long december

Heeeeey there… well… things are good. I’m sorry it’s been awhile… so my new computer is up and running. Office 2007 (really fun, by the way) has the default font of “Calibri”- I kinda like it- it reminds me of of a rounded arial- I like it…

This is a big old fat excuse and nothing that’s been prohibitive of me writing on here… but I’ve still been feeling a lot of confusion/pressure over my audience- sure I’m not writing this FOR anybody else, but one of the first rules of formal writing is to consider your audience (I think?)… so that’s what I’m doing. I’m considering you all! Don’t you feel special? What started as Todd-Josh-Jesse has expanded to, by my count, at least 12 other semi-regular readers about half of whom are related to me in some way- and that’s awesome! However- its changed the way I think about blogging. What used to be semi-intimate discussion and sharing has turned into more of a “newsletter” of sorts… I don’t really go too deep- maybe that’s part of this- evolving… I think some of the changes are good for sure- I used to write just for the sake of writing- I’ve always had a “stream of consciousness” syle of writing on here- because that comes easiest to me… I used to bust out crazy word counts on this thing- I used to be right up there with Todd/Josh/Jesse… we had our little book club of sorts- except the common “book” we were all reading was our collective blogs… and for me- a lot of why it was so easy to blog- was because I knew my audience- I wasn’t writing for them, but maybe in a way I was… I don’t mean to paint it as a bad thing that more people are reading- It just means instead of a little stupid “for the fun of it” blog about nothing in particular, I feel like I have to wait until I have something profound or worthwhile to say… something worth everybody’s time… It’s not really something I think about- it’s just a general feeling I get when I sit down and decide if I feel like blogging or not… but maybe over the next month- I’ll feel like it more often- I’ve certainly got the time. I need to take some tips from Todd- as his readership has increased he’s still managed to maintain that same personal/intimate feel to it… like he’s not really holding back…

Listening to the new Mae CD (per Brent) and really liking it a lot. It’s one of those things where the music seems so good, and so professionally done that it just doesn’t make sense to me why they aren’t getting a ton of radio time. It’s not vulgar, political, whiny, dissonant, or hard on the ears- it’s just some good music… rock I guess you’d call it? Let me Wikipedia the group to see what the consensus is….

“Mae is an American rock band that formed in Norfolk Virginia^[3][4] in 2001. The band's name is an acronym for Multi-sensory Aesthetic Experience, based on a course taken by drummer Jacob Marshall while a student at Old Dominion University”

and I didn’t even realize:

“According to Elkins in a 2003 interview, while the band members are Christians, Mae is not a "Christian band".” And

“Before forming Mae, Dave Elkins was co-founder and lead vocalist for the Christian/emo/indie band Sky's the Limit”

That’s really interesting- there seemed to be something different about the themes. Neat.

The second song on the “The Ever Glow” CD, titled “We’re so Far Away”, is by far my favorite… mostly just the main singer and some piano accompaniment. I gotta say it’s probably one of my favorite songs in a long time… if anyone’s interested I can send it to you. They signed on to Capitol records for their most recent album- had some good producers on that… mayhaps their next album will receive more credit? (thanks brent)

Speaking of singing… Brent and Jen and I went to the Wednesday night singing class at Germantown- I’m sure I’ve told you before, but its basically about 20 or 30 of us who sit in a room and pick songs out of the book to sing… (I think last time I counted we’ve got about 1029 ‘psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs’ in there… hehe) I actually threw out some of the Christmas-but-still-religious-enough-to-be-in-the-book songs- so that was fun- kinda got me in the Christmas mood … we all talked about how fun it would be to go around and do some good old 4-part harmony caroling… hehe

So you probably already know my schedule- I get off the ENTIRE month of December… “WHOA! THAT’S NOT FAIR!” – and ya know- you’re absolutely right. I feel pretty guilty about it- but not so guilty that I’d rather be spending my time on rotation. I think the rationale from school is that as P-4s, we don’t get off any other holidays while on rotation (though I guess I did get off thanksgiving… so… I guess that rule doesn’t always apply…), we don’t get any personal days, or “sick” days (though I guess if you’re too sick to go in to rotation you shouldn’t… just haven’t crossed that bridge yet)… but you know- in light of what kind of life I’m soon to adopt in June of 2008, I realize that this block of time off is still very unreasonable and excessive- I’ll be the first to admit it! Just thinking about taking a job where 2-weeks a year is all you get… 2 weeks a year? Wow! That almost seems un-american, ya know? I think everybody has this stigma that we’re a bunch of slackers over here (I’m just really saying that based on impressions from popular media/movies about people from other countries’ opinions of us… could be totally wrong?)… I guess i don't really have a great concept of the "grind" of the perpetual work week- but that's not really my fault... soo...

