NO RAIN PLEASE....

Okay...so we scheduled ANOTHER date for the engagement/day before shoot....IT BETTER NOT RAIN AGAIN.  Otherwise this will be the third time we'll have to cancel the shoot due to weather.  It'll be in June....June is a dry month right?  RIGHT?

The photog and I finally compromised on a shoot location...I wanted city and "nature" in the same shot (hence the previous central park blog)...but i think the photog wanted somewhere less populated...so she suggested the piers in long island city (I think there's a little park there too)...so the backdrop will be the skyline of east manhattan.  It's a little less "picture perfect" and more urban gritty than the central park locale.  I think I like it better!  And she's shot there quite a few time before so she's comfortable there...

I'm already looking forward to souvlaki at Opa Opa after the shoot....I can't decide which one I'm more excited about!  BTW, don't we have city views from the roof top of the church? (although we were told we were forbidden to go up there in case we fall off)  I could do the shoot from the rooftop! hahahaha!

(I totally want this Pepsi Cola shot....I probably singlehandedly keep them in business due to the combination of my love for Pepsi-Lime and my refusal to drink Coke...YECH)

Oh yeah...neither my hair nor makeup person is available the day of the shoot (ugh...exactly why I wanted to avoid shooting during peak season)...so I can't hit them up for my trials the day of the shoot.  Any recommendations for someone or someplace CHEAP that can do my hair and makeup that morning?  I want totally natural...NO PINKS OR WHITE FACE...and just loose curls maybe 1/2 up.  Although cheap is the priority right now...

Working girl....

Being in school all these years, I've forgotten what it feels like to work full days every day.  During breaks, I'd work "full time" at the hospital, but since I was basically scheduled to fill in, I would rarely get 40 hour weeks...it would be more like 30 hour weeks...i'd work a full shifts most of the week, but i'd have a day off here, 1/2 day there...just because there weren't enough positions open.

But I am EXHAUSTED.   I don't know how I'm supposed to study for the boards while I'm working.  By the time it's lunchtime, I'm so tired and hungry that I don't feel like socializing.  I'm pretty quiet when you first meet me because I'm an observer.  I like to hang back and feel people out....figure out the dynamics first before I start opening my big mouth.  During lunch, all I can hear is myself chewing (like that cereal commercial)...since I'm wolfing down huge bites of food.  I can barely make out what's going on conversation wise around me!!! 

*see protected*

Days off?

How many days before the wedding do people normally take off?  I need to put in my vacation requests...NOW!!!

My neighbor's song choice of the evening....Summertime...it's on repeat....

My first REAL day...

So yesterday was just a general orientation with new hirees from different departments.  Today was my first day in the Pharmacy.  I got taken on a mini-tour, got introduced to like a million people (none of the names which I remember) and then got my training binder.  My 4 inch thick training binder (not exaggerating)...and my 4 page long list of competency tests I have to complete (not exaggerating) and pass with 100%.  I have two weeks to get through that.

Then I get taken to the drung info room....my attention gets pointed to two shelves on a bookcase PACKED with magazine holders....each magazine holders, in turn, PACKED with power point handouts.  These are handouts on common diseases seen in peds patients.  I am to go through those in my "down time"...and have to get through them within the year.  If this peds hospital is anything like the one in boston, there ain't no down time.  Sometimes we wouldn't even get to eat lunch!!!!  Each magazine holder worth of notes comes with a competency test I must pass with 100%. 

If I don't pass any of the competencies, I have to repeat the module until I pass.

Oh yeah...I am not allowed to be late...hahaha.  we have an electronic ID swipe time keeper thing.  There's no fudging the time in and out.  6 lateness in a year --> disciplinary action.  This place is hard core!!!  But from what I can see it's pretty well run (more so than any other hospitals I've worked at).

*see protected*

First day...for the rest of my life...

Today was my first day at work.  It was only orientation...but it was all day...and I'm exhausted.  I start my actual phamacist training tomorrow...at 7:30 AM.  Just a quick note to whoever works in HR....we are adults, we do not need to play icebreakers at orientation for 45 minutes.  We also do not need to play team Jeopardy regarding the information you gave us that morning.   I should have taken more time off hahahaha....

But I like how my ID badge looks...it says...

J******* W***

Pharmacist

tee hee....even though i'm not really one yet...

Noisy neighbors....

So...apparently, the people in the apt next door have a piano.  I heard them for the first time today.  I think it's right against my office room wall...since I can hear it rather distinctly.  As I type, she is playing all the selections from The Sounds of Music....while singing along in that fake opera voice (think Grace from Will & Grace).   I kind of feel like I'm at one of those Christmas/mother's day afternoon recitals at church.

Picture perfect....

