who's soonger??

Long weekend

Monday, August 7th.

It's been quite a week. Worked every stinkin' day last week to pay all the bills for next year. Looks like my tuition is over the $7000 barrier. Not cool on any scale. To top things off, there is also the $3900 New College first instalment to pay before the September 1st deadline, making my total payment of over C$10K due in very little time. Of course, I did not earn that much this summer (due to one month of salary-free work in May), so I will be dipping into the Bank of Soong for the balance.

The week was split between Shopper's Drug Mart and travelling across southwestern Ontario for Claritin. The start of the week was surprisingly quiet. Because August 1st rolled in, seniors earning over a certain annual income will have to pay the first $100 on their prescriptions. A few seniors were surprised but luckily they weren't too defensive about it.

By the end of the week, I was travelling around for Claritin. I went to the east end, downtown, and Sarnia. The first two days were remarkably quiet-- I didn't have a chance to sell my wares to many people so I ended up giving a lot of free stuff to the store. On Saturday, working at the Sarnia Walmart was a totally different story. There were many more people there wanting free stuff. Too bad business was in spurts-- a flood of people would arrive every now and then. The last half-hour was the most difficult-- the last 2 days were slow, my patience has worn thin beyond normal circumstances.

The long Civic Holiday weekend... what did have in store for me? Not a heckuva lot. Last week, my friend Jane and I collaborated over a bulletin board to post unwanted clinical rotation sites for next year. For those outside of pharmacy, fourth year is separated into two semesters. The first semester is the last semester of classroom hours. After Christmas, we start our clinical rotations: two months in each a hospital and community setting. My first rotation is in a Windsor community pharmacy. It is not affiliated to a nation-wide chain, but instead, an independent pharmacy. My preceptor was last year's Pharmacist of the Year, as determined by the Ontario Pharmacist's Association.

My second rotation is back in downtown Toronto-- St. Michael's hospital. Looks like I'll be back in T.O. for two more months after Christmas. Still not sure where I will live but odds are that I will stay in New College for that time. Hopefully I will still live in my big room in the corner. Don't want to lose it to youngin's returning to the residence.

Finally, what do I plan to do for this upcoming week? Not very much. I was fortunate enough to have Monday through Wednesday off from work. Thursday through Saturday I'm doing PR work for Claritin again. Two sites are in Windsor-- the Saturday I'm off to Chatham to work a Walmart. (Which reminds me to ask for directions!) I do hope to have a chance to go out with my rez / pharmacy friend, Natalie, while I'm up there. Don't know if she's busy that weekend or not.

During this week, I'll have to help out a couple of friends with their computer woes. First Renee's computer is acting up on her. She has to hit the reset button several times before she can reach the Windows desktop-- a sign that the Windows registry is dead. Secondly, I have to help my other friend Christie shop for a computer. Her current computer should be a paperweight but she still finds use for it. Well, not any more-- she wants something to surf the Internet with as well as compose a Word document in a reasonable amount of time. Quite a daunting task for me!

Birthday

Wednesday, August 9th.

It was my dad's birthday yesterday. He said he didn't feel any older now than any other birthday. Guess it is all relative! Didn't have to work so instead, I goofed off around the house. What did I do? That's a good question-- I have to think it over. Much of the day, I was working on this very computer checking my messages early before travelling to the 'States for some shopping! For those in the the area, I went to Great Lakes Crossing. An hour drive north of Windsor, it's a new (1 yr old) mega-mall on I-75. Lots of fashionable things there. I purchased a couple of things I thought were nice.

Since it was my dad's b'day, we went out for supper. Ate at this place called Wah Court Inn, one of the finer eateries in the city. It was only 3 days ago that we last ate there. Guess this is the restaurant of choice for now. (Our other eatery no longer offers us a 10% discount-- not cool in our eyes.) After supper, we went over to my aunt's place to check out her garden. One of her prized flowers blossomed and it was imperative that we see this event. I have to say that I have never seen anything like it. Quite a nice display.

Also last night, I went to see a movie on cheapie night. Mike, Matt and I went to see What Lies Beneath. Let me say that I was totally surprised to see how boring that movie was. It was over 2 hours in length and the first hour and a half could be condensed to 45 minutes. It was just too long- winded for me. By the time the cliffhanger, it was too late for me. I was too detached from the movie to give a care what happened. In fact, the ending was too cliche for me-- I had a good feeling what was to happen. The supernatural thing at the end was a little to camp for me. The movie can be best described as a Fatal Attraction meets Sixth Sense type of movie. I don't know what possessed Robert Zemeckis to make this movie. Harrison Ford? What a pathetic dramatic actor he is! He should stick to movies like Indiana Jones or the Jack Ryan series. Ouch-- he stunk worse than the film. Let me also say that Michelle Pfifer carried that movie. She screamed one too many times at the end-- otherwise, a good performance. A SoongScore of 5.5 out of 10, at best. Perhaps I am a little too generous based upon my review. It was one of the most boring movies of the year for me. Quite a surprise...

