MY LIFE - NOVEMBER

Wednesday, November 22, 2000

Well, today wasn't supposed to be a long day for me. It was supposed to be a day where I could leave at 5:30 and go home to rest for the rest of the night and get ready for tomorrow. Nothing was planned, but maybe that was a mistake.

At around 3, Steve called me from my store and asked me how long I was working at my old store today. I knew when he asked that why he was calling and was already dreading what I'd hear next. I told him I was supposed to leave at 5:30 and he told me they were getting hammered and could probably use some help later in the day. I told him that I'd call him before I left because I was already really tired and out of it mentally.

I already knew what I was going to tell him, but didn't want to hear myself say it at that point in time. I was also hoping that it might slow down or that they might get a hold of someone else and spare me the extra work. So I continued to plug away at my old store, not really doing anything but trying to keep myself from falling asleep. I was that tired today. I couldn't keep my eyes open at times and was trying to avoid dozing off.

I was wondering if I was going to make any mistakes because I tend to make more when I'm tired. I'm human, so that's what usually happens. I wasn't making them out of luck today and was just trying to make it to 5:30. At around 4:30, Steve called again, this time looking for some Micronase for a customer. I had a bottle and was reluctant to do a store transfer, but said I'd order one more for Friday and do a store transfer and bring it to my store when I got off.

Of course, at 4:30, it began snowing really hard, something that hadn't been happening all day after yesterday's snow storm. At the same time, the lines to the insurance companies went down making the process of filling scripts come to a complete halt. We couldn't send the claims so we couldn't get a response from the insurance companies in return. Right before I left, everything started to go through so I didn't think there would be any more problems.

I got to my store right before 6 and agreed to stay a couple hours, like until 9 like the idiot that I am. I also found out that the insurance lines were down again. It would be like that the rest of the time that I was there. They would be down for a while, then come up briefly, then go back down again for a while longer. Of course, there was no back-up system either, which makes having a modem in our computer stupid since we never use it like it should be used.

When I left at 9, the lines hadn't been up since about 6:45 and didn't seem like they would be up any time soon according to the help desk. They didn't know what the problem was or how to fix it so they couldn't really tell us anything, which really compounded the situation. To make matters worse, it was the day before thanksgiving, which meant a lot of people were trying to pick up their medication before leaving town.

Thankfully, most of the people were really good about it, although we did have some crabby people who didn't understand the problems we were having. Regina was also kind of upset over it, but that's understandable. However, there wasn't much that could be done except wait it out and see if the problem is resolved.

Who knows when that might be though? Could have happened right after I left, or it might not be until tomorrow. You never know.

---

It's been really nice to see some of the old faces while filling in at my old store this week, but it hasn't made me regret the decision to transfer or make me want to come back. Simply put, I like the pace at my new store and can't believe how I ever put up with it being as slow as it gets. What we do at my store in an hour somedays is like half the day at my old store and it feels like it.

There have been long stretches where we've done virtually nothing and I've resorted to reading the newspaper while waiting for someone to drop off a script or for something to show up on the refill line (IVR). Nothing usually happened though and it made me wonder how I ever put up with this for three years without losing my mind. The differences between my old store and my new one are huge and immediately noticed.

In the morning, only Monday saw us have an IVR that was really packed with prescriptions. Every other day has been like 10 and nothing else. At my new store, anytime you look, you could have 10 to 15 scripts sitting in there, and I check every 10 minutes or so. It doesn't take long to fill up there.

You have huge lulls in the action at the old store. At my new store, two minutes without having to do a script or ring someone out is a lull in the action. Anything more, and it must be after 9pm when it actually slows down. The register at my old store isn't that busy, and that's front store and pharmacy business. At the new store, the pharmacy does more in a few hours than the old store does in a day, and that doesn't include the front store business, which is also jumping much of the day.

The phones don't ring that much at my old store. At my new store, if they don't ring for a while, we start to think that they might be broken. The phones always ring over there. Doctors are constantly calling and there's not a lot of time when the phone doesn't ring. The drive-thru also rings a lot, which is something my old store doesn't even have at all.

My old store has two techs and you don't always need that many. My store has 9 to 10 techs and that's not nearly enough most days. My old store opens at 9 and closes at 9. My new one opens at 8 and closes at midnight. My old store does 1,000 on a good week. My new store does 3,000 on a slow week.

It was nice to see the old faces again. Tom was good to see and talk to and it was good to hear he has a new partner now, although he doesn't really want one. It was nice to see Lenny, Donna, and Kathleen and explain to them how things were going for me. It was good to see that the store's doing relatively well and that I seemed to do a good job training Angela to replace me in the pharmacy.

I've had a lot of fun at my old store. I don't want to go back, but visiting every now and then is something I'd like to do. I like my new store and I'm glad I transferred. It seems that either way, it's worked out really well and has benefited me in several ways, even though there's some problems at the store. It's good to see them plugging along without me and without Mike either.

I've enjoyed it there. I just don't want to do this again because all these hours are killing me and my store really needs me to be able to work there more than I have this week.

Next week ought to be good though. I work my first midnight shift on Sunday (4-12), I work Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from 2-10 and I work 10-6 on Saturday, a shift that seemed to work really good. I'm just wondering if I'm ever going to get a Saturday off or a weekend off like some of the techs get. I don't mind working the entire weekend, but I'd like to have at least Saturday off every now and then. Then again, it doesn't really bother me.

I'm enjoying myself and getting ready for thanksgiving tomorrow. That's what matters right now.

---

Tomorrow is thanksgiving and I still think I'm going to my aunt's, although I don't know when or for how long. I'm still not sure if I want to risk running into my dad or if I'm ready to put some of the anger behind me. I'm really mixed about that, but I do want to see the rest of my relatives, who I haven't really seen for nearly two years. At least that's how long it seems since I've seen them.

I just don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. I guess I'll just have to wait and find out, although I really want to know if my mom's cooking tomorrow or if she's going to cook on a different day for some strange reason. You'd think she'd make dinner tomorrow, but she spent all week asking when I would like to eat. She seems to think that we might not all be home thanksgiving (which is absurd), so she was thinking about Friday night, but I might be busy Friday night.

I'm thinking it will be tomorrow. This is my family, however, so you never know what might happen. Jean, a tech I work with, did make a good suggestion though. She thought it would be a good idea to make lasagna one year for thanksgiving.

Hmm. That sounds like a pretty good idea. Maybe I'll suggest it to my mom. I haven't had that for a while. In fact, I think I'm the last person who ever made it. Or maybe I won't suggest it. I don't know. I only know that I'm tired again and I'm grateful that I don't have to get up tomorrow or work at all tomorrow.

I need a day off. Otherwise, I might die and that probably won't help out a whole lot.