I almost committed a double homicide but Limp Bizket saved me...

Tuesday I was in a mood.  A rather black one at that.  We have a newly transferred (from another store and another department) employee in my pharmacy.  We'll call him RS.  RS had worked in our pharmacy for close to a week before we figured out he didn't have his state license.  Oops.  The state of Indiana requires you to be licensed to legally work in a pharmacy, and in July they started requiring a background check with finger printing.

RS wasn't told by his old store about this background check so after sending in his application it sat in limbo waiting for a background check that never happened.  I'd taked to RS two weeks before he started at our location and asked if he'd gotten his license yet.  He told me no, but that his payment had been deducted just a few days ago.  I took that as a sign that everything was okay, I mean they wouldn't take his money if it wasn't, right?  Wrong.

I never thought to ask if he'd done his background check.  And I unfortunately assumed that he'd tell us if he never got his license.  So it was something of a shock when on his fourth day (I'd only worked with him once before) I went to print his license and saw "application pending."  Why had no one checked this before?  How did this slip through the cracks?

So now we are smack dab in the middle of the flu shot and fall illness season and I've lost my only other regular tech.  Not to mention he's still not trained 100% and now we have to stop training and wait for his license.

Two days after I discovered this we sent him for his background check.  We checked with the licensing agency the same day to see how long it will take, only to learn he filled out his application wrong so his background check was wrong too!  Okay, now I am starting to lose confidence in our new tech.  But it's too late now, so we have him redo both the application and the background check. This time it's done right.  And then we wait....

And while we are waiting we are back to being short handed and extra stressed.  I had to change my schedule day to day as I feverishly checked his license status multiple times a day.  It took over 10 days from the date of discovery, but I finally saw the magical "expires September 2012" and our wait was over.

Sunday was his first day back.  My manager assured me he had finished all of his computer training during his hiatus and that he would get him back up to speed between Sunday and Monday.  I was off both days so I kicked backed and enjoyed my days off, never imagining the horror that would await me Tuesday afternoon...

My work day started at 12:30 pm.  I walked into what can only be described as utter and complete chaos.  Our am pharmacist on Tuesdays is slow and computer challenged.  I sometime have trouble keeping up, but RS has a night class on Tuesdays so I had no choice.  Between the new-guy-who-forgot-everything and computer illiterate-slower-than-dirt-pharmacist I had quite a mess to clean up.

So of course I took charge and started ordering people around.  Do this, not that.  You go do this, that can wait.  Get that patient at the counter, I'll fix this insurance problem.  And with each passing moment where I had to tell someone who is supposed to be my boss what to do, my anger grew.  With each moment I had to stop and show RS basic things that he knew and was supposed to have been refreshed on over the past two days, my anger grew.  Everytime I had to stop cleaning up their mess to get a patient that no one would wait on, my anger grew.  It became rage.  And I really wanted to commit double murder.

Instead I took a deep breath, dug my nails into my palms, and sung the lyrics (in my head) to some of my favorite angry songs.  Chevelle's "The Red" is a good one.  Anything from Nine Inch Nails "Downward Spiral" is good too.  And despite the fact I really don't like Limp Bizkit or Fred Durst, they have my number one favorite.  Break Stuff.

Its just one a those days when you dont wanna wake up
Everything is f***ed, everybody sucks
You dont really know why, but you wanna justify
Ripping someones head off
No human contact, and if you interact your life is on contract
Your best bet is to stay away mother f***er
Its just wanna those days
REFRAIN:
Its all about the he said she said bullshit
I think you better quit, letting shit slip
Or you'll be leaving with a fat lip
Its all about the he said she said bullshit
I think you better quit, talkin that shit
Its just one a those days
Feeling like a fraight train
First one to complain, leaves with a blood stain
Damn right, Im a maniac
You better watch your back
Cuz im f***in up your program
And if you feel stuck up, you just mucked up
Next in line to get f***ed up,
Your best bet is to stay away mother f***er
Its just one of those days
REFRAIN
So come and get it
I feel like shit
My suggestion is to keep your distance
Cuz right now I'm dangerous
We've all felt like shit, been treated like shit
All those mother f***ers
That wanna step up
I hope you know I'm like a chainsaw
I'll skin your ass raw
And if my day keeps going this way I just might
Break something tonight
I'm like a chainsaw
I'll skin your ass raw
And if my day keeps going this way I just might
Break your f***in face tonight
Gimmie something to break
How bout your f***in face
I hope you know I'm like a chainsaw (what)
A chainsaw (what)
A mother f***in chainsaw (what)
So come and get it
REFRAIN
So come and get it
*********

If that isn't an angry song, I don't know what is.  And somehow, it always makes me feel better.  I think it's like venting to myself.  Telling myself it's okay to be angry, furious even, that it happens to everyone.  Heck, it happens enough that there are a ton of songs about anger.

