PC - political correctness and physical chemistry

two things are bothering me tonight.
1. it's 11:30 and i still haven't started studying for my 8 a.m. p chem final.
2. political correctness. being a student leader this year, i have had my vocabulary corrected time and time again. here are a list of things i CANNOT say:
-lame
-retard
-gay (as in "that's so gay")
-dorms (we need to refer to them as "residence halls." um, just because you call the dog crap on your lawn a "calling card," it doesn't make it smell any better)
and many many more. not only can we NOT say certain things, we can also NOT express our opinions or feelings. that is, unless you're not white. then go ahead. cry if you need to, blame whoever you need to. yell, scream, laugh, point fingers, whatever makes you feel better. i have known of more than one student leader this year who has been fired or threatened to be fired simply because of their paler skin and overactive tear ducts. and yet i have seen some of my latino/a friends, some of my african american friends, and some of my asian friends express the same emotions, only to receive a pat on the back.
now i agree that there are certain derogatory terms that should never be uttered by any human being. ANY. just because you have a darker skin color, you get to call others of the same shade a n*****, but if a paler person do it, they can be shot? that's like me calling my pale friends crackers but beating up anyone else who says it. i don't call them that because it is a disrespectful name and i actually RESPECT my friends. i've been called some very rude things in regards to my religion, so don't tell me i don't know what it's like to deal with prejudice. trust me. i know. if i go any where outside of my region, i will be ridiculed, i will be picked on, i will be segregated. does that mean i start crying to authorities that i'm being picked on? no. i correct those who i can. if they listen, great. if they ignore me, hey i tried. that's all i can do. just because someone has a stupid idea about a certain type of people doesn't mean it has to affect the way i live my life.
but i digress. i'm so excited to be out of my leadership position. i will be able to say whatever i want. i will be able to say "lame" without worrying about being lectured. yes, i understand where it came from. and yes, if i were to suddenly to become lame, i would still say it. i'd probably say it even more because i'd think it was funny and ironic.
i am so sick of reverse discrimination. one monday a month we had it drilled into us that white = evil and racits. you're straight and white? you're also homophobic. you're a straight, white man? start dying your skin my friend. for you are racist, sexist, and homophobic. until you get some ovaries, change your skin color, or start liking boys, well, sucks to be you. you will get passed up for job after job because companies have to fill quotas. i hate that. i hate that so much as a woman. i work hard so that i can EARN my place. i don't want it handed to me. if it came down to selecting a white, male student for medical school who was more qualified and a female student of color who was slightly less qualified but filled a "quota," i'd prefer you to take the man. i want the best of the best looking after me and mine. we already have enough doctors, PAs, NPs, and the like who can't even remember to SIGN a prescription. we need the best people we can get.
well, that's all for today. time for some p chem. maybe that's why i like chemistry so much. molecules and atoms don't care what color you are. they'll still build your DNA, the air you breathe, and the water you drink.

finals and freshman pt. 2

i think this semester the freshman have an all new goal. instead of getting completely wasted and drinking for 72 hours straight, they're seeing how many of them will get kicked out of the halls before the school year is officially up. so far i know of at least one girl on our floor. and by the sounds of it, there will be 3 or 4 boys to follow. we have 24-quiet hours during finals week, and for the most part it's been fine. but apparently tonight some boys are playing hallway basketball. i'm just waiting for the ra to walk down here and tear them a new one.

what the...GLADIATOR SANDALS?

oh come on all you fashion designers. for the love of all that is good in the world (namely stilletos and ballet flats), you people pick the next big trend to be GLADIATOR SANDALS? no one has ever looked or will ever look good in those things. not even gladiators looked that good. steve madden... i have never been so disappointed in you. and that's including the awful knock-off ugg boots you made. my sister once upon a time had gladiator sandals in the 1980s, which means they were passed on to me and i was forced to wear them in the 1990s. they were awful then, they are awful now. they're not sleek, they're not feminine, they're not cute, they're not even practical. they're just an abomination to humanity. perhaps if i start blaming global warming on them, it will be even more uncool to wear them and they can be wiped from the face of the earth.
seriously steve. try not to come up with designs while completely plastered next time, m'kay?

