about rotations...

so Monday was THE DAY when we found out the rest of the rotations. I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome, i got almost most of my choices, and almost in the order i wanted:

Summer 1: Hawaii
Sumemr 2: Norris cancer hospital - ambulatory care
Fall 1: Off
Fall 2: Baxter - Medical Affairs
Fall 3: Off (trying to switch to Community here, we'll see)
Spring 1: Norris Cancer Hospital - Oncology inpatient
Spring 2: community
Spring 3: Cedars-Sinai - Inpatient Psychiatry

These are all choices I ranked pretty high on my list. Although some of them are pretty challenging, but I'm fine with being challenged, i just dont want asshold preceptors who make your life miserable. so i'm climbing in my boots and hoping for the best.

However, the weird, random thing is that, since my friend decided to get married during summer 1 and therefore had to drop her Hawaii rotation with me (hence i'm on my own), several people have expressed extreme interest in the rotation. People who i'm not necessarily friends with, at best i call them acquaintances. But usually i'm surrounded by a lot of people who only talk to you when they need you (hence NOT my friends). So i was pretty annoyed at the prospect that i might actually have to do a rotation with them, possibly ruining my paradise of a time in Hawaii. Truth be told, I'd rather be with a bunch of people who i dont know and do my own things, than having to hang with someone who i dont particularly like. all of a sudden i'm being stopped in the hallway with smiley faces asking me about the rotation, or getting numerous calls on my phone inquiring about further details. i THANK GOD that i already got housing taken care of. or the prospect of having to live with people from my class who i'm not friends with will surely drive me crazy. you might ask, why this strong reaction? well, since i'm not really friends with them, i'd like my personal life/activities while in hawaii remain private and not known to the rest of the class when i come back. People in our class seem to have nothing better to do than gossip. i clearly remember only telling a handful of people about me doing the hawaii rotations and suddenly now i'm being stopped in the hallway by people i dotn know. they like to gossip to death. that's what you get for getting 170 females in the class and the rest of them feminine guys almost. all of the Hawaii contenders asked me about my housing arrangements, and when i told them that i had that taken care of, one of them even proceeded to ask me if i could share the car rental with her. Uh, we are NOT goin to live together. i dont see how that can be arranged when we have rotation at 6 in the morning. I do not want to wait to be picked up, and i certainly do not want to make a detour in the morning to go get someone. and i would be on house arrest while you have the car. So yes i will shed the extra cash for the sake of my convenience. please understand.

i want to not be anxious and have strength in everythign that i do. I want everything to work out. i really do. :/

stress, and more stress

i will have to update about the hiking trip and the banquet i attended this weekend later (probably tomorrow). But right now i'm gonna talk about my week in a nutshell and why i'm soo wound out right now.

source 1: trying to pass my PK exam. I took it once last week, and didn't pass. so i'm gonna have to retake it again. will likely to be on tuesday. this is one exam you have to take and retake and retake until you pass. or you can't go on rotation. I thought i did good, but apparently not. -_-

source 2: Capstone test --our comprehensive pharmacy competency exam we take ALSO before we go on rotations. if you dont pass --again -- you dont get to go. where do i start to study for all the millions of drugs we've learned from the past 3 years? and the minuite details like side affects, dosage, class, brand/generic name, guidelines...

source 3: get assigned to summer 1 rotation. so in 3 weeks i'll be practicing what i've learned actually ON THE JOB.

source4: having to find housing within 3 weeks--because i have to rent a place in hawaii, and i can't take a look at the apt before i get there. so everything is done over the internet. and people are slow at it. i'm freaking out. i'm waiting for people's response and i dont want to lose my other leads as well.

source 5: having a presentation in front of the class on thursday. and i have to bend some law to make it sound like in my favor. i'm sure the whole class and the professor will be like wtf?! nerve wrecking, and hard grading.

source 6: may have to alter dress for the next banquet happening on friday. no time to take to taylor. dress doesn't fit. got dress cheap, not sure if it's work the money of alteration. but no time to do it anyway.

Source 7: FINAL tomorrow. and i haven't started.

bridesmaid dresses and more...

