Intervention

It's not like that TV show (though I think that program is AWESOME). Get me right, I'm not hooked on cracked, not huffing gas, or drinking mouth wash cause it's cheaper. Maybe intervention is the lack of a better term. I could say "stood at parade rest behind closed door with department head, chief, and work center supervisor in room for 1 1/2 hours." You know, which ever sounds more appealing to the ear. I will say it was not a "no shit" parade rest, but a half-rest. Let it be on the record I am not supposed to consider what happened an ass-chewing, and upon further review of the situation I will agree, it wasn't. We could just call it a recalibration of path.

Excited to know what happened? I'll give a brief review. So there I was, on-call duty. I forgot my phone in a car. Though I called using someone else's phone arranging to get mine back, I did not think about calling the clinic I was phoneless for the hour that it would take to get it back. Well, of course there was a patient in that hour that needed my duty. They called, and called, and called. When I got my phone back I had 9 missed calls. Some of them was from my department head/pharmacist, and the other was from my work center supervisor/mentor, HM2 Oldenburg. When I got on base, he was just leaving from doing my job, they called him into work. Though he isn't much of an ass-chewer, he got his point across very fast he was pissed off, and rightly so. Then the doctor of the duty, the good lieutenant aka Dr. Margraf took his turn getting up to his shoulders in my ass. After that I called LT Quach back and he did his best to eat me out (he too isn't much of an ass eater either). I thought the situation was settled and I learned from my mistake. Of course this was wrong, I still had to go through The Good Chief, HMC Bennett. Now, I've talked about Chief Bennett before in previous posts. I like him, a lot. He doesn't wake up to destroy people, but he is the best in the clinic to go old-school military ass-chewing. He never calls it an ass-chewing, but I left feeling pretty sorry for myself and if I hadn't realized how much I messed up, I really did when I left the meeting on Monday.

There the 4 of us were in the pharmacist's office. It was made public how I don't put my best foot forward when I'm working in the capacity as a pharmacy tech. I agreed to this, but I couldn't tell them why. I don't know why not. Even though I hate my job, it IS my job, and I need to cowboy up. It's my duty. Then something was said from Oldenburg actually that I never said to anyone else here in Japan, and it wouldn't surprise my mother (who says it constantly): if there is something I want or find interesting, I put 110% effort into what I'm doing, but if it's something I despise, it's so easy I lose my concentration. It was like that in high school sports, in swimming, and coaching. I left the meeting asked to sustain my concentration and put my best effort in doing my primary job. I was also asked to evaluate my own performance via our evaluation form, and share it with Chief the next day.

Of course there was more that was said, but those are the main points I felt needed to be shared. It should go without saying that I've put some thought into the meeting. Most of all, get my attitude back in check. My job is very serious, and people actually do depend on me. I love getting credit, attention, and recongition. A problem is my job really doesn't entitle those unless I do something wrong. Is that the way most jobs are? I'm not sure. I can produce 100 perfect prescriptions in a day, but it's the 1 I messed up on that everyone will remember. That's a little pressure on me. My guess EOD is just like that though. That one bomb I mess up on, and it isn't someone else's life I'm putting in peril, but my own. Initial success or instant failure.

I submitted my request to be nominated for the Caduceus's Committee secretary position. The Caduceus's Committee is a clinic-ran organization that internally helps improve morale and welfare of the clinic staff. Up until now I have scorned the organization citing I was too busy and internally too important for it. Why would I spend more time helping out the clinic when I want nothing more but to spend as much time away from it as possible? I have to change that mentality. The Caduceus's Committee could be seen as like the student council of the clinic, and I'm okay with that. I probably won't win because of my attitude towards the committee from before, but I want to show I'm making an effort. I should become a paying member first and start going to weekly meetings first!

Also, I requested I help chaperone the high school prom. I know a lot of kids and parents who are either going to the prom or have kids at the high school level, and it's one more volunteer opportunity. Plus I wanted to put cross it off my list of "things I did." Unfortunately there are no more positons available, but I was given other opportunites. More to come on those.

The Mt. Fuji climb season is underway, and this WILL be the year I do it. One reason or another I did not do it last year, but this year I will be serious about it. Again, my list of "things I did." How cool of a story would it be to say that I was on top of Japan?! I really don't know more information than that. Probably tomorrow I will stop in the outdoor recreation shop to get more information. That climb will probably be in July.

Big week for the swim club. Both the swim caps and men's jammers came in the mail! They both look really sharp. Kristoph and I agreed to introduce them to the team on Monday. We will also bring up the swim meet schedule with the Japanese community teams. Pretty motivating stuff. Kristoph and I also registered for the master's (adult league) swim meet in Nagasaki in June. I'll be swimming the 50 and 100 free and the 50 butterfly. Wish me luck! I think we will have a caravan of swim team members to have come and watch us.

We dropped our last baseball game. Sometimes she goes, and sometimes she doesn't, this week she didn't go...that's just the way she goes. I have a good feeling about this coming week though. The kids have had a good practice. Speaking of baseball, it has been hard to watch some of these Brewer scoreboards. How we could use some decent pitching!!

I'm about 5 minutes away from throwing my computer off my balcony and then going to bed to sleep like a baby. I think my fans are starting if not already fry. The damn thing just shuts off. Wish there was a geek squad around! So, if you wonder why I haven't been as talkative online, that's why. I only have about a 10 minute window before my monitor goes black.

Kiyoko is coming to visit this weekend. That's the girl I met through Darryl's girlfriend. We talk about every night via email. Her English is picking up faster than my Japanese which makes me wonder why I need to learn Japanese at all! I'm just kidding, but seriously. I also went on that date with the doctor. It was a bit of a awkward situation. To be honest I feel like my "resume" is leaving me a bit under-qualified, but I suppose it went decent. We are both really too busy to see much of each other so I'm not too worried. Kiyoko will be coming for John Benningfield's going away party. That will be epic, and I can't wait. I just hope I remember to bring my camera!

This Friday is standard-navy PRT. That's just the normal situp, pushup, swim routine. I'm not worried at all. In fact, I hope to swim my 450m in sub-6:00. My all-time fastest time is a 5:40 yards. It's weird cause the clinic is kinda looking for me to crush the swim time. It's not like they're looking for hope or anything, but they know me as "a fish," so there is some pressure to perform well. Next week I'll be tested in the EOD PST, and that's the test that matters. I've been really swimming to master my side-stroke form and I've been doing plenty of pushups and situps. If there was a pullup bar at the pool everything would be gravy. Again time will tell on this one.

That's about it for me. I'm going to try and see Iron Man 2 with the swim club on Friday. That line is going to be huge!! The doors open at 5:30 for a 6:30 show, but we're going to meet at the theater at 4:45. Hope it's worth it. Other than that I am about good with story-telling for this week. Morale is stable. Just have to constantly remind myself that patience and understanding is a journey.