It's YOUR job to understand YOUR insurance...I think.

 So, I basically disappeared for a couple of years.  Is that even possible?  Apparently it is...because I actually did it.  And, in those years, I was (and still am) plugging along in the pharmacy.  There were some major hurdles in that time.  I'm pretty sure we've all been trying to jump one common hurdle for the past year or so.  C19, and it's effect on our lives, at work and home.  I'm winning so far. I hope you are winning, too.

Let's just pretend we caught up over a cup of coffee (or a bottle of wine) and pick up where we left off, because I do have an interesting, or maybe not so interesting, story to share.  

Picture it.  Pharmacy.  (read Golden Girls Sophia style).

You've come to pick up your prescription.  Brand name.  You get it filled for 90 days at a time, and have been taking it for years.  YOUR prescription insurance has always covered it. Until today.  Today is the day we get to tell you that something has changed with YOUR prescription insurance formulary since the last time you filled your prescription (which, in this case, was the previous year), and the brand medication is no longer on the formulary (drugs they will cover). I bet you can already feel the tension...

Let me back up and tell you something about your prescription insurance and it's formulary.  I Don't Really Know The Details of YOUR Insurance and prescription drug coverage!  I know you think I do, but I don't. I know most of the details of my insurance through my employer, but I DON'T know yours.  At the pharmacy, we submit your prescription information electronically to your insurance.  Then, YOUR insurance tells us what's going to happen.  There are many, many responses we might receive.  The best is always one with a small (or zero) copay.  Unfortunately, that's not the one we get each time.  The bottom line...YOUR insurance calls the shots.  They are the boss.

We now return to our regularly scheduled interesting interaction.

While looking at the reject response on the screen, I tell you (it wasn't really me in this story) your insurance has rejected the claim, stating the brand drug is no longer on the formulary (product/service not covered on formulary/closed form).  You're not having any of it.  You huff at me that you always have this problem when you come to our pharmacy. You insist the drug is covered and we always make this mistake.  I inform you that I can see that the drug has been covered in the past, even pointing out the last time you picked it up.....and mentioning that was in 2020, last year, and things often change with prescription insurance coverage from year to year.  You tell me NOTHING has changed. I have made a mistake and need to redo my work.  So, just to be on the safe side (why do I doubt myself) I take a little walk over to the Help Pharmacist.  She takes a look at your profile and tells me exactly what I've already told you.  

On my return to your transaction, I think of the best way to tell you that you'll need to do some research because something HAS changed and you weren't aware of it until this moment.  What I come to realize is....there is no BEST way.  You're still not having any of it.  So, you huff at me a little more (while I apologize for your dissatisfaction with  my "lack of" professionalism) and you depart with a huff and a promise to show me the error of my ways.

Later that day, our fax machine spits out a new prescription for your medication from your doctor....generic...all "yeah, you were right, but I'm not going to tell you to your face style". Hey, it happens.  It would be difficult for the average person to know all the changes that occur with their prescription drug plan year to year (or even month to month as generics come on the market).  The best way to find out what's up with your prescription insurance is from your prescription insurance customer representatives. I don't expect you to know, but I would greatly appreciate it if you didn't automatically assume we  screwed it up because we are not professionals.  We are always striving to get you the proper medication at the best price in the most timely fashion.   Whether you're having it or not. 

Don't forget to take your happy pill!

Planning a vacation includes your medication!

So, I haven't blogged in a while.  I'm busy.  I'm tired.  I've got irons in a fire that's flirting with raging out of control.  Pretty much the situation most people find themselves in, right?  But, there is one thing that happens a lot at this time of year that keeps the pharmacy busy.  People are all about their Summer vacations.

Let's take a moment to see if I can make this a little easier for you.  Who wants added stress before their vacation?  No one.  You need all your energy to buy your new swimsuit and flip flops (or whatever it is you need for your personal trip).  So, I'm going to give you a little bit of information that might help things go more smoothly if maintenance medications are part of your daily life and you're about to hit the open road.

Your insurance keeps track of when you've picked up your medication and how many days it is supposed to last you.  They do.  They always do.  And, your insurance will not authorize their payment toward your medication if you try to refill it earlier than they determine is necessary.  They won't.  They ALMOST always won't.  It's the ALMOST I want to talk about with you.

