Josh's first entry (uh oh!)

So I thought I should try my hand at this whole blogging thing. I may not be as witty as Rachael but maybe I'll have some interesting or funny things to say that might just get you to crack a smile, or even laugh!

Well I've been working now for a month and a lot has happened. It started off with the usual Walgreens shifts; 7:30am-4pm, 3-11pm, or a mid-shift of 11am-7:30pm. I don't know what it was, maybe that my manager didn't like me, people were lazy or the usual Walgreens way of stubborn old-timers locked in their ways of doing things but, I was not enjoying it. I made it through that first week a little distraught, how was I going to continue this and actually get some enjoyment out of it? I'll tell you one thing I definitely miss my old store.

My store currently only had one 3rd shift manager (at the time), so all the other managers alternated in and out at the other 3rd shift slot and my second week at El Cajon Walgreens was all mine. Thinking that things couldn't really get much worse I was actually looking forward to it. To make things short it was great! The co-workers were great, I was able to teach them a lot of things that they did not already know so I felt helpful, the hours were awesome at 11-8am, I was able to get a lot done productivity-wise and apply all the skills that I had built up over the last few years and I even had a spiritual conversation with an employee (but don't tell Walgreens, shhhh). After that first week I was so pumped up that I told my store manager that I wanted the shift for good. Not only do I now get to hang out with Rachael every night after she gets off work but, I work eight days on and get the following six days off, sweeeeet!

I just finished up my second week of 3rd shifts up and I'm still enjoying it! I've even had time to go play frisbee golf after work some mornings when I feel up to, although I'm not so keen on paying $2.50 everytime I want to go play.

Although work hasn't been as smooth of a transition as I would have liked everything else has kind of fallen into place, thank you God!

Uhhhh...Crap.

I came home yesterday a little early because, after the couple meetings I had, I didn't really have much else to do! Today on the other hand...Let's just say that today kind of exploded.

I'm not sure where all these projects came from, but I now feel like every day from now till September is a DUE DATE for something. Ahh!!! Monographs, abstracts, P&T, MUE, IRB, and a million other acronyms are now sitting on my to-do list. And somewhere in the middle of this I have to take my CA Law Exam. I guess this is what I signed up for.

While my schedule is now a bit overloaded, it is kind of fun being part of projects that actually mean something. In school, you are taught how to do all these things by working on hypothetical situations, and your completed product doesn't go anywhere except the professor's desk. Now when I have a project, it's actually important for more than just a grade. Hospital-wide decisions are going to be made based on what YOU do. Kind of cool! You could change the world!! (Ok, maybe not quite.) It makes the work much more enjoyable and satisfying. And you're getting paid for it. Sweet!

Locked Out

So, I locked us out of the apartment last night. Yep. We were on our way out the door. I was going to drive, and instead of grabbing the car keys with the house key on them, I only grabbed the keys for the parking garage. I realized it as soon as I locked the handle and shut the door. I just looked at Josh and said, "I don't have any keys!" He didn't either. We just looked at each other and didn't know if it was funny or horrible, or both. "What are we going to do!" in my most whiney voice. We climbed over our back porch (that was fun) to try to get in the sliding doors. Nope.

We thought about getting some last minute tickets to Spamelot in LA this week. We decided to give our money to a locksmith instead.

Rachael: "I'm such an idiot!"

Josh: "No you're not. It's okay."

Rachael: "You're so nice to me!"

Josh: "I do stupid things all the time. If I'm nice to you when you do something stupid, then you'll be nice to me when I do something even more stupid."

Small Talk About Weather

So, I was under the impression that San Diego didn't HAVE weather. I'm pretty sure people (and weather.com) told me that it was perfect and 70s all year. Well, I was LIED TO.

San Diegans have these sayings that they just LOVE. (Like, everyone we meet wants to inform us that they have these super cool, catchy phrases, and they think no one else has told us.)
1. May Gray (or Grey, whichever spelling you have adopted, since they are both correct. English is weird.)
2. June Gloom
3. July Fry (Just learned that one!)

You can probably figure out what they mean. May and June are somewhat overcast. July is pretty darn hot. Apparently the best time to come visit is Septemberish, FYI.

It's remarkable how varied the temperature is depending on how far you are from the coast. By the ocean, and even around where we live, it's pretty pleasant right now. But where Josh works, about 20 miles east, it may be 15 degrees hotter. Crazy!

Despite this, the weather does stay pretty constant compared to what we're used to. We are determined not to use heat OR air for the whole year! But I miss storms. I really want a thunderstorm! I'm not quite sure if that's going to happen considering the news here reports rainfall of less than 1/10 of an inch. Really? Really.

