Last Weekend in Virginia

Of course, the last weekend began with lots of packing. I kept bringing stuff to Virginia every time I went home. Now, it all had to go back--all at once. On Saturday morning, I met Whitney and Jake at Table Talk for a late breakfast. I like going there because it makes me feel young when I look around at most of the tables. They brought me some going away gifts. I reallyliked the "Final Four of Everything" book. I picked Chris up at the airport and we hustled back to the condo, got on the Metro and went to the Nationals game. We only missed two innings and we still saw lots of action. There were 3 home runs and the Nationals won. I wish we had been able to see Pudge Rodriguez catch. He was one of Chris's baseball idols when he was a young catcher.

On Sunday, we went out to Dulles to the Air and Space Museum. He really liked the SR71, space shuttle test module and the Enola Gay. We talked for a few minutes to a retired Air Force pilot who had over 5000 flight hours in about 6 different aircraft. That was interesting.

We were anxious to get the drive home completed so we packed the car before we left and went on the road from Dulles. There were some interesting country roads on the way to the interstate. The drive took about 8 hours and we amused ourselves for a long portion of the drive with the Final Four book. Of course, we turned it in to a competition--StrengthsFinder at work! With the distraction of figuring out the final fours of all the categories the time flew by and we were back in KY before we knew it.

It was good to sleep in my own bed. But the unpacking was awful!

The Last Day

Yes, I know it isn't really my last day. Things got hectic at the end and I didn't get anything posted, so I am going to pretend and catch up on my posts. Friday was a quiet day at AACP offices. A number of people were out at meetings and we previously had a little goodbye celebration on Tuesday when I presented my project to the Academic Affairs group. Other than a box of books, I had already moved most of my things to the condo. I cleaned files off the computer to bring home and said my goodbyes to those who remained. At the end of the day, I invited Diane, Brad, Danielle and Whitney to happy hour at Joe Theismann's. We had a good time and I finally got my picture taken with Joe.

Two Days to Go

I just arrived for my second to the last day at AACP. I have started packing up my stuff. I sure have accumulated a lot! Today I am having lunch with Arlene Flynn and Whitney. Arlene is in town to move the rest of her belongings home to Chicago. It will be good to visit with her. I have missed seeing her around the office.

Today's AACP profile is Whitney. She is the first person I have ever known with two Z's in her name! When I first arrived, Whitney was my closest cubicle mate. She, along with Diane and Brad, helped me learn my way around the office and around the area. After Mike left in late September, my weekends in Virginia were pretty lonely. I appreciate that Whitney and Jake invited me to go out with them. When March Madness arrived, Jake was my basketball buddy. That worked well for Whitney too because she didn't have to watch the games with Jake if I was available. I like Jake even though he has an unfortunate connection to College of Charleston. John, Chris and Mike know the two reasons why I consider that a negative. When I returned to AACP in February, I found that Whitney had moved from her cubicle to an office down the hall. I assume it wasn't to get away from me.

Since Whitney moved out of the cubicle, I have had two new neighbors. For one month, my neighbor was Alison, an APPE student from Minnesota. I enjoyed her company and getting to know her. My current neighbor is Vickie, a new employee at AACP. Vickie is from England. I love listening to her talk with her British accent. I have given her some advice on non-prescription products and I really like the way she says "vitamins."

I will miss all of my cubicle-mates when I go home, but I will be glad to see Melody, Doug, and the lab instructor group who are my closest hall-mates back in Lexington. I hope they have turned my office back into an office from the faculty lounge they threatened to create during my absence.

Too busy to write

I've been so busy working on my manuscript that I haven't taken time out to post an entry on my blog. I also made a trip home over the weekend for the Derby festivities. Missing Derby day in Kentucky is like missing New Year's Eve in Times Square.

Mike and I had fun at Keeneland on Friday watching the Oaks and at the Andover Derby Party on Saturday. It is always fun when you pick a winner!

I thought I was ahead of schedule getting finished in Virginia and packed up for home. Now I feel like I am way behind. Today I am presenting my project for the academic affairs group. That will give me some additional feedback for improving the manuscript. I appreciate the comments of the five people who read the draft for me and gave me some good suggestions to improve and clarify the manuscript. I have read it so many times now, that I have lost any ability to look at it objectively.

