--out and about--

awaiting her owner's return

sweeties!

Happy Birthday, Jess!

The Confectional: Triple Berry Cheesecake

@the Phillip's for dinner! Each of us got to hold baby Daniel! 

Veggie Chowder and Work Drivel

I slightly tweaked and modified the veggie chowder recipe on Ann's blog according to what I had in my fridge. It was the perfect (fatty) comfort food for me to pig out on while curled up on the couch watching mindless TV after a horrendous day at work. I will definitely keep this recipe handy during the cold, rainy Seattle autumns/winters/springs.

Veggie Chowder
1/4 c. butter
1 tsp. garlic, minced
1/2 onion, diced
8 oz. white mushrooms, sliced
1/2 c. frozen broccoli cutlets
1/4 c. flour
1/2 c. heavy cream
1 c. milk
1 can (14.5 oz) chicken broth
Splash of white cooking wine
A few heaping spoonfuls of sour cream... (recipe called for 1 c. sour cream, I used significantly less and the soup's consistency was still plenty thick and tasted delicious)
Salt, to taste
Generous amounts of black pepper

Directions:

1. Melt butter in large pot. Saute garlic and onions until tender. Toss in mushrooms, and cook until soft. 
2. Add heavy cream and milk. Whisk in flour slowly to prevent clumping. Add chicken broth. Bring soup to a boil, then lower heat and continue cooking for 2 minutes. Add frozen broccoli and cooking wine, if using. 
3. Stir in sour cream, and heat through. Season with salt and pepper to taste. 

The soup is flexible to accommodate whatever you have in your fridge. Make the soup a hearty meal by throwing in ham or bacon, and serve with crusty bread. Or add more/different veggies; just remember, frozen veggies can be thrown in later after all the liquid has been added, while fresh veggies should be sauteed in butter with the mushrooms and onions. Next time, I might try with chunks of potatoes and bacon! Yum yum! 

So more about my day: why exactly was my day horrendous you ask? Well, I had such high hopes going into work this morning after my fantastic high-energy on-fire workday last Friday... alas, today was the complete opposite. Strangely enough, even with an iced mocha to begin my day, I had an headache and felt slow all morning. My mind wasn't quite awake even though laid in bed for at least 8 hours last night, and thus I kept making errors while typing prescriptions. By the afternoon, I was completely frustrated at myself, to the point that I was working slower and slower to avoid typing new prescriptions. At one point I made mistakes in 3 consecutive prescriptions. 

Furthermore, Mondays are hectic days at the pharmacy. Since the pharmacy is closed on Sundays, Mondays bring in all the people who didn't plan ahead and didn't pick up their medications before the weekend. At multiple points throughout the day, the pharmacy lobby was packed, usually with a screaming child or two. Our pick-up line for refills was swamped. Our queue for new prescriptions ballooned to at least 6 or 7 waiters, plus the 3 or 4 we were already working on. And of course, each patient demands why his or her prescriptions are not done within 20 minutes! Additional problems (like my mistakes) extend the whole process of typing, pulling, filling, verifying, dispensing. 

Some of the most newsworthy lines from the patients today: 

• "I ain't paying for this! Your job is to figure out how to get me my medications so I don't have to pay for them!" --Patient on refusing to pay for early refills (because she was going on a trip) for her painkiller medications 
• "Why is the pharmacist questioning THE doctor! My doctor wrote the prescription, so the pharmacist should just give me my medications! She [pharmacist] isn't a doctor!" --Patient not understanding why a pharmacist was verifying a prescription with the prescriber before dispensing the medication
• "Are you NEW??" --the words don't do justice to the loathing, despise that was conveyed in the patient's tone
• And of course, you can't forget about the patient who just stands at my window glaring at me, or the patient who runs up to the counter every 3 minutes and asks if his meds are done yet

So often I don't know how to respond to these angry patients, namely because I get riled up at them! For feeling like the "pharmacy should just be like Mickey D's- in and out" while feeling entitled to get free medications in life. Understandably, my nerves were grated and raw by the time 5pm swung around. 

No way am I going to work retail or outpatient in the future! I'll take the comatose patient in the ICU over a patient who yells, demands, cusses, throws a fit, and rants any day. You can't get through or communicate intelligently with either... 

Wide-Eyed Caffeine Infusion

I can proudly declare that I am NOT a coffee-dependent Seattle-ite. Even when midterms, finals, and early mornings roll around during the schoolyear, I don't run straight for the coffee-stand. Coffee simply does not appeal- who chooses to drink bitter, unpleasant liquid that leaves a lingering bad taste in your mouth?

But this past week I had a taste of the attraction that caffeine (better known in our society as "coffee") offers. For once I was early to work, so I decided to stop by the busy Harborview cafe hub. I am such a newb that I didn't even know how to order my drink. The barista gently prompted me as I stumbled over my order: "uh... a macchiato, the sweet kind... you know..." Finally, four dollars short later, I had my double tall (I think that means two shots of espresso?) iced (but not too much ice) caramel macchiato.

My goodness, did that morning fly by or what! I felt like I was on-fire all day in the pharmacy- churning out prescriptions, getting medications filled, clearly counseling my patients! It was a startling change to be wide awake, coherent, and active so early in the morning. Not only was it doing a world of good for my patients, but I found that I was also more talkative and engaging around the pharmacy staff. I definitely experienced the caffeine buzz... and I liked it!