Today is a somewhat productive day, i guess. i woke up to go to The Grove in LA to meet up with my roommate from college because she wants to buy our bridesmaids dresses there. We met up around noon, and mostly we helped her decide on her gown. It was a really odd experience since in my mind i still feel like we are so young, and that i had just met her 8 years ago, we are now both 25 and she's already trying out dresses. the onlly downside is that when i got home, i realized that some douchebag hit my car while trying to park so now on top of all the unidentified dents i have a huge new addition.

then the LA traffice took me 1.5 hr to get home, of course, i was road raging a little bit. I can't possibly understand the draw of LA. I mean, other than the fact that if you're an actor/actress/musician trying to hit it big in this town i can't possibly see why anyone would want to spend 1/3 of their life stuck in traffic. and it's not even like you have much to do in your car besides playing with your radio station dial.

Then i suppose the big news, on top of everything else, is that i got the summer rotation in Hawaii --which means, i have only 3 weeks to find housing and physically move myself from here to Honolulu to start my medicine rotation. I have begun my search on craigslist and it looks like i have a few leads. hopefully everything will work out, hopefully.

continuation

Airbourn Toxic Event --"sometime around midnight"




Anyway, so the coachella turned out to be an awesome experience:
To me it was somewhat similar to the Sungod we have at ucsd and other various events. Basically you have different stages set up, and bands big and small come up and play at varous times, you just try to catch them. However this is 10X bigger in size. and there's a lot more interesting things to look at. Definitely a lot of food choices, not awesome, but good enough, and expensive. a lot of beergardens as well. LOTS and i mean LOTS of drunken, pot smoking kids and older adults who never grew out of puberty. the whole day i just felt like my lungs were going to be develop cancer. However the concert itself is very cool. a lot more laid back then i thought. you can be as close to the band or as far as away as you want. so in the beginning (ie. Airbourn toxic Event) we stood the whole time watching them. the song Sometime Around MIdnight was even more awesome to hear live, with the string quartet and the explosiveness of the band and seeing so many people singing the lyrics. It's a song about an old love, or a run in with an ex. Such a great tune.

Then we saw the Ting Tings, Franz Ferdinand, Beirut, Silversun Pickups, and various other bands. there were bigger stars like Paul Mccartney and Morrisey, who i don't particularly care for out of my ignorance (I was probably only a fetus or not even a fetus) when they were huge. i mean, the beatles were great and i love them, but i dont like any of the solo stuff after that. and The Smiths i really just dont know much about. but apparently they are like gods. anyway i digress.

The ting tings were soo fun to watch. i loved their catchy tunes and to see so many people joining in with the dancing was just interesting. and Beirut was apparently bigger/more popular amongst people than i thought. i had only heard one song from them but their sounds are unique in that they use a lot of trumpets and accordians so it almost sounds european. Franz Ferdinand, without a doubt was great like usual. i've never seen them live before but they are super stars now compared to when i was in college and they had jsut hit it big with Take me Out. and i saw them sitting down too. a very relaxing experience. Silversun Pickups was good, i saw them 2 years ago when they opened for snow patrol. but they continued to make good music and hit the jackpot again with their Lazy Eye.
Silversun Pickups --Lazy Eye

Beirut - Nantes



The concert and festivities took forever. in general just a lot of a**es and boobs. it was scorching hot and the girls relaly let it all hang out. in comparison i was dressed rather conservatively (a sleeved souvenir t shirt from chicago with black pants and tennis shoes, i was burning. but people kept yelling chicago at me). we walked 5K back to our car and when we got home it was 2AM. we were pooped. would i do it again? maybe. it was worth it to spend that much to see 6+ bands i really like and discover others. and people watching.

more about the SM Beach Cleanup and Anisette Brasserie tomo...

Post Coachella and Beach Clean-up

So this past week was my catching-up week: catching up with friends, catching up with social events, and catching up life in general. I've been pretty moody lately (no it's not because i PMS), i figure something other than school/work will help.