Eminem even made a career out of his angry rants.  And while my anger may not make millions, it is okay, normal even.  Even the irrational kind, as long as you get over it and don't take it out on someone else.

After about two hours we were back on track.  And my anger had fizzled out.  I got my normal positive attitude back and started the process of retraining RS.  When I came in yesterday, he seemed to be doing much better, and there were no messes for me to clean up, thank goodness!  I did mention how bad things were to my manager and how close I'd come to murder.  Of course my manager laughed. Apparently I am not very scary.

I'll take that as a good thing!

Shameless rant

Sleepy kitty

Today really took in out of me.  And while there wasn't anything specific to blame, lots of little things conspired to make today just down right draining.  It started with me being late to work.  Only by three minutes, but I hate being late, it seems to make the rest of the day feel out of rhythm.  This is the second time I've been late since they started construction on one of the intersections on my way to work.  There is a electronic traffic sign before the intersection warning you that traffic patterns have changed, and what lanes go where.  There is this weird divide with highway access on the far right and southbound traffic on the left, with stripped roadway and construction heaven in the middle.

Its been like this for over a week.  And surprise surprise, people still can't get it right.  The light (and it's a busy one) ends up with people trying to change lanes in the middle of the intersection at the last second.  Or people trying to turn and ending up in the wrong set of lanes, backing up into the intersection and trying to get to the right side.  I even saw a car turn into on-coming traffic on accident.  

Today there was an idiot who tried to turn at the tale end of a yellow light.  He didn't make it and the newly green lighted on-coming traffic didn't even slow down.  He ended up stuck between the highway lane and the southbound lanes.  He was freaking out the other drivers.  People would get close and finally see him and slam on their breaks, which made all the drivers behind them do the same.  He was still trying to get himself out of his predicament by the time I got through the light.  Normal this is an easy light.  You never get stuck at it.  Today it only took me three greens before I could get through (that's sarcasm in case it didn't come through in print.)

Idiot drivers!

Once I finally made it to work it was just a bunch of little things that kept piling up.  Some of them really stupid and nit-picky of me but once I'm really irritated its hard to snap out of it.  (Any one else like that?) For instance, someone had left a ladder sitting in front of the diabetic needs products.  It has been there for two days now.  I know they are working on the section but it seems like every patient needs something that's right behind that damned ladder.  I keep meaning to stick it in the stockroom, but I rarely get a chance.  And really, its not my job to clean up after others.  If I'd brought out the ladder you can bet I'd have put it back when I was done.

And where the ladder is... SMELLS BAD.  We think a mouse died in the wall (ewwww.)  The pest control company came and told us to give it a few days and the smell would go away.  Its been nearly two weeks...  It stinks just as bad, just not quite as strong.

And...  Every difficult patient we have called or came in today.

And...  We got really busy when my pharmacist stepped out to use the bathroom and when he came back he got stuck on the phone with someone for a long time so it was almost like I was by myself.

And... That person he got stuck on the phone with called four times today.  And she loves to talk.  And talk. And talk...

And... And. And!

By the time I got off of work all I could think about was going home, eating dinner, and passing the f. out.  But of course I had more work to do once I got home.  My next round of pharmacy technician certification classes (I teach them) starts next Thursday and I have some prep work that really should be done before the weekend.  But Monday's going to have to be good enough because after an hour of working on it, I'm done...

I forced myself to stay awake until my laundry finished, and now it is.  So I'm going to go get ready for bed.  I'm sure I'll be asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow.  Sorry for the rant.

On a positive note...  I stumbled across a blog today.  The Bloggess.  The author is a columnist in Houston.  I was linked to her website by another blogger to this post.  And then I read a little more and found this one and this one.  And I'm hooked.  This woman is "funny as all heck and tarnation," (MSNBC's words but I agree!)