I got my first offer in from KMART- no specifics- but I was very pleasantly surprised… here’s one interesting point- because I have a history with KMART, they’re going to start me off with 3 weeks paid time off… how insane is that? Every single place I went to on career day said “you’ll start with 2 weeks, and after 5 years of working for us (5 years…) we’ll give you your 3^rd…” so how huge is that offer from KMART? That’s a 5-year jump on anyone else… Just looking at the numbers, and how long it would normally take to get to that- I’ve got to say that’s going to be hard to turn down… The whole job thing was pretty fun- did I blog about that?? Hmmm looks like I didn’t—well it was really cool… Jesse gave me some good advice (which I certainly did consider and take)- but I kinda told her before I went in-

“this is a little different than other interviews- it’s more like we’re (pharmacy students) interviewing THEM (pharmacies) instead of the other way around"

- and I’ve got to say that it really was like that- I still bought a new suit and shaved and tried to look my best and had a nice/professional looking resume’, and all that stuff… but it wasn’t like “why are YOU good enough for US??” it was “here’s why we think WE’RE good enough for YOU”… more or less just like I expected it to be- and I can’t say that was really a bad thing at all… we had a nice sit-down lunch in the middle of the interviews and I got to sit by Ryan and Micah and we caught up some… Micah’s dad actually has a great pharmacy place open in Nashville- it’s the one I did a rotation at in June- can’t say I’d be the least bit sad to work there… you get to sit down, the hours are 9-5, Mon-Fri… no people yelling at you… sigh… THAT would be nice… why are people always so angry all the time? I guess I probably do see a disproportionately large percentage of unhappy people… unhappy people are prescribed medications (right or wrong) and as a future representative of the “traditional” pharmacist (i.e. NOT-clinical), I’m the one you come to if you want drugs… oh well…

When you walked into each room (it was at a hotel/convention center… same place as the big white-coat ceremony for those family members who were in attendance) they said “where do you want to work?” and directed you to the table with recruiting people from that region… I said “Nashville”… they’d ask me “what part of nashville do you want to work in?”… and here’s an interesting part- I intentionally told them “the south or west side” every time- seems nuts… but I really just didn’t want to leave a chance that I’d be working back in MJ…

“WHOA! HOLD on a minute! Why would you say that?? You LOVE mount Juliet!”

And you’d be 100% correct… 110% correct even. Mount Juliet is home- there’s no place like home (there’s no place like home… there’s no… oh wait… don’t have the red slippers…). But you know- there’s still a part of me that wants to settle down somewhere that isn’t 100% within my comfort zone, where I don’t already know 100% of the people… its kinda like I have a really super-watered down version of that thing certain people have where they want to get as far away from home as possible as possible- I mean… that’s almost a joke even… All I’m really saying is… I don’t want to live in East Nashville… because that’s my strike zone, that’s my bubble… that’s what I know… that’s my identity- and I feel like I’d really be doing myself a disservice by not at least getting out a little… I’m pretty sure you guys get what I’m saying- I don’t really have to convince anyone other than myself- I just know that this news might come as a surprise to some-

I’m actually thinking about re-examining the whole Alaska thing. Just gonna crunch some numbers and see if I think its worth it… yeah it pays more… but you really gotta factor in the cost of living (way up). I’m gonna look at it… Target just posted some openings for pharmacists in Anchorage… (didn’t know they had those in Alaska?)- just saying it’s not out of the picture- not saying it’s where I expect to end up at all…

Lastly: If you haven’t seen the movie “Dan in Real Life”… I’m strongly suggesting you go see it right now. As billy (a guy who works in a movie theater) described it- it’s a real gem- something that just really exceeds your expectations- and I gotta agree- I’ve “talked” to a lot of people about it- several “oh yeah my friends saw that” or “I know someone who saw that”… and the part that comes after “and…” in every single (100%) case has been “he/she/they REALLY liked it a lot!”… my straw poll is representing somewhere between 10-15 people who unanimously enjoyed the movie a great deal… that doesn’t mean anything- but how often does that happen? There’s always “that guy” who finds something to gripe about… I haven’t found “him” for this one- I fell in love with this one, and I think you will too if you give it a chance- it’s very family friendly yet fresh and witty/sweet/charming/comfortable/enjoyable… seriously? Why aren’t you getting ready to go see it right now? Go see it! And if you’re a big Steve Carell fan and haven’t seen this one yet… I’m gonna have to slap you. Sorry- but its commin’