Ye Olde Apothecary

I spent a solid hour and a half last night waiting at the pharmacy for a prescription. Don't get me wrong...I realize these guys/girls are slinging pills, and errors can be deadly, BUT, when your prescription comes packaged in a box, why the delay? Your neatly scrawled prescription says, "Give this guy months worth of these pills"...and the pills come in one month boxes..so, it seems like a matter of putting 2 boxes in a bag, double checking to make sure it's not horse tranquilizers, and away I should have gone. I would understand if it was the old days and the guy was breaking a sweat with his mortar and pestle, grinding me up some tiger scrote and eye of gnewt, but c'mon.

The extra time at the pharmacy had an added benefit of giving me some browsing of their wares. Of note:

- cartoon character "Arthur's" Vitamin C with Ester-C! All of his friend's bathed in a sickly orange hue, Arthur is now whoring himself out to Ester C.
- CHASER, anti-hangover pill. Instructions, take 2 pills with first drink and 2 pills every 3 hours while you continue to drink, to a maximum of 8 pills. OK...so 2 pills, + 2 more (3 hours have passed), + 2 more (6 hours have passed), + 2 more (8 hours have passed) = your daily ration of 8 pills. However, if you have been drinking nonstop for 8 hours, I don't think these little gems are going to help you. A Tranzene taper at your local hospital crisis unit might be a bit more fitting.
- WTF is up with red pens? Why is it that 2 red pens cost $1.29, but you can get 12 black/blue pens (with a bonus red) for $1.49? Is red ink that much more expensive, or is it just proof that your mistakes in life will cost you? "Well, I was going to mark these questions on your test wrong because you failed horribly, but things are tight these days and all I had was a blue pen, so A+!!! Good on you!"