Coffee & a Chat – Snowpocalypse 2022

It wasn’t quite the snowpocalypse that everyone was making it out to be. At least for us but, it is the most snow we’ve seen in a long time in our area. We got about 8″-10″, probably closer to 10. (I’m bad at estimating and I never watch the local news.) There was plenty of shoveling but we didn’t have to actually leave our property for two days, which was awesome. We watched the snow fall, made chili, played video games and snuggled up with the fur babies in blankets.

Luckily, we never lost power. I prepped like a crazy woman in case we did but we didn’t. Years of growing up in Northern Michigan makes prepping feel like an essential. During Y2K, (I was 13) my dad wasn’t worried about it, but he let me prep to feel better. I filled our root cellar with water, canned food, dog food and make sure the dog was inside when midnight hit. Obviously, nothing happened but I felt better being ready for it.

Apparently, 22 years later, that still makes me feel better.

Instead of getting in a TON of reading, I became absorbed in Pokemon Shield. I am having a great time and my Dreadnaw can kick almost anyone’s ass.

This isn’t actually my character but they look alike.

When I do get a little reading in, I am still working on Goblet of Fire. It’s slow going but I am enjoying it when I do read.

The snowstorm and subsequent roads have made it a quiet return to work, which is a nice change of pace. I still don’t like being a pharmacy tech anymore.

School on the flipside, has been very enjoyable for a change. I’m doing great in Strategic Business Management (easy when you’ve helped run a small business for 10 years) and I have been working hard in Intro to Probability and Statistics. Despite being a math class, I am having fun learning it.

What is making you happy these days??

Covid Testing Hijinx

Unfortunately, we recently started doing Covid testing at my work in the last month. Why unfortunately? Because that means I have direct contact with positive people and my work doesn’t even offer health insurance. So I am bitter as fuck. Also, it makes me even MORE aware of just how stupid the general public is. As an example, some short encounters for your pleasure.

Testing 1:

Coworker: “Have you ever done this test before?”

Patient: “No.”

Proceeds to stick swab all the way down their throat before he can respond.

It’s a nasal swab.

Testing 2:

Results for patient come back inconclusive because there was nothing on the swab.

Patient: “Oh, I used the other side of the stick without the swab. I thought that was weird.”

Story from another area pharmacy:

Patient takes test tube out of technician’s hand, licks the tube, and hands it back.

This virus is never going to end.

Coffee & a Chat – Prickly Pear

I thought I was busy at the pharmacy on my last post, little did I know, the next day it would go live on vaccinefinder.org that we had the Covid-19 vaccine in stock and I would experience the craziest day EVER in my entire pharmacy career. I’m not even going to sit here and explain. I don’t want to think about it anymore, it was that level of absurd.

Instead, I’ll focus on the fun stuff. It was finally a work hard, play hard kind of week.

As you can see in the picture above, I went to the library for the first time in over a year. It felt insanely good to just browse the racks. I was so excited that I forgot to bring my library card and had to go home and get it. (Apparently our very small library still doesn’t have the technology to look someone up without them knowing their library ID number. I don’t even have my driver’s license # memorized.) I do not live far from the library though so it was a small price to pay for the level of joy that I experienced.

We went out to dinner with friends for the first time in over a year as well. The local Mexican restaurant has one of those outdoor igloos and there was hardly anyone there. It was raining which made the experience in an igloo bubble even more atmospheric and fun. Everyone in the party is at some stage of their vaccinations. With Michigan surging in case numbers again, we were a bit nervous but the lack of people and plenty of precautions made, we think we’ll be a-okay. If I deserved nothing else after this hell week, it was my favorite prickly pear margarita. (Although it was hella bittersweet without Ignited Moth! My BFF and Margarita-annihilating partner!)

Currently reading:

What does this week entail?

Who knows. I’m basically flying by the seat of my pants and just making it through everyday at this point. A week from today is my birthday so hopefully some cool stuff happens that day and the following week brings a desperately needed bathroom remodel.

How has April been treating you thus far?

Woo Dog! This is Exhausting

I hope that everyone had a rather lovely Easter weekend. We had a quiet day at home. The weather was nice, we took the dogs for a car ride and the husband polished up his new motorcycle.

We have now been bombarded by Covid vaccine supply at work, so chaos has broken out trying to keep up with the phone calls, scheduling people and then actually giving the vaccines. This week will probably continue to be a quiet one when it comes to me posting. Some days I’m coming straight home and just plopping down on the couch until I’m required to move. I foresee much of that in my future this week.

