When I punched out a week ago, I had a small pile of things I was taking with me. I didn’t have much there to take in the first place. Maybe I could have taken the picture of me and Shawshank off the fridge. I left a phone charger, and I think a tiny penguin pen topper. The grungy Shia Lebeof mouse pad, even though I don’t have a mouse, came with me because StressedRPh would have immediately thrown it out. Shawshank had it made for me, I wasn’t going to get rid of it.
The other three items are all stuff that is sentimental, and I think after almost 15 years, I’m entitled to some sentimentality.
So, what are you looking at? I mean, the mouse pad is obvious. The notebook should be obvious, and relates to the next item. The white thing is Vicodin Bear, who was the unofficial mascot of the the pharmacy, and whose story I’ll eventually tell. As for the last item, that’s a spatula. Ever see that stuck footage of people counting pills?
No one knows why that spatula was so damned good. It wasn’t as long as the newer ones we’d order. The blade is narrower and more pointed. Has it just been shaped by a generation of bitter and beaten pharmacy tech hands, ceaselessly sliding it across a plastic tray? Perhaps.
But I have it. And I earned it.