Yet, I am still not completely committed to $4 coffees every morning. Thoughts whirl around my head: What if I become tolerant, and don't attain the wide-awake sensation from caffeine anymore? Or maybe I was just making up the "caffeine buzz" effect, and it was in reality just a normal day. What about falling into caffeine addiction, and I can no longer function without the stimulant in the morning?

I should not so readily give away my independence and the control of my life to some brownish, muddy highly-addictive (as my classmates attest to) substance.

Musings on Gardening

If a baby is anything like a garden, he (or she) would be unfed, unwatered, all-around neglected for days at a time. It would be forgotten and cast aside if I had a major test to study for or had a long day at work. Even if the "baby" cried for attention, I would most likely put off feeding him or her until a time that is more convenient for more arose.

Thank goodness I don't have a baby! 

My (poor) garden is a lens into my own habits and quirks. I have found out that I am very much the "one-track mind" type. During test season, I live and breathe studying (with numerous breaks interspersed); from the moment I wake up to the last thing I do before I go to sleep, my mind screams "TEST!!!" (Yes, with 3 exclamation marks...) Work can also drain the energy right out of me- 8 hour work shifts turn into 10 hour days with the commute, which leaves little time for cooking/eating/fun/errands, much less tending a garden. 

Therefore, my garden has disintegrated into some disarray. The seeds I had sowed outside have fared alright, survived if not thrived. Even if I forget to water the plants (which is often), the sky provides much needed moisture. Yet, the plants have grown wild, some even sprouting flowers. Overgrown, old plants are usually not very edible, to my dismay. Indoors, I have a pile of wilting lettuce sprouts that are pretty much dead due to lack of adequate sunlight and no watering. My only success story is my small basil plant that provides delicious, fresh basil, but not enough to make pesto. 

All in all, plants are haaard work! They require daily care- I cannot simply add lots of water in spurts or only weed and trim plants every so often. Gardening really isn't a hobby- a hobby is something that I can pick up and put aside in my spare time (i.e. knitting). Instead, gardening involves a commitment and a change in my lifestyle. Other people have dogs or cats or fish, I have plants to care for now!

SUMMER = FREEDOM

No more...

1. Living out of my hamper
2. Subsisting on ramen and frozen foods
3. One-track mind focused only on tests 
4. Having something to do every single minute of my life
5. Living in a pigsty (which means now I need to CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN!) 

In other news, look what a pretty cake Ben and Tiff made for Mel's birthday this past week! I am inspired- I never thought mere mortals could make a cake like those perfect store-bought types, but this was pretty darn close! Perhaps a cake decorating class this summer is in the stars? 

Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Preserves
Topped with Homemade Whipped Cream and Fresh Raspberries

Crash and Burn

Crashing and burning... that's how I feel this quarter has gone. Like to an airplane that has lost control and is nose-diving, I'm flaming out, academically. Ever since Rho Chi initiation, I seemed to have lost any motivation to study. Yet, I still retain my pride and desire for good results. That turns out to be a bad combination: I don't want to study, but I still want to do well. It's like in the movies where the plane bumps, skids, jolts to a screeching halt,  every midterm is a bump, skid, jolt. Every single one worse than the previous one... trying desperately to reach to the end of this ordeal.

Just got punched in the gut by my stats final. Stats- the supposed easy final of this week. I probably deserved it, since I was relying on the 3 pages of notes we could have during the test. To make it worse, I didn't even write out the 3 pages of notes, and used someone else's. Oh boy, the next 48 hours is going to be long, uphill climb.

I don't remember first-year being like this. I remember being excited for those multiple-choice conjoint tests, having full confidence that I would ace them. How the tables have turned... Am I getting dumber, or are the tests getting smarter?

I don't know how to study anymore. I have a headache just staring at my notes, especially pceut notes (bane of my life at the moment). My mind is sluggish. The words I read don't stick at all. I can't focus. Sad truth is, I'm maybe less prepared for these finals than I have ever been for tests, and am relying/praying/wishing on some luck to get through them.

Perfect Dinner? Denied!

I've been impatiently waiting for this Maggiano's dinner for the past 2 weeks. Daydreaming about all-you-can-eat calamari, stuffed mushrooms, salad, pasta while in class. Obsessively checking out Maggiano's menu days beforehand. The night was going to be perfect, with the perfect dress, perfect ride (only 10 minutes late! hehe), beautiful people, and decadent food. 

Everything was perfect, except my stomach. As I saw plates and plates of heaping hot food placed before me, I could only weakly nibble. As much as I drooled over the calamari and my favorite Rigatoni D pasta, my stomach refused to cooperate. Clenching in resistance every time I forced down a bite of creamy pasta or Parmesan-encrusted mushroom caps, my stomach overcame any desire for food. The visceral pain is sharp and acute- yet, there was also a chronic throbbing that intensified through the 2 hour dinner. The mental disappointment was just as great- our much-hyped ASCP end-of-the-year in-and-out dinner was completely wasted on me. Yet the fact was, the more I wanted to eat, the more my stomach denied me. Warm water, slow bites, good conversation- none distracted the pain. 

It felt like labor- and I didn't want any of it! Chronic, no end in sight, intensifying contractive pain. By the end of the night, it took all my concentration and willpower to stand up tall and smile for pictures outside. It felt like my organs were being shredded by acidic gastric juices. 

Perfect dinner- thwarted again!