Week and a half left, not that I'm counting

So this week's blog is going to be short, mainly because I've been doing nothing but prepare for impending finals. I did manage to take a short break for some tryptophan - induced coma on Thursday, as I'm sure many of you did too. It was a welcome change, hanging out somewhere other than Charleston, with people other than those at school and work. But now its back to the grind for two weeks of late nights and heavy books.
I thought I'd take a break and cheer myself up by talking to my mom and sister a little longer than usual when I called to wish them for their birthdays Monday and today - bad idea. Turns out the daughter of our close family friends had passed away under mysterious circumstances and so no one was quite in the mood to celebrate anything.
So now I am just waiting desperately for the semester to be over, and hoping that maybe as it gets closer to Christmas, things will look up.

Wrapping up the Pledge Events

So it seems the semester had just started, and here we are now, just weeks away from finals! Where exactly did this semester go?
Its been a tough one. Mainly because I have so much going on at the same time. But its also been a really fun one, more so because I have had my brothers in Phi Delta Chi to rely on. This semester, my first as President, I got the chance to become so much more involved in every aspect of the fraternity, and since we have such a wonderful pledge class this year, I feel very confident that the generations to come with carry on the traditions that make Phi Delta Chi such a wonderful group in which to belong.
Keeping this in mind, I've attached my podcast from communications class, which just happens to be my message to the brothers, as outgoing president. Enjoy!

A taste of Clinicals, finally!

So my friend Rob and I decided to participate in this year's Clinical Skills competetion for the Society of Health System Pharmacists. I had figured as a third year student we'd have a great advantage over any 2nd year's in there, and it would be good practice to see what we have in store after graduation.
Boy! that was an awesome experience. Yesterday we were given a case, a room full of books, and 2 hours in which to come up with a complete therapeutic plan for a patient. No electronic resources, mind you, so no access to primary literature, no looking up guidelines if they weren't in the books that were in the room.
We thought we did a pretty thorough job of it. Then today we had to present the case in, get this - 2 minutes! Two minutes to present everything we came up with, followed by 8 gruelling minutes where Dr. Nappi and Dr. Buie got to shred our therapeutic plan while we defended it with evidence based medicine! It was awesome! We didn't get stumped on a single question, and they seemed genuinely impressed with some of the stuff we came up with!
I am just so stoked about clinicals, I can't wait for rotations to start so I can get to apply more of what we've learnt in the classroom to real, live, patients.

All downhill from here...

So we finally had our rescheduled Luau on Friday. Everything turned out great. We had about 60 people show. The boyfriend of one of the pledges won the Limbo contest. We cooked a whole hog and had a whole bunch of food, and of course two kegs. Everyone had a great time. Some of the staff came as well, and even commented that this had been the best PDC luau they had been to. So all in all, the hard work paid off.
I had thought I'd feel relieved when the luau was finally done, but now I realize that I have no more fun "work" left for the rest of the semester. From here on out, its all "just work." I'm definitely starting to think I've bitten off more than I can chew this semester. I usually tend to do best when my plate is full, but right now it feels more like my cup runneth over.
I can't wait for Christmas break. A nice few weeks from school is what I'm looking forward to from now on. 64 days to Christmas and counting...

Can't wait till Monday afternoon

So if you were to judge it simply by the title, you would think my post today referred to some cool vacation, all night party or at least an all out shoppin trip. But no, on Monday afternoon, I get to go to work. So why am I so stoked about it? Simple, if I'm at work, it means I don't have a test the next day!
This semester has really got me rushing from test to speech to paper to presentation to case workup. It's barely past the mid point and I feel exhausted. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm really ready for the didactic learning to stop and for my fourth year rotations to begin. I can't wait to have my own patients, do medication therapy management, and medication reconcilliations.
But I guess I'll just have to wait till all this is over, and they deem me fit to be let loose and on my own. So in the meantime, wish me luck - only one paper, one kinetics test, and one therapeutics test to go, and then its eight (relatively) worry free hours at work, yippee!!!

Fall Break is such a tease don't you think?

There is a reason the words Spring Break conjure up images in your head of fun in the sun, hanging out with friends and doing things you wouldn't want your children to know of when they are your age. None of those however come into mind when you hear the words Fall break. And there's one basic reason - Fall break is a tease!
You get two lousy days off and all that makes for is a long weekend. And if you're like me, you don't even get the two whole days off, because one of your schools doesn't believe in Fall break! In the meantime, all your instructors load you up with assignments because, after all, you're supposed to have so much more "free time this week"! And your manager at work expects you to pick up more hours since you don't have your morning classes those two days!
So while the mid - semester crunch is building up, and I feel like I'm about to pull out my hair, everyone around me seems to be talking excitedly about the plans they have for this week. All I can think is, I'm going to need a break when I get back from Fall break. But things aren't altogether too bleak. In my last post I'd promised to be a bit cheerier, so here's the one good thing that's happening - I've decided to get a dog over Christmas break. Not quite sure what kind yet, but I know I'm going to have so much fun getting everything ready. And I'll keep you guys updated with the puppy posts.

