Archive for May, 2007

Happy Memorial Day to all! I do hope your three day vacation wasn’t soaked like ours was. However, I do have to admit the weather was very comfortable after the rain passed. So, as long it keeps on raining while I’m at work and stops when I get off, I’ll be a happy camper. Mom and Cathy drove down from KC on Friday. Cathy scored an awesome internship with Jordan’s company in Houston. The parental units didn’t think Cathy could make it Houston alone, so they sent her to me in Dallas-Fort Worth first. Since….I know how to get to Houston…and am so adept at directions. Thank goodness for Andy! Then mom decided to tag along since she had a little bit of free time. Thus a Chao party was created.

Saturday was spent trying to find Cathy the perfect pair of work slacks. This was a very grueling procedure, in which mom loved the two of us enough to buy Cathy her full price navy blue knee length pants, and for me, a nice navy blue 3/4 sleeved jacket and an awesome silk halter top that I’ve had my eye on all spring. We ate lunch at Central Market, yum. Then we shopped for our barbeque dinner (CM sausages since I had a coupon, grilled veggies, and deliciously sweet strawberries). After our terrific dinner, mom watched her asian mini-series, Cathy, Andy, and I watched Anthony Bourdain (whom I love) and the Girls Next Door (a guilty pleasure for all of us).

Sunday was spent battling the elements to get to Houston safely in our mini-caravan. Andy, Jabber, and my mom drove in Andy’s Corolla. Cathy and I took turns driving her sporty Sentra (a car I know and love) behind Andy. The road spray was so bad that for awhile, I could possibly have been following the wrong car. We got Cathy all settled and unpacked in her little apartment/studio/extended stay hotel room.  We met up with Jordan, who gave us a tour of the town. We got to see Cathy’s awesome office in the Galleria, finally got to meet the famous Mr. Tigger Puppy, chatted with the Greenwoods, and ate a fabulous dinner at Babbin’s. The bread pudding was to die for! Cathy, mom, Jabber and I stayed at Cathy’s place. Andy stayed with Jordan where they played various video games till the wee hours of the morning.

This morning, we got up, bid goodbye to Jordan, ate lunch at the nearby Chili’s, hugged Cathy farewell and good luck, and hit the road back toward home. The drive was long, though brightened by watching two employees trying to catch a chicken in the parking lot of a Starbucks during a bathroom break,  and the weather was patchy at best. By the time we got home, the sun was shining and the weather beautiful. We ate some quick leftover barbeque, took the puppy for a walk, and now I’m going to veg in front of the tv in preparation of another fabulous week at work.

Due to some recent scheduling issues, we’ve been asked to take turns working every other weekend. I’m willing to do my part, so I’ve been working for the last 7 days straight. I have Monday and Tuesday off to compensate for my wacky schedule. It’s a pretty decent job. I get to interact with all sorts of people. I learn all sorts of information about drugs and laws pertaining to drugs. I find it interesting, and I like the feeling that I’m actively helping people that need it. This doesn’t pertain to most people, but I have a few suggestions for all to keep in mind the next time you’re at your local pharmacy.

1. Though it has a drive through, please don’t treat your pharmacy drive through like a Burger King. We do our very best to get your prescription ready in the time we have promised. But sometimes we get behind, wouldn’t you rather your prescription be correct rather than fast? If your burger has onions when you asked for no onions, you can grumble as you pick them off, but you’ll live. If your prescription is wrong and you get blood pressure medication instead of antibiotics, wouldn’t that be a little less forgivable? I sincerely apologize for being behind schedule, but being from a pharmacy that does over 500 new prescriptions a day, we’re ALWAYS busy.  We’re not just kicking back, reading magazines, and laughing at you when you come back for an unprepared prescription. We have so little time to chat, that I still haven’t a clue what my co-workers’ last names are!

