What's MY Delta Tau Chi Name?

Congratulations Mom, your son/daughter's in college. I've spoken to many of you in the last few days who need to have their prescriptions filled and mailed to their college address.
No problem -- you simply give me the complete information on where to send it, and it will be done. Invariably though, these conversations usually include the words, "He/she just told me that they are completely out." And, I can clearly sense when I'm talking to a helicopter mom who wants me to work a miracle and get that prescription in to their kid's hands by midnight. It's especially interesting when it's a C-2, y'know, like Adderall.

Now, we all want to help our kids out; be their advocate, give them the tools to be successful. Here's a teachable moment. If you're going to do the ordering for them, they must tell you when they are down to a week's supply. They can put a reminder on their computer calendar, into the iPhone, onto their Facebook status --- I don't care. Better yet, you might want to teach them to call the pharmacy number themselves (it's on the bottle!) and simply tell us what they need and where it is to be sent. And if the kid runs out of Adderall and bombs a test or something --- well, it's a lesson learned and it will probably help them remember the next time, or maybe it will take a few times. We all learn this way.

It's all part of the college experience. Now go make that Dean's List!! TOH-GAHHHHHH !!!

Control-Alt-Delete Me

The pharmacy computer system we have right now has been plagued with glitches and problems from the get-go. In fact, all our technology seems inherently unstable. When it does something weird like kick you off without saving any information, everyone just shrugs, says 'whatever' and starts over.

It just infuriates me that we have the same problems over and over again. I don't know how many people out there regularly have to call their company's computer "help" department, but the fact that these people can't diagnose the SAME PROBLEM we had a few days ago just aggravates me. And of course, the person you are talking to on the other end of the phone isn't even in your own state. I spend the first 15 minutes explaining where I am, who I am and what system I am calling about, and the person I'm talking to seems to be looking at it for the very first time themselves ("Wow, would you look at that screen, huh?") Then they want to give me a reference number and call me back in 15-20 minutes. Yeah, that'll work. Meanwhile, my entire work flow has ground to a halt and I've got a line-up of customers glaring at me and looking like they're about to burn me at the stake.

We are totally dependent on our technology. Believe me, I'm grateful for it even though I am whining here. There's just got to be people out there who can quickly diagnose and then permanently fix these problems, especially the ones that repeat themselves again and again. The face-to-face interactions with our computer people are no better -- they always seem mildly amused by my predicament and start asking me questions about my hardware and my servers until I want to scream HOW THE HELL DO I KNOW? THAT'S YOUR JOB !!!! YOU PEOPLE INSTALLED IT!!

I'm not opening any weird attachments. I'm not deleting programs, pulling any plugs or doing anything I'm not supposed to be doing. Just tryin' to do my job.

Thank you for allowing me to vent. Maybe the heat is getting to me.