Am I paranoid or is their a turkey stalking me?

If I hadn't mentioned before, I work as a Pharmacy Intern at CVS. Last shift, I walked in and the entire store seemed engulfed in orange! Mind you, this was still September. However, the candy aisles are overflowing, there are orange and purple decorations arching over every end-cap, and motion-sensing skeletons say stuff as I walk by. We're just a month away from Halloween, so I understood, until I turned the corner, and there were hundreds of turkey themed greeting cards in the card aisle, not fifteen feet away from the first of the Christmas/Advent/Hannukah stuff is already dangling!!!
If a whole bunch of people live from paycheck to paycheck, I think a whole bunch of merchandisers live from holiday to holiday! What happened to anxiously waiting for next thanksgiving? And the idea the Christmas comes but once a year? And since when do we give Thanksgiving presents? Alright, so I'm starting to rant a little, but I spent the entire shift feeling like all this rushing from one holiday to another just so an early shopper or two don't end up perusing some other store's aisles just seems to cheapen the ideas behind these events and what they actually stand for.
Alright, stepping off my soap box (for now). I promise to post something cheerier next time.

Its finally Fall! Yay!!!

I don't remember the weather ever being as "on cue" as this year. Yesterday was the first day of fall, and as if by magic, the temperature dropped! I am definitely enjoying the official beginning of fall.
The weekend was awesome too - 40th Anniv celebration of The Citadel, with a perfect day for the Bulldogs to beat the Princeton Tigers on Saturday. Had a ton of fun with family and friends there.
Quiet week was finally over on Monday, we have a total of 11 pledges for this year - I am so excited. They seem like a really promising bunch. And we were able to reschedule our Luau for the 17th of October, so I am really stoked about that too. It won't be as warm of weather as the original date, but I think it will still be a lot of fun.
Our fraternity is going to do the ghost walk fundraiser again this year, probably on 3 nights the week leading up to Halloween. I'm expecting to be able to raise a good bit of money with that, and hopefully be able to take a whole lot more brothers to Grand Council in Phoenix this coming summer.
All in all, things are looking pretty good for the fall...and I have my fingers crossed!

Settling in...finally!

So if you read my first blog entry, you'll remember that I just bought a house. Things have been a little chaotic to say the least, trying to get everything situated. But this week, I think I'm finally getting a little bit more settled. I realized that this morning, when I noticed I didn't have to "figure out" where I'd set my things down yesterday. I've finally developed a routine for where I set what down, so I don't feel lost running around my own house looking for stuff anymore.
The semester seems to be getting into a groove as well, what with 3 tests, a case presentation and a paper due, all by Wednesday! But its not freaking me out anymore. Exciting news - we have 27 first year students that were eligible to receive bids for Phi Delta Chi. The bids went out yesterday, so now we wait. By this time next week, we'll know who the new and upcoming leaders of the College of Pharmacy are going to be. My goal is to take at least half our chapter to Grand Council in Phoenix next year. Bit lofty, some may say, but I'm going to try none the less.

Also our pool will probably be ready by the end of the week, so hopefully we'll get a month and a half of swim weather before it gets too cool for the water. I can't wait to reschedule the Luau. Its going to be so much fun! Since this will be the last one I get to plan before I graduate, I want to make sure its the biggest and bestest one ever!

And the madness starts...

Ok, so the big scare for Friday was over nothing, apparently. But since they cancelled classes for the day anyways, there are now two more hours of lectures to watch online for the test on Monday! Yippee! [sic]
Monday starts the barrage of tests for the semester. My only hope is that Ike stays on the path they're predicting or else this semester is going to be hell.
At least tomorrow night will be fun, we are taking the first year students to Cinebarre to watch Tropic Thunder. Bar food, beer, and Jack Black - can't go wrong with that combo.
Oh, and my best friend is coming over tonight to cook dinner for me while I'm at work, how sweet is that? A nice dinner, maybe a glass of wine, and then back to therapeutics and the joyful infectious diseases. I can't wait for nine months from now, for rotations to start. If anyone feels sorry for me, call me and give me a reason to take a break sometime around midnight tonight. I'll be up with mycoses of the skin and soft tissue!

The Calm before the Storm

Since this is my first blog, here's a little background info to get you caught up.

My name is Olivia Earley, and I am a student at MUSC and the Citadel. I am currently working on my Doctor of Pharmacy and my MBA degrees.
I just bought a house, so things at home are a little crazy.
I am also the President of my fraternity, Phi Delta Chi, and rush week starts tomorrow, so lots of hectic work going on around me right now.
Our big event this week is our annual luau, and I'm praying that hurricane Hanna won't wipe it out! Will post pictures as soon as they are available. That's all for now!