(Tons of pics)

I think I am going to end up being one of those asian couples taking pictures at Central park.  I really wanted something with old world architecture...but there is a fee for the Cloisters since it's owned by the Met...and doing it at The Foundry would be too complicated since they are booked for weddings and they'd have to squeeze me in between wedding set ups.  There is a castle like structure up in New Rochelle that another of my photog's brides shot pics at...but...it's in New Rochelle.

I would love to shoot some urban street scenes, but my very good friend hates the grafitti background pictures...boo.   And Central Park does bring back fond memories of my truant afternoons napping on those big rocks...and of cross country practice, although I regard those memories much less fondly.  And it's the best place to get a cityscape combined with....um..."wilderness" all in one shot.

Here are some of the places I'd love to shoot at:

Belvedere Castle

Bethesda Fountain and Terrace....although I am much more interested in the Terrace than the fountain. BTW, the fountain is a BIG asian couple picture attraction.  I especially love it when the photogs position the couple RIGHT in front of the fountain...so all you see it water shooting out of their heads.

Fountain...eh

(this will not be me)

The GORGEOUS terrace right behind it...i LOVE those arches.  It reminds me of La Alhambra, even though I've never been there...hahaha.

Then a maybe some Lakeside shots...

Perched on Hernshead rock...love the skyline peeking out over the trees

Ladies Pavillion adjacent to it...

The famous Bow Bridge (AKA lover's bridge), which transverses the lake

The Mall

My very good friend wants pics at the carousel...

And I would LOVE to take some nature pics up north...but everything else is towards the south of the park and I don't know if i'll have time to travel that far...

The Pool

Wisteria Arbor

Huddlestone Arch

Waterfall in the Ravine

I still have to ask my photog if it's ok to shoot there....

Picture Places...

Where are some really cool places in NY to take my engagement photos...that AREN'T your typical locations (e.g. brooklyn bridge, times square, grand central, central park etc.)?  Somewhere with really interesting architecture or something different and ecclectic.  It doesn't necessarily have to scream New York.  Somewhere like the queens county farm or The Foundry (both of which has quite the hefty fee for a 1 hour shoot)....but free/cheap. hahahaha.  Maybe the Cloisters...but i'm pretty sure they'll have a fee too...if they even allow photography there.

No more squinting...

I got my cable TV installed today.  WOOHOO!!!  I asked for just basic TV...not even cable....but after the dude left, I turn on my TV and I have basic cable!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!

I exercised today...just cardio.  I hated every minute of it...good thing for the TV's.  But I have problems with treadmills...I ALWAYS lose my balance on them...to the extent that I have to grab the handle bar to right myself.  Why is that?  The only way i can do it w/o losing my balance is to look straight down at my feet.  I only did walking (but on an incline) for like 20 minutes...and I lose my balance like 5 times.  Finally, I just switched to the elliptical, which i don't particularly like because it's made for normal sized people.  The handles are always just a little too far forward, so i end up doing it partly hunched over. 

WOAH!! I get movie channels too!!!!

Norfriggineaster...

Thanks to this weekend's friendly storm, my engagement shoot was cancelled.  All the places Angelica wanted to shoot are now swamps and will not be dry by thursday since it's supposed to rain more.  And, it is still freezing cold out...she said i won't make it in a dress.  UGH.  She suggested Monday...since it was supposed to be in the 60's and warm....of course, I start working on Monday, so I won't be able to do the shoot during any week day.  And now that wedding season is starting, I'll have to battle the other brides for a weekend shoot (AND to somehow get my hair and makeup trials done on a weekend).  So now, I don't know when I will be able to do it.

Anyhow, I did a trial run on the train to work today (also to get my physical done).  It's not a bad commute...10 minutes on the regional train (Philly's equivalent of the LIRR)....then I could either take a bus for like 5 minutes...or walk 15 minutes.  I actually enjoy walking <20 minutes...I find in invigorating...so i think i'll just walk it, rather than waiting for the bus.  (unless the weather is gross out).  So approx a half hour commute? I'll take it!

So I go for my physical...and they didn't tell me they were doing a drug screen (although I should have assumed that)...so I peed before leaving the house.  I ALWAYS pee before leaving the house because you never know...and I hate having to hold pee in.  So I get there...and I don't have to pee.  She was like...oh, all you need is 1 ounce...it's so little.  I was like fine...but i knew i had no liquid in me, because i didn't drink anything since leaving the house.  I go in...and of course, i only have half an ounce of pee.

Then the nurse gives me the whole big thing about how she needs to clear me by friday...and why did I pee before going to the appointment.  So she made me go and eat lunch....wait an hour then come back. Which I did....but it wasted so much time.  They took a lot of my blood just for general blood tests...i don't understand why they just don't test my blood for drugs...it's more accurate anyway.