So for about 2 days i had lunch/dinner dates with all these friends i've been meaning to meet up all year but didn't have a chance. Some people i used to have the same class with, went to college with, lived with, and partied with. Our promises of meeting up never happened. So it was a good break for us all. We dined, ate, talked, and laughed. I have to say that since the recent turn of events (close friend getting married and just a general anxiety about future rotation/work/fellowship prospect) this definitely helped a lot. A little everyday i feel better about what had happened so far. There will always be things that dissapoint you, but there will be people who will come and lift your spirit up.

I was able to discuss my situation with some of my close friends at school, and surprisingly they all lent a very patient ear. I can't say that I feel a lot better now but i am definitely comforted by the fact that maybe i'm not going crazy on my own. my doubts/worries are in fact called-for, although it's generally agreed upon that there's really nothing i can do about, well, life.

*to be continued after dinner*

the deal with religion and why i'm ticked off

I looked forwarded to today, or i dreaded today, ever since i talked with my bestfriend/roommate from college whose lightening speed marriage proposal happened 3 days ago. We had a plan to meet up, and we did, for lunch today.

It was awkward at first, she showed me the ring, and although i had not gotten a lot of sleep last night, i feigned excitement. I honestly dont care much for the ring, or ANY ring, i think i was more anxious to know WHY. I am not the crazy possessive kind of single girlfriends. i dont mind that people are in love, i think there should be more of it in the world. Love makes the world go around. but i want to see people HAPPY in love.

the thing is, the longer time you spend being single, the more you have time to figure out yourself, and what you want in a partner, and what you want out of life. And sometimes, you probably end up spending way too much time that, nobody quite fits that criteria. before you know it, you're at that age where you have to say yes to every invitation to every random waiter/stranger on the street/at the coffeeshop/at the restaurant just to increase your chance of marriage and not be called "too picky".

Anyway, I was so angry after our lunch date today. because first of all, we have been best friends for years, and she had always joked about asking me to be her maid of honor when she does it, and today she asked me to be her bridesmaid. I mean, it's her wedding, she has whatever right she has to choose whoever she wants. I dont blame her. But the fact that she's been so involved with her church for the past 1.5 year has totally transformed her. I was with her every step of the way, when she got with her last bf, when they broke up, when we were both single for a long time, and now she's said yes to her bf of only 7 months. (and she defended it by saying, they already liked each other 6 months before that, when he was OVERSEA in IRAQ). and he KNEW that he had wanted to propose after 4 months of being together.

call me old-fashioned. but 4 months is hardly time enought to really KNOW someone.

but you know what, having a common religion is probably going to solve any problem that comes their way. i have total faith in their relationship and marriage, even though i've only met the guy 6 months ago before they even got together. and next time i see him he's her fiancee.

my bestfriend/roommate ended up asking this girl from her church who she consulted a lot during her relationsihp to be her maid of honor. just because. I don tknow if she sensed my feelings at all (apparently not). i agreed to be her bridesmaid of course, but this speaks volumes about how she valued her friendship. church above all. i am going to be the only person of her 7 bridesmaids who is from her past (before the church).

and then we got into conversations about how she didn't think two people with different reiligions wouldn't work. i was already ticked at this point so i defended by saying it depends on how receptive the NON CHRISTIAN is of the other person's religion. and she was saying that because everyone SINNED...and apparently there's some chapters in the bible about how a husband/wife should behave. (i fucking flipped in my head).

i continued to be angry after i got home. we are still good friends and we talked about other things as well during the meal. I tried to toned my disapproval to the lowest volume i could, because i know it's important to her. i think i'm just dissappointed. it's bothered me since she converted that she dissaproves what i do (drinking anything alcoholic, going out at night --yes, because i do that how often? once every 2 months, and i only have allowed myself to get sick twice by accident, but i'm sinful, apparently).

I used to attend a catholic school, and loved it when i was a kid, and even now still occasionally when i feel weak i pray a little, even though my parents also brought me up buddhist. the more i meet people who are devout christian, the more i cannot rediscover my faith. all that i've seen is that they use religion as a means to judge people, to discriminate gay people, to make choices for people (about abortion), to shut people out (by creating their own community), to look down on people (if you're not christian you go to hell-- yeah, even the once messed-up born again christian can tell you that).

i am sad/angry at the same time. but i'm probably not going to write her and tell her. because it's her life. if her life is more fulfilling drifting apart from me, then i'm sure that's what she's chosen to become.

somehow the Jesus and God i know from kindergarden are not the same anymore.