Today, I am supposed to go over to a friend's house to fix up their computer. She's a classmate of mine in pharmacy. Anyway, her version of Windows is dead. It takes her several attempts of booting up to successfully reach the Windows desktop. (A sure sign of age and/or several add / remove program attempts.) That should go on tonight. She called me up yesterday-- I wonder if there is a change in plans. Will call her at work to verify things.

One final note: I received an interesting e-mail from U of T intramurals. They've invited me (as well as former council members) to attend a U of M - Northwestern football game in September. This is a trip to better organize intramurals for U of T. Too bad I may have class president commitments otherwise I'd be there FER SURE! Will see how my schedule goes before I commit. =( It has always been a dream for me to go to the U of M stadium-- that place can seat over 100 000 spectators! It'll be great! Hope my other pharmacy council members can attend-- at least I can live vicariously through them if I can't attend. Will keep you posted on my activities...

Three more days...

Wednesday, August 23rd.

...before I finish my summer work term! Technically, I have one more day on Aug 31st but it's a quasi-work Claritin Day in the busiest store in Windsor (actually, the busiest store in Canada based on prescription count amongst all SDMs). Nonetheless, I will complete these three days of work then go off to Ottawa for a few days before returning to Windsor before my brother's birthday.

What do I plan on doing while in Ottawa? You've got me! My only plans are to pack my bags get there by train. My cousin will pick me up at the train station (I don't think I have it in me to drive all the way up solo without getting a speeding ticket!) and then call up my friends there. They've been warned that I'll be coming up so everything should be all good. Once I purchase my train ticket this morning, then I can inform them of my arrival time and all will be set up by then. It's great to have friends in faraway places-- that way, I can save on lodging!

Besides work and vacation plans, I have some interesting stuff over the past little bit. Washed both cars, cut the lawn, did a little shopping and fixing up computers. Did some shopping over in the States a few weekends back and I purchased a nice shirt / tie combo (black) as well as a shirt that I could go clubbing in. While working for Claritin the other day, I purchased a pair of Tommy jeans which don't need to be hemmed. Later that day, Mike told me I could have bought the same pair of jeans for less at the Tommy outlet store-- D'oh!!!

Speaking of computers, I did help out a friend update his computer to the latest software. I showed him where to find the stuff-- he has a cable connection to make the most of those downloads. Too bad he doesn't have a CD burner or a SCSI card-- that way I could have either given him discs to burn or brought my Jaz drive to transfer files from his computer. All this technology and for what?!

Should keep in mind of things that I should do before I go back to school. Need to pick up my dry cleaning (my school bed comforter as well as my suit!), start packing some bags for school, return some phone calls / e-mails, write a letter to my cousin overseas, give out some more free stuff from my job.

Last Day of Work

Thursday, August 31st.

It was my last day of work today! The day did start rather early. Went to the bank to pay for my school fees BEFORE I went over to the States with my friend, Mike. Can't believe how much I dropped with the stroke of a pen! Over 9 grand!!!

To console myself from that terrible loss, Mike and I went over to the States for some outlet mall shopping. There's this place called Great Lakes Crossing. I am almost certain that I've mentioned this place before in previous messages. Anyway, the trip took an hour over there and time was at a premium-- I had to be back home before 3 (when I had to work!) Our first stop was the Saks Fifth outlet store. We spent a lot of time there going through all the things. I did end up with one purchase-- a Spandex CK top that can be used for clubbing. (My mom laughed at my purchase when I came home.)

We then cruised the mall to the various other shops. Looked at shoes and other clothes. There were great bargains at the Eddie Bauer store for a change. I purchased a pair of khaki shorts and a navy coloured crew-neck vest there all for the LOW LOW price of $21 USD. I was quite impressed by my eye for a bargain. Mike did end up with the best overall discount. He found a nice linen/cotton blend sweater at the Neiman-Marcus outlet for 90% off. Also found a nice pair of khaki shorts for $5 USD at a store.

Our time over there was cut short so we had to leave at 1. I had to have lunch so we came back to Windsor at stopped off at a McDonald's. I still have discount coupons so I have to make use of the most of them while I'm in town!!! The Big Extra meal was very tasty. The 2-for-1 McFlurries coupon is one of the best deals there is!

Tonight, I worked Claritin at the busy Shopper's in town. I was a little surprised at the low volume of people there, but it was a very warm, muggy, Thursday so that kept people home. I did sell quite a bit of Claritin so it was a good day. The one pharmacist did catch me sitting on the job-- no matter-- it was my last day and they weren't going to fire me or anything! Still have to contact my rep to see how they want their stuff returned. I don't want it and I'm sure they want it back.