If you take maintenance medications, and you're planning a trip where you will run out of medication before you return home, there is something you can (and should) do.  Contact your prescription insurance company.  Explain the situation.  See what they require to give you a waiver to refill your medications early due to your vacation.  Let's just call this a "vacation waiver". 

I know about this "vacation waiver" because I had to get one myself a couple years ago.  At that time, I was going to be traveling outside the country, and I wouldn't have enough medication for the entire trip without an early refill.  So, I contacted my prescription insurance company, explained the situation, provided the necessary information/documentation, and they granted me a waiver.  I called the pharmacy I used, asked for early refills, and everything passed smoothly through my insurance when they processed my refills.  I had the medication I needed for my vacation at least a week in advance of my departing flight.  A few minutes of my time saved me a lot of stress and hassle before my trip.  I needed all that mental energy to keep from jumping out of a plane mid flight.

Your pharmacy employees don't work for your insurance company.  We don't necessarily know what each company requires.  We might not even know exactly how many days early you can get your prescription refilled.  Our interaction with your insurance is limited to submitting (electronically) your request for a refill and waiting to see how the insurance responds.  We mentally cross our fingers for you, but we cannot control the outcome.  Only you can.

So, when you take a break from packing those suitcases, make that call to your prescription insurance, and save yourself the stress of a last minute "refill too soon" notification.  It's really that easy :)  And, don't forget to take your happy pills.

A Doggone Dilema

This is how it went down. In my first 20 minutes of an 8 hour shift at work today, I was faced with unhappy customers. Look, I get it. You're in a hurry, and the last place you want to be held up is at the pharmacy. Guess, what? It's the last place I want you to get held up, too. "Not good for you" pretty much translates to "not good for me". So, let me tell you about one of the interactions from as neutral a position as I can muster.

First, let me preface by saying, before I arrive at work, I have NO IDEA what has happened in your dealings with the pharmacy. I'm starting at square one. Whatever difficulty you've had, or think you've had, is news to me, but I'm always motivated to try to solve the problem.

With that said, let me tell you about Ms. Doggone. Unbeknownst to me, she has been waiting in our waiting room for 15 minutes for us to fill a prescription for syringes for her pet. She's a bit miffed that her name hasn't been called yet. So, she just walks right up and hovers behind the customer I'm currently waiting on. Ok, not really kosher to begin with, but we'll let that slide and get right on to the main attraction. She gives me her name and the name of her pet. I call up the patient profile on the computer. Next to her pet's name and the prescription she's waiting on is the dreaded RED "Call Prescriber". As a pharmacy tech, I mentally cringe at those red words. It means there is an issue with the prescription, and we've had to contact the prescriber for clarification. In Mrs. Doggone's case, the issue was the prescription had been written without information regarding the size (in mL) of the syringes required. We needed the veterinarian to get back to us (phone, fax) with the size syringes they wanted for the patient. We CANNOT move the prescription forward until the veterinarian contacts us and clarifies their prescription (which THEY WROTE). So, I try to explain the issue to Mrs. Doggone, but she's not having any of that. She knows what size it's supposed to be. I respect that she is that aware of what her pet requires, but she's not the veterinarian, so, as knowledgeable as she might be, it's not sufficient enough to fill the prescription. It really does require the veterinarian....the one that failed to put the necessary information on the script in the first place. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not angry with the vet. We all make mistakes. I'm just a bit peeved that we're the ones Mrs. Doggone was "less than respectful" with when we did not cause the delay and were actually trying to help her understand the issue, but I also understand that's part of the job territory. Mrs. Doggone wanted her script back. Apparently, she was going to take it to another pharmacy (one that knows what they're doing). No problem. I got the script, had a pharmacist cancel it out, and handed it back to Mrs. Doggone. She left my register tossing a few more choice words over her shoulder.

Not a great start to my day. More importantly, not a great start for Mrs. Doggone. She was about to find out that the next pharmacy wouldn't be able to fill the prescription without getting clarification from the veterinarian either. I can only hope the next pharmacy was able to get a faster response from the veterinarian than we were.