Take care everyone!

Coffee & a Chat – I Survived!

Just before the chaos of this last week, I managed to spring clean my favorite bookcase.

WHEW. I made it. It has taken two nights of sleeping 8+ hours to recover but here I am.

Work was made to be even busier as we received our first (and perhaps only) small shipment of the Pfizer Covid vaccine to distribute. Word spread quickly and we were swamped with phone calls of people trying to skip the waitlist and convince us that they needed it more than everyone else. We only had two people get down right rude and one screamer so I’ll consider that a success because I honestly expected more of that to happen. Mostly, everyone was super grateful that they were finally able to get it.

On top of that, I was applying for scholarships (turns out my schooling is not going to be 100% covered since I’m not in-district like I thought I was) and began the process to refinance the house. I couldn’t push that back any longer though, as mortgage rates are slowly creeping back up.

Next week should prove much easier as I only have one thing on my plate besides work which is figuring out which classes to register for this semester. I found out that my new school is accepting almost all of my credit hours from my old school that I attended in 2006-07 which, puts me at halfway through my degree! *does a dance* I was not expecting that and it was the boost I needed to make sure that school happens.

Currently reading:

Since this is one of those books that each chapter is about a different movie/true crime story, it’s easy to put down and pick back up even days later. That has worked out great for me this last week. It’s also available on Kindle Unlimited if it’s something you’re interested in.

That’s it folks! I am happy that last week is over and that I feel recovered after so much sleep. How was your week??

Coffee & a Chat – Bookstores and Dog Beds

The Prince of Barkness gets a new bed. (Ozzy)

Good snowy morning ladies and germs! What a way to round out the first month of 2021 but with a little chat over the morning’s caffeine intake.

A new realization this month: This pandemic has made me realize many things over the last almost year, and my dears, the general public made me question whether I want to be a pharmacy technician the rest of my life. After a bit of consideration, I discovered that the answer had become a solid, no. Then, Mr. C&M gave me another idea; to one day open my own bookstore.

So that’s the new life plan, in the next 5 to 10 years, open my own bookstore. Pharmacy is still fine for now but if someone is rude, I want to be able to throw them out of my own store. (I may also be falsely envisioning that book patrons are a less rude bunch, but let me have my dream.) I helped open one small business, after lots of research, I think I can do it on my own one day.

As for the rest of January, I did pretty good with keeping up on content.

I reviewed two books –

Magic Triumps by Ilona Andrews (5 stars)

Blood Heir by Ilona Andrews (5 stars)

I also reread Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban with my BFF and started another book;

I posted 3 new recipes –

Eggnog Bread

Applebutter Cookies

Soft Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies

I also received my first dose of the Covid Vaccine almost 3 weeks ago. My second dose is this Tuesday. I didn’t have too many side effects with the first dose. Just muscle soreness for 24 hours and was ravenously hungry the next day. We’ll see what the second dose has in store as we’ve heard that’s usually where you see more side effects.

This may become my new format, Coffee & a Chat’s for the end of the month to recap progress and various happenings.

How was your January??

Coffee & A Chat – Staycation

Good morning you beautiful sirens and stud muffins! What has me in such a good mood? I haven’t worked in a week!

As an essential employee (pharmacy), I only quarantined on my days off and on one of those days, I always had to grocery shop. Luckily, I haven’t gotten sick (yet anyway). But as time wore on, customers became less and less nice. At first, people thanked us left and right for working through this pandemic and then gradually, they got pissed off that they still couldn’t come inside. You see, in Michigan, as soon as the governor lifted the stay at home order, people thought that that meant the virus no longer exists. It’s been real fun.

That all brings us to ME, and how I told my boss that I HATE the general public and needed a vacation, even if I couldn’t go anywhere and he happily agreed. In fact, he said, “Why not take it sooner rather than later?” So I did. I have a great boss and in the entire 8.5 years I’ve worked for him, I’ve never once told him I hated the public. I think he took that very seriously.

So, what does a C&M do on a staycation? Well the intent was a whole hell of a lot more than I actually got done. We had a very nasty storm last week that brought down very large branches out of our ancient maple trees. That made a lot of the week doing clean up. Not so bad since it’s been fairly nice outside and the pups have loved the hell out of it.

One other major project happened. Two weeks ago today, our roommate moved out. Amicable and long overdue. So we turned his old bedroom into Mr. C&M’s new home office to work and game out of. Since he works at home, I can officially be inside now without worrying about making too much noise or the dogs barking in the background of his calls. 😀

The roommate chose this color, which I was fine with BUT he painted the damn ceiling!

