Mr. Pharmacy

I am so behind with work right now but I found myself wanting to write...and who can turn down the urge to write?

I just attended the most amazing "pageant" in the history of pharmacy school: UCSF's Mr. Pharmacy 2008! So much talent and fun were present that it inspired me to take over 500 pictures of the contestants and audience during the event. Prior to the show, I did not have much expectation and went primarily to support our class's fund-raiser for graduation. However, although I was preoccupied by picture-taking, I enjoyed seeing the amazing talents exhibited by all these men and people involved who made the show such a success. Despite the hectic schedules, they made an effort to to organize the event and prepare for the acts. Student pharmacists at UCSF are truly phenomenal! I really mean it. What an honor to be learning among these people.

Walter Valdez, the runner-up, sent the crowd on a wild roar when he related his favorite childhood story, in which he peed on his pants in class and was eventually saved by his best friend from embarrassment with the throwing of a wet paper towel accompanying with the words: "We were fighting with wet paper towel." I never knew he was such a great story-teller. That was one of my favorite acts of the show.

Of course another popular performance, which also had the crowd rolling with thunderous laughter, was the song "P-Chem Blues," by the winner, Trevor Oelrich. He was not only a great singer and writer, but could also accompany his singing by playing two musical instruments: the harmonica and guitar. The best part was that student pharmacists in the crowd could relate to his lyrics about the first-year course, which was the cause of many nightmares of delta G and partial derivatives.

The turnout was awesome and the crowd extremely enthusiastic. I think the event raised a tremendous amount of money for our class, thanks to Krystal Pong's initiation and the help from many of our classmates. Some people were lucky enough to win prizes donated by several local businesses. However, the biggest sponsor of the night was Wal-mart Pharmacy, who's representative was also a judge for the competion, donated money for the winners' classes and Marnee Thai's dinner for all attendees, as well as giving away 3 ipod shuffles.

It was a night filled with laughter...and now...back to reality: trying to catch up with piles of school work and reading! sigh.