The lesson of this story is this..... sometimes, your doctor (or vet) fails to write a complete prescription. They might accidently leave off information that is necessary for a pharmacy to process your prescription. Any legit, responsible, trustworthy pharmacy MUST get the missing information STRAIGHT FROM THE PRESCRIBER. We cannot make it up. We cannot take an educated guess. And, we cannot take your word for it. It may feel like we're the people delaying your plans, but, truly, we are not. We are just the bearers of the bad news when your prescriber has written a script with missing or inaccurate information. We don't really enjoy waiting on them to get back to us any more than you do. But, we'll work as hard as we can to get the information as quickly as possible. This requires cooperation and promptness on the part of the prescriber. In the meantime, we'll treat you with courtesy. I hope, when you know more about how the pharmacy works, that you'll extend the same courtesy to us.  

Don't forget to take your happy pill!

P. S. My day got better :)

Dear Pharmacy Customer,

Let’s talk about the pharmacy “Drive-Thru”.  We can all admit that, in a perfect world, the convenience of picking up your prescriptions without having to exit your car is an amazing notion.  Unfortunately, we’d also have to admit that we’re not living in a perfect world.  Let’s take a look at what can happen (and, this isn’t even an exhaustive list).

First, you must acknowledge that once you have entered the line at the drive thru, you’re pretty much trapped, and you did it willingly.  There aren’t too many places I’d enjoy being trapped.  Maybe a loving embrace would work.  Personally, I’d opt for a craft store.  But, never would I willingly trap myself in a line of cars at a pharmacy drive thru if I were limited on time or the type of person to get frustrated by unanticipated/unexpected delays.  I’d have to eat my high blood pressure meds while I waited.

Each interaction at the pharmacy is unique.  Many times, people have questions for the pharmacist, or the pharmacist must speak to them before a medication can be purchased.  This can take time as the professionals relay important medication information to the customer.  Mrs. Smith is entitled to ask her questions, and the pharmacist is always willing to answer and clarify Mrs. Smith’s concerns.  If you’re bothered by Mrs. Smith’s desire to understand what she’s taking, how to take it, what it will do to her, and side effects she might experience…maybe you shouldn’t have pulled in behind her.  I mean, she did get there first, right?

Sometimes, there are insurance issues with someone’s prescription.  Mr. Jones didn’t update his new prescription plan the last time he was in, now he wants to do it at the drive thru while picking up his maintenance medications.  It will take a few moment’s to update his info, a few more to rebill his prescription,  a few more to take his meds to the pharmacist and have them rechecked and the new bill attached (and we’re not even sure if the pharmacist is in the middle of something at the moment), then we can finally complete the transactions.  All those “few moments” can add up.  Plus, in Mr. Jones’ scenario, we didn’t even consider the added time if his insurance would reject the claim!  Maybe the meds aren’t covered or only covered in a smaller quantity which isn’t what his doctor prescribed.  Maybe the prescription refill is “too soon”.  Maybe he needed a generic instead of a brand name.  Mr. Jones came to take care of his business.  He didn’t force you to pull in behind him. 

Then, we have sweet Ms Little.  Her child is ill and the pediatrician has prescribed a liquid antibiotic.  Ms Little sits in her car (possibly her child is screaming from discomfort in the back seat) while the medication is mixed for use.  This means water is measured, checked by the pharmacist, added to the powdered antibiotic, mixed, rechecked by the pharmacist and finally delivered to the drive thru window.  We haven’t even considered the possibility that Ms Little wants flavoring added so Baby Little will not fight taking it too much.  This will add several more minutes of waiting while the flavoring recipe is looked up and added to the medication.  1 minute.  2 minutes.  3 minutes.  4 minutes.  It’s hard to predict how long Ms Little’s transaction will take. 

Next, Mr. Big stops by to “drop off” his prescription.  You know…he’s just come from the doctor’s office.  The pharmacy will need some mandatory information before he can drive on his merry way.  Usually, this is quite simple.  As long as Mr. Big has previously picked up prescriptions at the pharmacy and has his current prescription insurance on file, we’re good to go in a couple minutes.  But, what if he hasn’t been to the pharmacy before, and doesn’t have his insurance in the system?  Or, what if he’s been prescribed a drug which is controlled and has to be checked on before the pharmacy can even commit to filling the prescription.  You’ll be sitting in your car behind him while we handle his needs. 