That ceiling took THREE coats of paint WITH primer to cover up.

Why black and white? Because why the hell not? We’ve both wanted a black room since we were teenagers and were always told no by our parents. NOW WE OWN THE PLACE AND NO ONE CAN STOP US!

I’ve also been working on some wood projects that I’ll post in the future when they’re done. The toughest one being a Father’s Day present I’m working on. I’m a perfectionist but I don’t have the wood working stills to back it up yet and it’s frustrating the hell out of me.

What big projects have you accomplished recently?? It can be anything!

I Lied.

That’s probably pretty obvious after a two month hiatus. Sorry about that. I’m not here to promise that I’m going to be active again, but to explain why.

It’s going to be a little TMI:

The first and foremost reason behind my disappearance was a change in birth control. Sounds weird right? But, after reading reviews of the birth control I was using at the time, I found a lot of reviews complaining of depression and brain fog. I had never considered that my brain fog and sometimes bouts of mild depression might be caused by my birth control. I always thought it was an issue stemming from my grandfather passing away, which was about the same time that I started BC and I never put the two together. So, I decided to switch drugs and see if I had different results. It has very much turned my life around. I feel like my old, happy, creative self again.

Second, my husband had lost his job due to corporate restructuring. A lot of stress there. He was re-employed again in just a few weeks thankfully.

Third, Coronavirus hit. Being a pharmacy technician, work got crazy (still is). Plus, we live in Michigan, one of the hardest hit states. So obviously, life has been very different and my attentions have been else where.

On top of all that, I decided that I wasn’t reviewing books anymore. It was becoming a bit of a chore and since quitting, I’ve been enjoying reading more.

Where does all this leave my blog? Honestly, on the back burner.

I want to try to post at least once a month BUT I’m not going to pressure myself.

I am however, off to catch up on some of my favorite blogs while the mood has struck me!

Stay safe everyone. ❤

When C&M Trains You.

Trains you in what? Pharmacy, of course you crack heads! (Speaking of crack heads, an interesting past week in the pharmacy, I caught one of our regulars stealing over the counter items. It’s a little obvious though when you swipe a whole shelf. So if you’re going to steal guys, don’t take the whole fucking shelf.)

Things are finally calming down a wee bit but the next couple of days I have to dedicate my evenings to writing a new technician training manual for the pharmacy. The new tech starts Friday. (I’ve been attempting to get this manual done since we got back from Nashville but with all the overtime since firing The Great Tampon Thief, I just couldn’t squeeze it in.) I’m going to make myself look really good as lead technician and be late that day. Samus has an appointment with a new vet we’ve seen in town for Ozzy. It’s just for her yearly things but she’s a very fearful dog so vet visits are always stressful for her and I both. The on-duty pharmacist knows of course so I’m sure it will be fine but first impressions and all.

Other than that, not a whole lot going on. I’ve finally been able to squeeze more reading in again and started Beyond Redemption which is so dark, it’s juicy. In the beginning of August, Ignited Moth and I begin a buddy read on A Plague of Giants. You’d think we did buddy reads more often but it only happens every couple of years. Probably should change that Ms. Moth. 😉

July? WTF.

How did we get here already? And why the hell is it so fucking hot?

I only finished (actually am still technically working on) three out of the four books I planned to read in June. Life just won’t slow down right now. We fired one of the technicians at work so it’s been busier, mostly because one of the pharmacists has also been on vacation since this happened. We were going to hire another technician anyway but now we just need to do it a little sooner.

What did previous technician get fired for your wondering? Well, among many things over the years, the final straw was stealing over the counter stuff. Tampons, sunscreen, sun tanning lotion. Stupid shit. Now they’ve earned the monikor, The Great Tampon Thief.

You might be wondering, Were they poor? Could they really not afford these things? The answer is no. Financially, they were just fine. Either it was the thrill or they thought the company owned them these things or a combination of the two.

Besides being extra busy, the atmosphere in the pharmacy is much better. They brought a black cloud to hang over the workplace every day. They will not be missed.

So what can we expect from C&M in July? 

Not much of fucking anything. Maybe cleaning up some reading and hopefully going to back to being free to read whatever I want. I feel like reading some non-fiction here soon. My brain craves knowledge.

Oh I might bake something this week. Doesn’t happen enough anymore so that’s exciting.