Operation Stand Down

On Sunday, we volunteered through Sharp Healthcare (my employer) at Operation Stand Down, an event put on by the San Diego community to help homeless veterans. Other Stand Down events are held all over the country for the estimated 200,000 homeless veterans. The Stand Down is modeled after the Stand Down concept used during the Vietnam War to provide a safe retreat for units returning from combat operations. Stand Down afforded battle-weary soldiers the opportunity to renew their spirit, health and overall sense of well-being. (Can you tell I copied and pasted that from the website?)

There was a pharmacy tent, but as I do not yet have my license (blast you CA Board of Pharmacy!), we worked in the clothing tent. We sorted clothes, helped veterans and their families pick out items, and helped tear down when the event was over. It was a great experience. And we got some free, sweet T-shirts!

We met some other Sharp workers with roots in the Midwest and got some good advice on living in San Diego. One woman was telling me about a place with great burgers, "But it's a bar. So...you have to be 21." I told her I was almost 25. She said, "Oh."

There are definitely more homeless people in San Diego than anywhere else I've lived. I suppose if I had to live outdoors, I'd rather spend the winters (and summers!) here than in Iowa. I often struggle with how to treat the homeless. I've been told my whole life, "Don't give them money, they'll just use it for alcohol or cigarettes," etc. Yes, that may be true. But it may not. Who am I to decide? And I find it less than coincidental that even though I have been "conditioned" my entire life to NOT give charity to beggars, I still have a pang of guilt when I pass someone by. Is it the Holy Spirit trying to tell me the RIGHT thing to do, despite me trying to rationalize it away? There have been a couple times since we moved here that I have really felt like God was telling me to give, and I have spared a couple dollars for the man with the sign. I don't know that money is the answer, but I know that God didn't give us an innate desire to help people for us to do nothing. I don't have all the answers (or any answers...) but these are certainly things to mull over.

Operation Stand Down from accross the interstate

Cultural Overload

One thing I loved about the 5 weeks I spent in Arlington/D.C. last summer was the cultural diversity that came with a big east coast city. I loved working with people from other countries, learning about their culture, trying out new foods (have you been back to the kabob place, Christina?), and hearing other languages everyday. I was looking forward to similar new experiences in San Diego.

This west coast city has not disappointed. We have barely been here a month and have already been exposed to so many new things. Of course, there are many Mexicans, which everyone associates with southern California, and we have enjoyed practicing reading and speaking the limited Spanish we know from good ole' CHS. I love hearing Spanish spoken when I'm out! Surprisingly, we have yet to visit a Mexican restaurant, and everyone I tell that to always gasps and offers a plethora of choices. That needs to move to the top of our to-do list.

I went to my first Vietnamese restaurant this week with all my co-residents and a pharmacist on our lunch break. I got quite the lesson in Vietnamese cuisine. Still not able to actually PRONOUNCE anything on the menu, but at least I now have some idea of what I'm ordering. I had some BBQ chicken with rice and some chicken broth soup, and it was wonderful.

I have discovered a new Mexican way of eating fruit from my co-resident, Silvia. She brought watermelon to work on day, squeezed a lime over it, and sprinkled chili powder on it. It was fabulous! I said, "I'm going to learn lots of new things in the crazy state!" They all found that hilarious.

Of course, it's not like we come from a place that just has a bunch of white farmers. We even have a Vietnamese restaurant in Davenport! (Though we have been pronouncing Pho-99 incorrectly all this time. Apparently it's pronounced "fuh." Who knew?) Our high-school was quite diverse, and I don't feel that I have been shut up in a box to diversity by any means. It's just a whole different cultural experience here, in a good way.

And yes, Josh, you will be trying sushi.

Just Another Night

I'm just sitting at home, watching HGTV, about to finish reading my new James Rollins book. I've got to get in my "fun reading" while I still have a chance!

Josh has been working third shift for the past 6 nights, filling in for a third shift manager that recently transferred. Tonight is his seventh and last night! Yay! It hasn't been too bad, I guess He likes the people he works with, I don't have to get ready in the morning in the dark, and he gets 5 days off when he's done! He also was able to have a great conversation about his faith with one of his co-workers last night.

My residency hasn't gotten too crazy yet. I am "chief resident" for the first quarter, so I'm in charge of scheduling and helping lead all our meetings, organizing recruiting events, setting up travel arrangements, and taking care of all the little details that arise. I like planning and organizing, so it's fun, but there's a lot to do! Other than that, my current Safe Medication Practices rotation is pretty laid back.