So there you sit.  The convenience of not having to get out of your car and walk into the store doesn’t seem so convenient any more.  You’re frustrated.  You’re agitated.  You’re running behind schedule now.  You’re itching to yell at whoever stands on the other side of the glass when you finally get there.  And, you know who that is?  Possibly me.  I’ve just helped Mrs. Smith, Mr. Jones, Ms Little and her baby, and Mr. Big.  And, I did it as quickly as possible in the constraints and requirements of my job.  I also planned to give you the same personal attention I’d given them.  But, my smile and greeting are met with your frustration.  I suppose there was no way for you to tell my previous customers how they ruined your drive thru experience, so I’m the only option you have.  Guess what?  I’ll stand there and take it.  Heck, I’ll even apologies for your inconvenience.  But, I’ll know (and so will you) that you put the blame on me when you made the decision to not come into the store. 

Sure, there might be a line in the store, but there are also several registers that can be running at the same time.  In my particular case, there are 3 registers inside….and only 1 at the drive thru.  If there is another Mrs. Smith inside, she can be handled at one register while you are handled at another.  You don’t have to wait for her to finish before the rest of the line can move forward.  In the drive thru, you are trapped behind her.  If, for some unknown reason, you find you must leave before you’ve been taken care of, you can easily do so from inside the store.  Not so easy when your stuck between cars in the drive thru.

There are many reasons the drive thru is appealing.  There are also as many, if not more, reasons that it can be more time consuming than parking and coming inside.  In either situation, I’ll still greet you with a smile and ask how I can help you.  The ball is in your court at that point.

Remember to take your happy pill :)

It Makes Imperfect Sense

An Interesting Encounter

Let’s be real.  Really real.  At some point, you have to take responsibility for your own life, health care, too.  It only takes one customer to drive a point home and remind you to practice patience…because you can’t always say what comes to mind first.  Take this “exchange” as a prime example.

A customer comes to the drive-thru.  She’s just planning to pick up a refill of a prescription she called in the previous morning, so it makes sense that it would take very little time to complete her transaction, but, it just doesn’t work that way every time.  Here, I’ll break it down for you.

*I’ll make up the names as we go along.  You know, HIPAA is a real thing.

Ms. Sharon calls the pharmacy.  She has just recently transferred all her prescriptions to us.  She tells the tech she would like to get a refill on HER Vitamin D.  This is a medication she always gets in a 90 day supply, so it’s been 3 months since her last pick up.  The tech brings up her patient profile on the computer screen, locates HER Vitamin D prescription, and notes that she does not have any refills left on that prescription.  Standard practice for the pharmacy is to send an electronic request; this is done automatically by the system, to the prescribing doctor of record.  So, the tech tells Ms. Sharon that an automatic electronic request will be sent to HER prescriber to ask for refills of the HER Vitamin D, and the prescription will be filled when the refill request is granted.  Now, Ms. Sharon wants to know if she will be able to pick up the prescription the following day.  That’s a tough question since there is no way to know when/if the doctor will get back to the pharmacy with his answer, but, as any good tech would do, Ms. Sharon is given this information and, most likely, told she can call in before stopping by to see what progress the pharmacy has made with her order. 

Ms. Sharon chooses to skip the phone call and head to the pharmacy directly.  This is where the lesson begins.

Upon arriving at the pharmacy drive-thru window, Ms. Sharon gives her name and lets the tech (ok, it was me) know what she has come to pick up a refill.  Side note, I am not the tech who took the refill order, but that doesn’t really matter in this scenario.  Procedure is procedure, so it would have played out in a similar fashion no matter which tech was working the drive-thru when she arrived.  Her name is entered into the system, and her file is retrieved.  No refill is found.  HER Vitamin D is not waiting for her.  How has this happened?  As it turns out, Ms. Sharon didn’t mention, when calling in her refill, that the prescribing doctor of record was NO LONGER HER DOCTOR, and, in fact, lived in another state.  Ms Sharon hadn’t seen her previous doctor since moving to her new home in PA.  It would seem realistic to most people that a doctor (who is no longer YOUR doctor) would not authorize a refill for a patient who is NO LONGER HIS PATIENT, but it didn’t make sense to Ms Sharon.  Let’s imagine a 5 minute scenario where Ms Sharon lets me know how unhappy she is that we (I) did not get her refill authorized.