AHHH!

I'm not surprised if people think that I am bipolar. I think reading my post gives that impression.

So today is a day with mixed emotions. i started the day with a health fair in monterey park (a chinese populated city close by). I volunteered to be the counselor at the osteoporosis booth, which i've volunteered at many times a year. and since i grow up speaking mandarin so i was assuming that it's going to be a walk in the park. I was paired up with a very nice second year student who is doing healthfair and the osteoporosis for the first time. I was only instructed to assist her and jump in when she had questions so my chinese really came in handly with a lot of the older women. At one point when it got slower i was told to go outside to give a general counsultation to people in the waiting room, at which point it got very enjoyable for me. I had had the opportunity to speak to so many friendly chinese senior citizens, and they seemed to really like me too. i was really enjoying educating them more about their risks about osteoporosis, what they can take to prevent it, and what foods to eat. the crowd gave me good response, and the women were really appreciative. On her way out, a woman actually thanked me personally and told me that i was the prettiest in the room! HAHA i'm sure she was just being nice (there were a ton of pretty girls in the room). I think i only stood out to her because she probably recognize from my accent that I was from taiwan and I liked chatting with people. But in any case, that made me good for a while. the chinese church provided lunch to thank us the volunteers, and the box lunch was actually full of dim-sum type of foods! haha i was in high heaven.

then i went home and took a nap. When I woke up i decided to head to starbucks to study for a bit. i noticed that i had missed a call from my roommate/best friend from college. i textd her back to find out what was going on, and here's her exact message:

" Hey guess what? I got engaged! :X "

at which point, my eyes popped out of my eye sockets. I immediately called her back to get the details. So it appears that, her bf took her out to coronado island in san diego, and they took a walk in the park, and he just got down on one knee and proposed!

I was so surprised, partly because when i joked about it in the past, she would say that it was too early (they have only been seeing each other for 6 months), and that they both agree to wait at leas 2 years before they take that big step (she's the same age as me). And we talked about this because, our other roommate is engaged and getting married this october. So after i found out that my best friend/roommate was engaged i asked about the big day, and she said it's most likely in 6 months, which is november. meaning before the end of 2009, two of my roommates will be married off. And my third one, got engaged at the beginning of the year as well. i am now the LAST roommate of all my college roommates that i've roommed with who has yet to be married.

no wonder i freaked out.

it's interesting that one day you can be so pumped about your life and ready to take on any challenge, and one day you're standing in the intersection of roads trying to decide where to go from here. i've always pictured myself being married when i was little, but i am now heading farther and farther away from that route, and closer and closer to the end of no where. i feel extremely anxious and unsure about my career (hospital, residency, industry, b school..), who to go to and what strings i need to pull to get there, all the while against the tickling sound of my biological clock.

i'd like to think i'm just as loveable and marriage-worthy, but people are being married off one by one.maybe 10 years from now i'll look at this post and feel ridiculous about my sentiments right now. let's hope things are a lot different then.

Up and running, LITERALLY

YES! i finally got two things running now. my life is perfect! haha i know.

I must commend on how fast Amazon's service is. After several try with my last shipment of Palm TX coming to an ugly end, I filed for an exchange request and only mailed it out 3 days ago. and guess what came in the mail the day after? the replacement! I was in awe, 2 PDAs within one week. i guess they really dont care a whole lot about shipping charges (2 x UPS fast delivery). Since i can only handle linksys + palm's customer service for about 3 hrs a day before i reach my absolute tolerance, i decided to give them another call to get my PDA hooked up to my Wi-Fi at home. So after another 3 hrs of speaking with different technicians, i've FINALLY, FINALLY gotten it to work. YES, hallelujah! I have probably learned about everything I needed to know about wireless routers and its setting and pda settings. the truth is there is a million things that can go wrong, you gotta change first find out your ip add, your security setting (WPA/ WEP), different channels (so you're not on teh same with your neighbor), different signal (mixed, G only or B and G only)...etc. I can probably go and help people troubleshoot their pda connection problem now. It's amazing what people do for a living. i'd much rather tear my hair out. technology is hard. i'm so glad i'm not a 60 year old getting pda for the first time for business meetings. setting up the TX was such a pain (not to mention the 8+ hrs, not counting the charging time). So anyway, as soon as i got my pda up and running, i downloaded epocrates (the Rx program) right away. i am one step closer to becoming a professional-looking pharm student now. ;)