i get by with a little help from my drug addicts

sometimes you need customers who are so completely insane, so unbelievably stupid, to get through the day with a smile on your face. i'll admit that i arrived at work in a very grouchy mood. you see, i'm not a morning person and i prefer to spend the first 30 minutes to an hour after i wake up in quiet solitude, preparing to face the day. that didn't happen this morning. as much as i like my suitemate, i don't enjoy being forced to talk in the morning. and i most certainly do not like being watched as i go through my daily make-up regimen. anyway. as unsociable as i was coming into the pharmacy, i left with a big grin on my face.
it all started when my friend danny and i started texting each other about Charlie the Unicorn. man, that thing cracks me up. i have obviously spent too many years of my life hanging around keith, trent, and ryan. "it's a magical liopleurodon!" wow. anyway. so that made me burst out laughing at random times. then i had this lovely person enter my pharmacy.
man: uh, hi, my, uh, mom sent me to pick up these needles for her, uh, dog.
***BEGIN SUSPICION!***
tech: oh, okay. well, does your mother fill here?
man: yes.
tech: alright, what's her name?
man: uhhhhh............(silence)..........i.....don't......know..........
(at this point myself and the pharmacist are trying not to laugh. i'm being slightly more successful, although i have a goofy grin on my face.)
tech: wait, you don't know your mom's name?
man: uhhhh....well, actually it's, uh, my friend's mom. and, uh, i'm staying with them.
tech: well, we need a prescription in order to fill this.
man: oh, well, okay. they told me it probably wouldn't work.
(wait, who told him what wouldn't work? nothing like admitting you're trying to get needles to shoot up)
man walks out of the pharmacy. when he's about halfway to the door, my pharmacist loses it and just starts cracking up. i manage to retain my composure until i hear the door ding as it opens, then i just lay my head on the counter and start snorting uncontrollably.
these are the drug addicts i LOVE! the ones who think that even though the pharmacist has gone to 6+ years of school and the techs have even been through at least 1 year of training, they can still outsmart us. not so, friend. not so.
i thought it would be more fun to go along with it, though. be all like "oh yeah! barbara did call in that refill for fluffy. we just love fluffy! such a cute little dog!" and see the expression on his face.

wait, it's over already?

well, only 3 official days left of classes. then 3 days of finals and i'm done for yet another semester. looking back through some photos of this year, i realize that although maybe i didn't study as hard as i should have and maybe i made some mistakes, i learned a lot about myself. i had fun, i made new friends, i became a happier, improved version of myself. i learned about love, loss, and recovery. i learned how to climb out of the holes that i dig for myself. i learned how to accept the consequences when i've done something wrong, and hold my head up high, knowing that i've learned from my mistakes. i've learned that sometimes people will hurt you, sometimes they'll annoy you, sometimes they'll be there for you, sometimes they'll let you fall on your butt, and sometimes there isn't anyone around when you need them. but that's why it is so iimportant to discover who you are, for those times when you're all alone and you need a friend. i've talked myself in and out and through a lot of crap this past year, heck, the past 3 years. yes i have regrets. who doesn't? but instead of dwelling on what i could've should've would've done, i move on. what will happen next year? who knows. what do i want to do with my life? well, i have a couple ideas. i guess i'm just waiting for things to fall as they may and i'll take life as it comes. i think the most important thing i learned this year is how to love again. how to open up and trust. it took a lot longer than i would've liked, but at least i'm here again. sure i didn't have a wild and crazy dating life, but that's not me. that's not what i wanted. i know that when, if i find someone it will be real. it will be forever. and i'm not in a rush to get there. i'm young and have my whole life ahead of me. i just want to enjoy as much of it as i can. i may not change the world. i may not cure cancer or save a life. but if i can live my life to the best of my ability and be the best version of myself, then that's enough. that's all i ask. i will forever and always remember how i convinced becca that all germs were green. i will remember learning just exactly what bacon is. and i'm pretty sure i'll always remember where the psoas major is. i'll always know that struzzo is ostrich in italian and that one of my heroes bears a strong resemblance to a squirrel. i've definitely learned my lesson about going after something you want, otherwise that something may be married the next time you see it. i'll remember what it feels like to lose a beloved pet and yet find room in your heart to adopt a new member of the family. i'll always remember going to concerts with christina and dancing like a fool, but not caring. i'll remember the sound of thousands of young girls screaming as the jonas brothers came on stage, me and alanna screaming with them. i'll remember bad meals at the hc, and not much better meals at village inn at 2 a.m. i'll remember my first facial and falling asleep during it. i'll remember going to institute and baskin robbins with my sister and growing closer. i'll remember stealing kalie from archana and sending ransom notes for her safe return. i'll remember a crazy 21st princess birthday party, playing high school mystery date, and ordering my own cinderella cake from baskin robbins, the boy working there thinking i'm a complete nut. i'll remember all the old ladies at the pharmacy, the angry ones, the nice ones, the very sick ones. i'll forever remember "m&mies" and certain customers who can always make your day. i'll unfortunately remember kidney stones and illness after illness after "supposed" illness only to find out there's nothing wrong with me. i'll remember how to live a little more healthily and to always take care of my body first and foremost. i'll remember quiet nights filled with despair only to have a letter arrive the next day to wipe away all my tears. i'll remember sudden revelations and truths becoming evident. i'll remember to never lose my faith again and that faith is something you carry on the inside, not something that's on display only once a week at church. i'll remember that a grade is just a letter, not something that determines your self worth and that you almost always have a second chance to make things right again. i'll remember our deep discussions about danny's previous life in the amish community with becca and quentin after inservice meetings. i'll remember how i held a heart and a kidney. i'll definitely always remember how gross the large intestine looks. i'll remember the day i sat in geometry learning what makes a point a point and a line a line. i'll remember saturday nights and winger's and sunday nights at home. i'll remember my parents being my safety net, always there to catch me when i fall.
it's hard to think that all of this has just been from a year, and i've already been through three with one more to go. it makes me a little hopeful, a little scared, a little excited, and a little apprehensive for my (hopefully) last year at the U. but i know that no matter what happens or where life takes me, i have excellent friends, a great family, and a love for myself to get me through it. so thanks to everyone who has been with me on this wild ride.