Now, Ms Sharon, who is building up a head of steam, informs me that she has 2 new local doctors, and had the pharmacy called her to let her know her request had been rejected by her old doctor; she’d have given us the info for her new doctors.  We had just wasted HER time by contacting her old doctor, the doctor of record, to get her refill.  The problem with Ms Sharon’s solution is that neither of her new doctors had ever prescribed Vitamin D for her.  There was no prescription on record from either of them, therefore, there is nothing for us to call in to refill.  Her situation would require HER to call her new doctors and ask them to send a NEW prescription for HER Vitamin D to the pharmacy.  Note to self, to make it a less stressful situation for herself, it might have been best for Ms Sharon to make those arrangements before taking the last Vitamin D from her previous prescription and putting herself in a situation where she was without any medication as this issue was being resolved.  But, Ms Sharon is convinced that the pharmacy is responsible for the situation she now finds herself in.  Truly convinced.  And, absolutely determined to make me understand how the pharmacy is responsible.

We’ll skip the lengthy conversation that followed.  Suffice it to say, Ms Sharon truly sees this as a failing on the part of the pharmacy.  There is nothing I can say at this moment to make her understand that it would make perfect sense that her old doctor would not grant the refill request, that calling in before arriving at the pharmacy would have saved her the trip (and made her aware of the situation she needed to resolve), and that the pharmacy wouldn’t be able to contact either of her new doctors to ask them to write a new prescription for her.  There is no way to convince her that things would have gone smoothly if she’d have contacted one of her new doctors, before swallowing her last pill, to request they send a NEW prescription for Vitamin D to the pharmacy, because she was running low.  Ms Sharon was dead set on laying full blame on the pharmacy.  She even let me know that she was going to write a note about the situation so there would be a record of what transpired should she die in her sleep because we did not have her prescription for her.   I must take a moment to note that: 

            1:  Her medication was not life saving.

            2:  Her medication could be purchased over-the-counter.

            3:  I offered to get a pharmacist for her to speak with to see

                 if there was a temporary solution to her problem.

After chastising me one last time, Ms Sharon left in a huff.  

I don’t know what Ms Sharon decided to do once she left the pharmacy.  She might have made a note to call one of her new doctors to get a new prescription.  She might have written a complaint to the corporation.  She might have realized it was ultimately her responsibility to have her ducks in a row when it comes to the timely refill of her medication.  Maybe I’ll find out eventually.  Maybe I won’t.  In either case, it’s a learning experience for me.  One that I hope will lead me to better resolutions in the future. 

Main point: YOUR healthcare is YOUR responsibility first. 

Second point:  I DO want you to be satisfied when you leave the pharmacy, but there are only so many things I am able to do to make that happen. 

Third point:  Figure out a way to prevent this in the future if possible. 

Fourth and Final Point:  Tomorrow is another day.

Don’t forget to take your Happy Pill.

That's Not How It Works.

Have you ever worked in a place where you find yourself repeating a piece of information so frequently you lose track of how many times you've said it?  I have, and still do, and I wish I could figure out a way to inform the public without having to do it one customer at a time.  So, with that in mind, I'll let you in on a little secret.

Ready?

Your pharmacy doesn't fill prescriptions in the order they are recieved.  Seriously, that's not how it works.  If you're like many people, you just assumed that it was standard procedure.  I know I did before I actually worked at a pharmacy.  Now, I know better.  And, I wish I could let everyone in on the secret to ease tension and unfulfilled expectations.  I'm going to give it my best shot, for you, right now.

Prescriptions come in to the pharmacy in several different ways.  The one we are most familiar with is the actual written script from the doctor.  You know, the one they hand you on your way out of the office.  Once it's in your hand, its your job to get it to the pharmacy and have it filled.  Another method you might be familiar with is the E-script.  This is a prescription sent electronically from your doctor to the pharmacy of your choice.  There is also the fax method where your doctor's office faxes a copy of your script to the pharmacy.  Or, maybe your doctor has the time to actually call the pharmacy and read your script to a pharmacist.  No matter how your prescription arrives at the pharmacy, it's not filled as it's received.  It's actually placed in a QUEUE to be worked on, and the queue is based on the best estimate of when it will need to be ready, not when it arrived.

I could go into great detail about all the different categories contained in the WORK QUEUE, but it's probably more information than you need to understand the concept, so let's see if I can make it short and sweet.

There are prescriptions we must work on immediately based on special circumstances.  These prescriptions are categorized as URGENT.  Having a busy schedule is not a special circumstance.  No one is begging for the opportunity to sit in the pharmacy waiting area while we work on filling their prescription, but that doesn't make their situation URGENT.  This category is used only in special circumstances, and those circumstances are decided by the pharmacist or technician.  Period.  Any prescription designated as URGENT will be worked on first.