2. Please remember that we are here to help you. I would love to give you your medication for whatever price and quantity you want! Alas, these things are governed by the slew of insurance companies running throughout the country. If your insurance card doesn’t go through, there’s not much more that I can do besides try my best to explain the reason why. Most of the time, we see nothing more than a generic reject message. Sometimes it’s helpful (Refill too Soon, Prior Authorization required) and sometime it’s not (check card, invalid data). There’s no need for the glares, angry words, and long dramatic sighs. I do not wake up in the morning and think “gee, what sick person can I make more miserable today?” I took this job because I want to help you, not add to your problems.
3. I know everybody’s lives are so busy and hectic these days, mine included. But do you think you can get off your cell phone for the 5 minutes I’m trying to help you? I don’t know about everybody else in the pharmacy field, but I smile at the customer when they come to the out window. I try to get them out of the store and on with their day as fast as I can. But there’s no need to throw your credit card at me or look severely annoyed that I have interrupted your phone conversation with a question regarding your prescription. People complain about customer service at stores everywhere, but how can I service a customer that pays me no attention?

With all that ranting out of the way, most people are very understanding and nice. I’m enjoying my days off. Andy and I took my car in to the shop this morning to get the air conditioning fixed. Thank goodness! Air conditioning in Texas is a must. While I was busy working last weekend, Andy did a fabulous job on the yard. He planted the gardenia bushes we picked out along the fence in the backyard. Jabber absolutely loves the bushes. She likes to lay down next to the bushes and smell the flowers. What a strange dog, but we love her quirks.

He fixed the brick in the front yard so we look the same caliber as our neighbors. Story behind the brick? We were the first house on our street to place brick around the front garden and around the tree. It looked nice, but then again there was nothing to compare it to. But then others caught on, others that had much more free time than us. They spent days on their bricks, leveling it with sand, getting all their friends to pitch in, placing the brick in neat curving patterns. Soon our brickwork looked disheveled and messy. Andy took advantage of last weekend to fix our wobbly bricks. It now looks awesome! Good work to Andy! Now if only I could get him to put some paint on the walls…

Bronchitis, Andy and I both caught bronchitis, or something similar to it. We’ve both been coughing like mad for the last week. We’ve been doing nothing but just lying in bed trying to rest, drinking lots of hot lemon and honey tea, eating nothing but toast and chicken noodle soup, and moaning/whining about how disgusting being sick is. Now that we’re finally back up on our feet…I’m feeling extraordinarily tired and lazy. With that said, I have a confession to make…I didn’t exactly keep a very close track of our activities in China. Our days were SOOO packed with things to do, that by the time we got back to the hotel, I would crash into bed. I think I actually fell asleep holding my journal and pen one night. I tried, I really did! Mr. Andy, however, did keep pretty good tabs on what was happening each day. Since he has been extra negligent of his blogging duties as of late, I am transferring all vacation story telling duties to him. (and yes, photos are FINALLY up ^-^) I do have a couple stories to share with y’all.

1. When we were touring the Forbidden Palace in Beijing, there were hundreds of thousands of other tourists milling about. It was absolutely impossible to get a clear shot of anything! You had to have a very quick trigger finger to get pictures of the magnificent architecture, delicately carved stone figures, and hundreds of years worth of history. As we were strolling around the huge plaza of the main building, I noticed there were a couple Chinese girls following us around and giggling. This wasn’t too terribly strange, Andy and Ashley got open mouthed-gaping stares on a pretty regular basis. I’m not entirely sure why, but the more rural the area, the less people disguised their disbelief at seeing westerners. I think one man almost fell off his bicycle he was staring at Andy so hard. But I digress…two girls following us around the Forbidden Palace…suddenly one of the girls comes up to me and asks if she can take a picture with Ashley. They think she looks like an American movie star and want very much to get a photo with her. This is something I’ve never heard of before, so I ask Ashley, who was equally surprised but gracious enough to grant the Chinese girl’s request. The Chinese girl proceeds to lock Ashley in a tight embrace like they’ve been friends for years, and put up her peace fingers (a very popular thing in most asian countries, just ask my cousins). I just wish I were smart enough to take a photo of the whole thing, but I was so surprised by the whole exchange that I kinda just stood there and watched.
2. We didn’t really buy much beyond small souvenirs. I desperately wanted a strand of multicolored (purple, pink, and cream) Wuxi pearls in a necklace. Alas, they were much too expensive and I wasn’t in the mood to haggle with the store’s clerks. They were really annoyingly persistent in selling us stuff, which made me not want to buy stuff. I’ve also been kicking myself because I should have bought this beautiful orange knock-off Coach purse in Shanghai. But for some odd reason, my brain malfunctioned and I didn’t get it! However, I did purchase an awesome t-shirt in Shanghai that says “Look my adorable kitten named Toby!” I haven’t a clue why, but I find the t-shirt marvelously funny, plus it was only $3 US. I simply couldn’t turn down a $3 t-shirt.