We went to Mission Beach a couple times last week. We are loving that beach! I schooled Josh on the boogie board. What can I say, I love the water! But we played tennis tonight, and he definitely kicks my butt in that. I'm getting better!

I'm sure no one really cares to read all these mundane details about our life, but I wanted to write it down so I remember life before it got insane!

Petco Park

We went to our first (of hopefully many) Padres games on Sunday. We were assured that we would be able to get tickets if we went down, because, let's face it, this isn't Wrigley, and the number of real Padres fans is probably not astronomical. In fact, we were pretty sure there were more Dodgers fans (who they were playing) than Padres fans. But, to their credit, the Padres do have a great stadium. And Tony Gwynn.

So, we just took the trolley down after church and went to the ticket window. It was some Coca-Cola special weekend or something, and we got upper deck seats, a hot dog and a pop for $12 a piece! That's better than a River Bandits game! (Once again...not an overwhelming # of die hard Padres fans.)

It was a great game. Padres were down 6-1 going into the bottom of the 9th. They tied it up to go into extra innings. Sadly, they ended up losing, but since the majority of the fans were there for LA, the stadium was generally happy.

Manny Ramirez, recently returned from suspension due to performance enhancing drug use (thought I'd throw that in so you have all the facts, Katie) didn't start, but he came in to bat when the game went into extra innings.
This is Josh booing him (which he was really looking forward to.)
Here is Josh's happy face when Manny flew out.
On the trolley
They have quite the awesome tribute to Tony Gwynn.
Neat little park area downtown.
It was a fabulous afternoon, and we even avoided sunburn (for the most part.) I think we're going to like having this team in town. Maybe we'll even have to buy some Padres apparel so we don't have to wear Cubs and Yankees stuff to the games!

P.S. We saw a guy with an Iowa Cubs shirt! We high-fived him.

Is this heaven? No, it's Iowa.

We've heard the comment, "Iowa? Field of Dreams, right!" about 5 times when we've told people where we're from. (And I personally have had TWO pharmacists tell me, "Iowa? Hey, I'm trying to grow corn in my backyard!" At least they didn't think that Iowa grew potatoes or were the Buckeyes or something.) Anyway, we decided we better re-familiarize ourselves with the movie that everyone seems to connect us to, so we watched 'Field of Dreams.' (And if you glance at the previous post, you will notice that Josh is wearing his Field of Dreams shirt in the 3rd picture down :-) I got my Field of Dreams shirt in 4th grade, so I do not normally wear it in public anymore.)

I like telling people I'm from Iowa. I like being from Iowa. It's like being happy that you're not from the "cool" place, like you know what life is REALLY like. You've been brave and interesting enough to branch out and live somewhere other than the place that EVERYONE wants to live (even though you were born there and didn't exactly have a choice...) It's kind of like being glad that you went to Central even though all the PV kids think they're going to get shot when they go there.

I like being from a place where cities are smaller, a place where there isn't a strip club on every other corner, where you can golf for less than $20, where rent isn't $1500, where you don't get offered weed every time you disc golf (according to Josh), where people work hard, where you can be in the middle of a countryside full of cornfields in 20 minutes, where you don't have to get on the interstate anytime you go anywhere. Don't get me wrong, we love it out here. We've got beaches and mountains and professional sports and IKEA and an endless supply of things to do and an endless supply of sunny days to do them. And it's a great place to be a pharmacist. We love being here, but we love being Hawkeyes.

Disclaimer: Whiteys ice cream may play a significant role in our love for Iowa.

It's a Jungle Out There!

We spent our last Friday before starting working at the Wild Animal Park in Escondido. It is kind of like a zoo, but the animal are more in their 'natural habitat' than you may see in a zoo.
It originally started because the zoo was having a hard time breeding rhinos, so they bought some land in Escondido and opened the park initially to work on the rhino program. They now have a couple rhinos which may be 2 of only 7 left in the world! The Northern White Rhino. Pretty cool!
It is very hilly in Escondido. Looking down over the park is beautiful!
From a distance, Josh thought this giraffe was real and couldn't understand why everyone wasn't gathered around the giraffe with his head over the fence!
I love this picture! You can see the lions in the background. (You can't see the piece of glass between Josh and them!)Does anyone have any idea what kind of plant this is? Because we have one on our patio (much smaller version) that the last owner left, and I'd really like to know how to take care of it. It's beautiful, but I don't know what it is!!
I love parrots! They look so intelligent!The gorillas were HILARIOUS! This guy kept running around beating his chest and chasing the other gorillas.