huge deal around here (maybe the only officially cool thing that happens in this town?) and I'm hoping to have my brother and his girlfriend out to go with us. :D

Rx Banter

Walgreens Pharmacist: I need to give you five prescriptions.

Me: Geez, five?

Walgreens Pharmacist: Unfortunately. We have someone who is very unhappy and leaving us.

Me: What did you do?

Walgreens Pharmacist: I have no idea. Tried to figure out why he was taking two different benzodiazepines at bedtime at the same time maybe?

Me: He sounds like a real winner. I'm so excited to meet him.

Walgreens Pharmacist: May the Force be with you.

Married Life

Me: I think I'm going to take a quick shower.
Mike: To shave your legs?

Me: Wtf are you trying to say??

Amanda, Rockstar Pharmacist

Today was another milestone for me. I was granted access to our pharmacy computer system and given my own pharmacist password, which means my initials now appear on prescription bottles as the pharmacist who signed off on the medication. The first prescription I dispensed 100% completely on my own without anyone to check my work was for Cipro (complete with a four-star counseling session ;) ). Afterwards....

Kristan: Look at you! You did it! How does it feel?

Me: It feels like I want to throw up.

____________________________________

The pin in the picture above was given to me on my wedding day by Mike's great Uncle John. Uncle John became a pharmacist over 50 years ago (and still practices to this day!) and at the time he became registered he received this pin, which he has graciously passed along to me. With it he gave me this note:

Amanda:

I hope you won't mind if I use this occasion to pass this small tribute on to another pharmacist.

This pin was given to me over 50 years ago as a new pharmacist.

So I wish for you to have it to keep the tradition going in your pharmacy career. Good luck and keep those pills rollin'.

Best wishes,

Uncle John, RPh

Werky

Oh my, where should I start?? First of all, it's 90 f-ing degrees in my apartment, day and night, and after days of cold showers and being so hot and sweaty that we avoid even touching one another, Mike and I broke down and bought ourselves a window air conditioning unit. About 30 seconds into helping Mike (take it out of the box) I sliced my thumb up so bad it bled through 3 Bandaids in about 10 minutes. Later, while putting it in the window, I slammed two other fingers in the window frame and made one of them bleed too. I'm so slick. Luckily I still have seven good fingers left to sling the pills tomorrow!

Speaking of slinging pills, I started working!! OMG. Not some crummy paid-like-an-intern summer job, but my career. After 25 years of working hard to reach this point in my life, I finally get to.... work some more! Yeah!! Woohoo!

All joking aside though, two very important things have happened to me since I started my new job. First, I've realized that school is indeed over. And while this is frightening to imagine (no more training wheels!) I am also so exhilarated to realize that I'm not putting myself further into debt, but instead working to propel us out of it. I've accomplished the dream I've worked so hard to reach, and now I get to live it every single day. I get to be a real pharmacist--something I have watched my mentors do with wistful eyes as I day dreamed about the day it would be me. These first steps are shaky and unsure, but I'm ready to spread those wings. I'm ready to become all my potential has to offer.

The second thing I realized is that when I drive home every night, I'm driving home to Mike. I still remember when he dropped me off at FSU that very first time over four years ago. It was raining and dark, and I watched while crying quietly as he drove away. That was the first of hundreds of awful goodbyes. Much like my role as a pharmacist, being with him like this was something that I grew accustomed to daydreaming about, thinking I would always be striving towards it but never actually reach it. Now it's here, and it is so heartwarming in it's simplicity and worth to me.

There are so many new things. New apartment, new neighbors, new clothes, new last name, but I'm going to have to play catch-up a little here, and it may take some time. :) My brain and blog are still catching up with all the events that have happened to me since May, but I'll be up to speed soon enough. In the meantime, I need suggestions for a quirky, drug-related codename for my new employer because I want to refrain from using the company's name here. Don't let me down people!

Happy Girl

Mike and I made it to our wedding day on June 19th, 2010, six years after our first date on June 20th, 2004. After those first two weeks together we were saying "I love you," and after a month we were talking about forever. We knew. I don't know how we knew and I probably never will, but we knew.

It hasn't always been perfect. I think there have been times when Mike and I have hurt each other more than we have any other person. But even through the short few years I've known him, I've learned enormous amounts regarding love. I've learned it is the strongest force in all the universe, and that if it runs true and deep and you're willing to sacrifice for it, it can do and endure anything. I've also learned that it is somehow simultaneously fragile and worthy of the fiercest of protection against the doubters, against each other's doubts, and even the demons inside everyone's own heart. I've learned to hold on. If you've found it, make sure you hold on. Loving Mike has been one of the most fulfilling and rewarding choices I have ever made, worth every tremulous step it took to reach June 19th.

Even as sure as I was in my choice, getting married shook me up. I remember standing with my Dad outside the chapel, waiting for the pastor's wife to tell me it was okay to come up to the steps. I was fighting back tears and trying desperately not to panic over a fit of nerves I couldn't describe, even now. Somehow, gripping my father's arm, I made it to the front doors which opened in front of me, and there he was. I saw him and realized that this was what was missing. When I reached Mike at the altar I squeezed his hands tightly the whole time, and his smile melted away everything. Today we announced to the world what we've both known for a very long time--we're partners in life. It was nothing more or less than that simple fact.

The whole day was simply spectacular--every single moment of it. The sky was beautiful and I was surrounded by so many people that loved not only me, but Mike and me, together. It was the most amazing day of my entire life. When we reached the reception I danced my heart out, smiled for every second, and laughed as if I were the happiest girl in the whole world. And I am.

I wanted to say something special for my bridesmaids. I chose five girls to stand beside me--my sister Kristen (Maid of Honor); my childhood friend Beth (Matron of Honor); my friend since my WMU days, Shruti; and two friends from pharmacy school, Beth and Colleen. I love each and every one of these girls as if they were all my sisters, for they have loved me, supported me, encouraged me and protected me like family, some of them throughout my entire life. True friendship is as rare as true love, and I have found it in these five fantastic women. They have always, always had my best interest at heart and I could never ask for a better gift from them. Not only did they take great care of me on my wedding day, but they take great care of me every day. The only way I could ever thank them enough is to strive to be as wonderful a friend to them as they have done for me. :)

After the wedding Mike and I kicked off our marriage in style on a 7-day cruise in the Caribbean, aboard this beautiful ship, Freedom of the Seas! We visited the islands of CocoCay (Bahamas), St. Thomas (U.S. Virgin Island) and St. Maarten (Virgin Island) and had an absolute blast!! I could tell you about everything we saw and did, but I wrote down everything in a journal and it took me twenty-five pages there so I'll spare you. ;) I did, however, take a ridiculous amount of pictures which speak volumes in and of themselves! If you'd like to check them out visit my ever-updated photo gallery. :P

**Honeymoon**

**Wedding**

I'll never have a honeymoon again, but I'm looking forward to many more vacation adventures with Mike. :) Now we are both living in Ionia, after years of living apart, and it still feels wonderful to think about never saying goodbye again. :')