3. When it came time to climb the Great Wall, I was already suffering from an annoying cough. So, Andy and Ashley started the climb and I followed slowly behind. What most people don’t understand, is that the Great Wall follows the mountains. It’s not always nice and flat like the movies depict. Instead, there’s a lot of steps to climb. Steps don’t seem like such a big deal, right? Oh my friends, have you got it wrong! The steps are not all uniform. Some are only a couple inches deep, some are so high they’re knee level! It makes for a challenging climb. The view was definitely pretty, the weather was cooperating for the most part, but I refused to take any pictures. Taking pictures meant I would have to let go of the handrail. I always forget that I dislike heights until I’m teetering at the edge of a mountain! So, I did my best to climb as high as my cough would permit. Then when I was resting at one of the guard towers, I thought about the fact that the higher I climbed, the farther I had to climb DOWN! Going up, though more grueling, is nothing like going back down. The steps are incredibly steep, and there’s nothing keeping you from tumbling down the entire length of stairs. So, slowly with an incredible grip on the handrail, I made my way back down the steps. Along the way, there are a lot of people taking pictures, resting, chatting…etc. There was no way I was letting go of that handrail, I would simply wait for them to finish doing whatever they were doing before continuing my descent. This may sound pathetic (and it probably is) but I’ve never been much for the going back down part of hiking, just ask my parents. I FINALLY reached the bottom, and my hands were completely black from my trusty handrail. There was much hand-washing and anti-bacterial lotion after this particular adventure.

4. After the Great Wall, we were all feeling pretty sore. So, the tour guide took us for a nice massage. Now, a massage in the States means really expensive prices for not a lot of time, and not a lot of pressure. Nothing can beat a good Chinese massage! For less than $20 US, we got 70 minutes worth of real stress relieving, muscle relaxing, health diagnosing goodness. Ashley, Andy, and I all got foot massages at the famous Tong Ren Tang (historically, it was the emperor’s own private doctor’s office/pharmacy). They still practice traditional Chinese medicine, which focuses on prevention rather than recovery. I’m not at all sure how, but just by massaging our feet, they could tell that Andy has frequent heartburn and issues with his stomach. They could also tell that I have weak lungs and am prone to coughs. Of course, they also tried to sell us medications to help us in our misery, which we politely declined. Chinese medicine, though effective in its own way, was fairly expensive and tends to taste not so good.

For the rest of our exciting tales, you’ll simply have to check Andy’s website, because I don’t really remember much else. Sorry!

In other news, my mom and grandma came to visit last Thursday. Grandma hasn’t seen our house yet, and seemed to think it was nice enough. She had a great time with Jabber, feeding the puppy things that she should really not be eating, talking to her in Chinese, patting her on the head…etc. Jabber, in return, loved following grandma around the house, waiting for love and affection. Mom was nice enough to buy groceries and cook for us, since I had the late shifts this week. She also cleaned all the things I’ve been meaning to clean, and a couple of items I hadn’t really even thought of touching (i.e. Andy’s coffee maker). On Saturday, I swapped shifts with someone so I could go out to lunch with mom, grandma, Lena, Reynold, and Andy. We went to Tokyo One…of course. We stuffed ourselves silly with sushi and other tasty Japanese morsels. We then followed it up with shopping for Chinese groceries at a brand new Chinese grocery store in Frisco. It was really nice, has an on site Chinese bakery (there’s nothing like the smell of a good Chinese bakery), sells Chinese movies, Chinese newspapers, and all the latest Chinese food items. Mom and grandma left this morning for KS. It was nice having them here and I wish I could see family more often…but at least mom was smart enough to take a photo of us at the restaurant.