A Conventional Weekend
Who doesn’t love a three day weekend? Go ahead and raise those hands high. Just as I suspected: nobody doesn’t enjoy a nice three day weekend off, be it from work or school. This past weekend (yes I know it is Wednesday, but I cannot believe how fast time flies when you are working) I got to enjoy a three-day weekend. However, it wasn’t just any ol’ run of the mill three-day weekend. No sir, I got to spend it at the 2008 South Carolina Pharmacy Association convention at the Crowne Plaza resort on Hilton Head Island!
While I live right off the island in Bluffton for the summer, I wasn’t going to miss out on the chance enjoy some time right on the beach. Several students from the College of Pharmacy were going, and since I was an officer in ASP (the academy of student pharmacists) our president “suggested” (and by suggested I mean she made it mandatory) to go. I had no problem with this decree whatsoever. Go ahead twist my arm because spending three days at the beach with a bunch of my classmates sounded soooooo bad!(wink!)
Most of us arrived on Thursday night. I had no problem getting there early since it was about a 25-minute drive from my aunt and uncle’s place. We all got checked in and headed out for dinner. The crew wanted seafood, and since I have some experience on the island, I suggested a place called Steamers. It was a good call, although I am still wondering who said we were having seafood, because I think half of us got non seafood dinners. Either way, everyone agreed I had made a good recommendation. Having started the weekend off right with a solid food recommendation (a specialty of mine) I was ready to get back to the hotel and rest up for the rest of the weekend.
Friday morning kicked off with some student programming brought to us by a company that places pharmacists in jobs. We learned about the dysfunctions of a team and had a fun team building exercise. Please bear with me as I describe the exercise, but it involved wrapping up a member of our team from head to toe in newspaper. Lucky our team was skilled with the tape and the USA Today, not to mention our “mummy” was quite small in stature, giving us a smaller surface area to have to cover. We won for the fastest time, and in my opinion the best wrap job, but I suppose they wanted to spread the wealth around.
After our fun wrapping affair came the USC and MUSC alumni luncheons. Since we got to the USC campus, our crew enjoyed lunch with a few of the alumni while we heard from our campus dean, Dean Rowen, as well as the South Carolina College of Pharmacy’s overall head, Dean Dipiro. I must say that it was very interesting to get to know some of these former USC students and to see what interesting things they are doing in the state to promote the profession of pharmacy in South Carolina.
With the lunch out of the way, it was time for most of us to hit the beach for an afternoon of some pharmacy “phun” in the sun. We could not have picked a better afternoon for the beach, with the cool breeze and bright sunshine over the picturesque Atlantic Ocean; you could simply not ASP met for our first meeting of the year. We had to meet early to get going on all of the fun ideas and projects for the upcoming year. Finally, the end of Friday was spent at the gala where the new officers and representatives of the SCPhA were sworn in for the upcoming year. Among them was our own Assistant Dean, Dr. Fuhrman(were so proud!). Following this ceremony, the convention was treated to a comedian/entertainer. This was no ordinary entertainment however. Our entertainer was able to “read the minds” of the audience as he wowed us with his ability to tell audience our horoscope signs, pick out playing cards that some of us had seen, and even reading the mind of who a girl and naming who her first kiss was! She nearly fainted, but the rest of us were truly blown away by this guy’s uncanny ability. Despite all of the fun, we had to get to bed at a descent hour because the fun was coming fast and early Saturday!
Did I just say something about early Saturday? Oh, yes, bright and early at 6 AM on Saturday the day got going with the Pharmacy “Phun” Run. A few of the other students braved the early morning… well it was that cold or dark, but I think it was just brave of us to be up so early to run . Out with us to run was Dean Dipiro as well, although he is more of a runner than most of us out there. Case in point: our ASP president Danielle (SCCP P3) and I kept up with Dr. Dipiro through the entire run, but when we finished, he kept right on going! In fact, Danielle myself and another student went out to the beach to continue our workout. When we were nearly finished, Dr. Dipiro came out ot the beach and never stopped going! The man was an inspiration, especially so early on a Saturday morning.
Saturday afternoon was all about the SWAG. You know, the “Stuff We All Get”. We got all of this “stuff” at the convention’s Expo event where vendors from all realms of pharmacy came to show us what goodies they had for us. Everyone from the major retail pharmacies to hospitals and even a company showing off their shoes for the pharmacist on his feet all day were there to try and get us to work for or buy from them. Most of them had some fun goodies for us to take home with us to help us to remember who to call when we wanted to buy some comfortable shoes for our long days on rotation in the pharmacy.
The convention really came to a close for most of us that Saturday night at the final big party. Now, I have neglected to tell you all that the theme of this weekend was all about sports. So, for the final shindig on Saturday, we were supposed to dress up as an athlete or our favorite sports team’s gear. I decided to do both and give it my all for the costume contest. With my Chicago Cubs jersey on, my hat in place on my head, and my pant legs pulled up high to reveal blue stirrup socks, I was ready for the party! The competition was stiff in the costume contest, as I had to compete against a football player, an Anna Kournikova look alike, and our own Dean Dipiro as a soccer player. Despite some heavy crowd support for Anna Kournikova I came out the victor! My prize was a two foot high trophy with “MVP of 2008 SCPhA Convention” written on it. Upon receiving my 1st place trophy I requested the microphone from the emcee and made an unforgettable victory speech that went a little like this:
“I would just like to say that this is the first time in 100 years that a person wearing a Cubs uniform has held a championship trophy”
It was received to a chorus cheers and after that moment of glory the night continued with much dancing, music, and good times for all!
So there you go, my convention weekend in a not so nutshell. Despite this rather lengthy entry, I still feel like barely scratched the surface of my weekend of good times. However, much like all good things, this past weekend included, this post will now come to a bittersweet ending. You all take care and keep on enjoying the sweet summertime!