Continuing my profiles of the people I have worked with at AACP, today I would like to talk about BEM. I promised I wouldn't use his name. He is another of my cubicle-mates and he is very quiet and hardworking around the office. However, it is always the quiet ones you have to look out for. I think B really works for the CIA. He is very concerned about security, keeping a low profile, and never having anything posted about him on the internet (I guess he won't like this blog entry). If I catch him coming out of a phone booth in blue tights, I will have the answer to the mystery.

Counting down the days

It's hard to believe that I have only seven more work days here in Virginia. Like most things in life, the days have gone slowly and the weeks have rushed by. Yesterday I felt that my manuscript draft was advanced enough to print and edit. I just might meet my goal of having a manuscript ready to submit when I leave here. So beware those of you who foolishly agreed to read the draft and give me comments. Watch your in-box today.

I met Diane (one of my cubicle-mates) and her husband, George, for dinner last night at the Macaroni Grill. It made me really miss the one in Lexington. When it closed, I was hopeful that they were just moving to Hamburg. Haven't seen one yet. George is an interesting guy. He was a Navy man and now, as a civilian, he works for the Navy. He is in charge of some system on all the submarines--too technical for me to understand. He is an engineer who went to MIT so you can see the problem I have in figuring out what he does.

As I count down the days, I will feature some of the friends I have made during my time at AACP. I don't have enough days to feature everyone so I will focus on those with whom I have spent the most time. Today's feature is on Diane. She works two cubicles over from me so I can easily hear her phone conversations. She works with the PharmCAS system (pharmacy school applications for those non-pharmacy types). She fields lots of calls from potential applicants and parents. She is infinitely patient answering their questions and is a wealth of information about schools, pharmacy as a career, and lots of random stuff too. Her experience as a parent of college students comes through in the empathy that is evident as families go through the trauma of choosing a school and hoping for acceptance. I really like Diane, and I did even before she brought me her homemade strawberry jam, but that sealed the deal.

Motherly Pride

I am struggling with my writing this morning so I thought a good avoidance behavior would be to make a blog entry. The weekend was pretty boring for me. Even though it didn't rain a lot, there was a threat of rain all weekend so I didn't do the sightseeing I had planned to do. I switched to some indoor activities--primarily shopping for a new derby outfit for next weekend. It doesn't rain inside the stores!

Since my life has been pretty boring lately, I thought I would make a post full of my motherly pride. Last Thursday, Mike and three of his friends got to have a dream golf day (see the photo). They drove to Louisville and played Valhalla. Just to show how upscale the place is, you have to have a caddie when you play there. Rough life! Then they went to Cardinal Club where John works and played some more. With his connections from working at Valhalla, John had arranged the day for them. What a great son! Mike said he encountered several people at Valhalla who found out he was John's father. They all told him what a great guy John is. I think so too.

Thursday night Chris flew into Louisville in preparation for the Derby Marathon on Saturday. He has been training since January for this. There was some rain in the morning, but for the most part, the rain held off and Chris finished in under 4 hours which was his goal. He looks pretty good in the picture for what he had just been through. Chris, John and Brittany celebrated on Fourth Street after the race. I would like to have been there, but I think I made a wise choice not to go to Louisville for the weekend. I worry less from a distance.

I guess I have procrastinated (and bragged) long enough. Back to my writing.

TGIF

Today looks like a nice day but the weekend will be rainy. That is too bad because it is my last weekend in Virginia and I wanted to do some sightseeing. I thought about making a last minute trip home to support Chris when he runs the Derby Marathon tomorrow. The plane tickets start at more than $600 and the only convenient itinerary is $900. I guess I will support him from afar. It is supposed to rain or thunderstorm in Louisville. I hope it holds off till afternoon for the runners.



Yesterday I made some progress in writing the discussion of my manuscript. I have so many ideas from the related literature and my own data that it has been hard to sort it all out. It is also hard to stay on the topic and not stray into other, but related, areas. I had a conversation with a consultant who was here yesterday working with AACP on their strategic plan. In the course of the conversation, he mentioned that the BPS, Board of Pharmaceutical Specialties for you non-pharmacy types, is looking for evidence of the value of getting board certified. I mentioned that promotion and tenure documents address this issue. He was interested and is going to discuss it with the BPS folks. Maybe another collaborator!



Today should be quiet in the office. Several people are travelling--some to the ACCP meeting in Charlotte. I will try to make good use of the quiet atmosphere to get a lot of reading and writing accomplished.



Rain, rain go away.