stupid license plate covers pt. 2

i'm beginning to hate license plate covers. yes, i have one. no, i don't like it. not since my career goals have changed from "become president" to "become pharmacist." but enough about my stupidity. let's talk about someone else's.
today's license plate cover:
LIFEGUARDS
Save Lives
well there's a big fat DUH. isn't that implied in the name LIFE GUARD? someone who GUARDS other people's LIVES? definitely not as bad as my friend from cardinal health (which everyone at my pharmacy got a kick out of) but still pretty darn stupid.

yay for oxycontin!

today we had at least 4 drug dealers in our pharmacy at one time. we sold 2 of them between $1200 and $2000 worth of oxycontin. my pharmacist was frustrated because we know what these guys are doing, but we can't really just say we're not filling the prescription without a valid reason, especially when everything SEEMS to be in order. i have overcome my anger by knowing that we can hike up our prices sky high, they'll still pay for it, pharmacy makes more money, and i get a higher salary. i know that sounds horrible, but there are a million and 5 reasons to get angry every day that you work in a pharmacy. you have to learn to pick your battles.

cardinal health = evil incarnate?

i have long suspected that cardinal health was run by the spawn of satan. or complete imbeciles. especially since it seems that most of their employees are incapable of correctly loading labels into a printer and then matching those labels with the correct order, or even simply remembering to print labels. i seem to have been proven correct.
today while driving to my parents' house for dinner, i noticed a car i was driving behind had a license plate cover that said "Cardinal Health: Proud to be a Respiratory Therapist." the passenger in the car was smoking. that's one amazing respiratory therapist.

concerts, sickness, and more concerts

tuesday: rock in uvu with the brobecks, story of the year, and the bravery
the 3 or so songs i heard of the brobecks were amazing as usual. i'm sad i had to work and ended up missing most of what they did. i also missed ludo, which i was bummed about.
story of the year was okay. i'm kind of glad my tickets were free, actually. it was mainly just fun to watch the moshers and crowd-surfers.
the bravery was actually pretty awesome. i didn't realize how many of their songs i knew and they sounded amazing. i will definitely go see them again.
wednesday: got an ear infection. got antibiotics today. woot. 3 visits to the doctor's office in 3 weeks. let's see if i can go for 4. i also think i only need 2 more illnesses until i have a "disease BINGO!" yay! maybe my prize will be ebola.
friday: grand kerfuffle with augustana, hellogoodbye, and shiny toy guns
i missed augustana which i'm way mad about, but i heard they weren't actually that good. hellogoodbye was decent. it's hard to enjoy any music when you're just getting pushed and shoved. shiny toy guns were amazing. i will certainly go to their concert next time they're out here.

you're not fooling anyone

okay, haha. i get it. the joke's on me. very good. now, would all viral rna please vacate my body asap?

this so sucks.