The next category of work in the queue is designated as WAITING.  This is the largetst working queue.  These are prescriptions that will be picked up within 30-60 minutes.  Most likely they were dropped off in person, or a patient called the pharmacy to let us know they were on their way.  Other than the few URGENTS we might see in a day, this is where technicians start when they are filling prescriptions.  We start with the prescriptions that need to be ready first because the patients will be arriving first.

The next category is TODAY.  These are prescriptions we will have ready before the end of business.  There is no guarenteed time, but we will work on them once we've cleared our URGENT and WAITING queues.  If you show up before your prescription is ready, we will move it up to the WAITING queue and you can be out of there in as little as 30 minutes.

Finally, there is the FUTURE DATE category.  These prescriptions will be sent to the CENTRAL FILL location, filled, and sent back to our pharmacy the next business day (except Sundays).  For the most part, these are maintenace drugs that were ordered slightly in advance of their refill date.

During the day, each of these queues grows as prescriptions arrive and shrinks as prescriptions are filled.  There is no way to guess how many scripts will be in each queue at any given time.  The only constant there is is the order in which we will work on them. 

At the pharmacy where I work, a busy day can see upwards of 700 prescriptions.  Each of those prescriptions goes through several steps from arrival to pick up.  At each and every step, there are potential, unpredictable roadblocks.  Many of these roadblocks are out of our control.  We want you to be satisfied.  That's our goal, but sometimes we aren't as successful as we'd like to be, and it's not for lack of trying, but for lack of understanding the process.  So, now you have a little bit of understanding about the process.  I hope it helps you next time you're waiting at the pharmacy. 

...AND THEN THEY OFFERED ME THE JOB.

Life changed, drastically, in the last three months.  At 55, my husband, Steven, decided to take an early retirement, and my life changed.  After 19 years of being a Stay-At-Home-Mom, I was about to venture out into the workforce again.  Sure, I'd been an elementary school teacher for 10 years, but the gap in my professional work history was pretty big, and I didn't want to go back to my previous career.  So, at 51 years old, I was sticking my foot back into the water, and I was almost convinced I'd drown.

My search for a job had conditions.  I needed to secure health benefits for my husband, my daughter, and myself.  I knew I wouldn't be suited for over night shifts.  A chronic illness would prevent me from doing serious physical labor, and an 8 hour shift was about all I'd be able to get through without physical consequences.  More importantly, I would need to find a job where Sundays off was an option.  Sundays in my family are the day when we we all get together at my mother's house (or mine in the "play outdoors" weather) and laugh, play, eat, debate, swim, drink wine, discuss life, and have Starbucks.  It's a tradition I was determined to maintain.  So, where could I find something to meet these conditions and find myself fulfilled and challenged?  The search began.

Some day, I'll get into the details of the job search, but, for today, I'll just tell you where it ended.  I was offered a job as a Pharmacy Technician for a well known business in my area.  Why was I drawn to this opportunity?  It seemed challenging and intellectually stimulating.  It allowed me to work with people, and I happen to like most people.  There would be plenty of interaction, which I knew would keep my mind busy and make time move quickly.  I felt I could make a contribution.  I would be able to secure the health benefits my family needed, and Sundays off was a go.  I accepted the offer, and that's where the journey, and this blog, begin.

In the two plus months since I began my job, my brain has been working overtime to catch up on everything I need to know to do my job well.  There is so much important information to memorize.  So many rules and procedures and medication names and insurance policies and more.  Is it challenging?  Heck yes!  Is it busy?  No doubt.  Is it fun?  YES, it is fun, and I work with some really great people who make it even more fun.  Sure, I'm still flailing about a little as I try to put the pieces into place, but, each day I feel like I've made progress in the right direction.  And, each day, something happens which taps into my education and years as a teacher, and makes me want to inform people about the way the pharmacy works, from my point of view, so they'll be more knowledgeable, and possibly less surprised or frustrated in their experiences.

With that said, get ready for some stories, good and bad, that might help you the next time you're waiting in line.  Maybe, just maybe, you'll find out something that changes your perspective and brings you a more positive experience.  I know, when I'm behind the counter, I'm striving for a positive interaction with each and every customer.  Sometimes I win.  Sometimes I lose.  Each time, I want to make it better <3

-C-