One more thing on the pda, it is now my new baby, and i ordered a pink leather jacket for it. and now my pda is resting comfortably and looking quite cute in it. i will follow this thread with a picture soon. a baby pink jacket! ohhhh

The second thing i got running, was my ass. So after promising myself yesterday that I would start training for the 5K. i did. this morning i went for a 1 hr work out at the park. i had not realized how out of shape i was. i tried running for 2 minutes and rest for 1 and even THAT proved to be too much for me. i was out of breath, feeling dizzy. I just kept at it, and eventually i sort of found my groove. i started to run at a slower pace and adjusted my breathing, to keep my metabolism the lowest so i could last long, and it seemed to have worked! I was able to run half the lap before i felt the need to walk (Lacy Park is pretty huge). so i'm determined to keep it up. lots more to look forward to. :)

Getting better....

So I did not call my doctor back yesterday afternoon like he instructed, I felt that it was too soon to tell after only 3 doses of strong antibiotic. I wanted to wait it out another day, and see if my immune system will kick in more, even though i was still pretty uncomfortable and have difficulty moving my arms.

this morning i woke up still with pain in the armpits, and for some reason I now find myself awake with arms over my head (probably adjusted them myself during sleep so they are not as compressed). The inflammation is still there, there still is some pain, but the pain is much better controlled with prescription strength advil now. I can now take just 1 tablet of 600mg and be pain-free most time of the day. As for the actual inflammation, it still looks scary, and a couple of them broke (too much information i know). I fear that they are goin to leave scars, and i will forever have these dark pigments underarm. But think on the positive side, at least i didn't have to have them drained, and it didn't turn into a full body sepsis. I should be thankful enough.

So that's my progress so far. Who would have thought that the simple act of putting on my deodorant before work could lead to my agony for the next couple of days? The thing is SoCal gets so hot sometimes even in spring, and working and lifting things in a stuffy pharmacy doesn't exactly help. I am now worried that since I wont be able to wear deodorant for a while, i would stink of BO this coming saturday. :-/ *think positive, think positive*.

I will continue to update my health status, but yes, wayyy too many infections within a year. my body must be really breaking down or maybe this is just a natural part of getting old. It's true when THE DOC said that he's seen more embarrassing things. When think positively (see the trend here ;D ) I realize that at least i have been fortunate enough. at least its' not some unknown organism developing in THAT AREA down under. If i had this infection in/around my vagina i would REALLY die of humiliation and change my name and move out of town forever. So yes, armpits are in comparison less embarrassing. ( "but at least people wont' see the scars left near your vagina, where as arm pits are out in the open...". Ok no second guessing myself.

So now the issue is "sort of" out of the way, I've decided to pick up the training for the Revlon 5K i will be participating in less than a month.


I had just mapped out the days when i will be off and can go for a run in the park. It seems like 4 weeks is not nearly enough, especially since it's been a while for me since i last exercised. But i'm determined to do at least 3 days out of a week. hopefully this will put me in a pretty good shape. Time to carb/protein load!

Until next time.

哭哭

:(....another sleepless night.

As i was saying before, I have red bumps under my armpits (both sides). And i started getting mild fevers after my appt with THE DOC. he assured me at the time that it was nothing more than a clogged pore. so only antihistamines. well, guess what? the pain never went away and i was so debilitated that i had to take Advil around the clock. and when i woke up in the morning i got a fever again. I called up student health, and they said the doc would call back later because he wasn't in. So i spent the next 5 hrs on the phone with friggin linksys people and Palm people for the internet that never worked and my crappy PDA. at that point i was ready to breakdown and cry.

So THE DOC called back, saying that he would prescribe some Bactrim DS for me. I went and picked it up from the pharmacy right away, with my face burning from the fever. I've had 2 doses so far, and the pain/bump is not going away. they still look very much like abscesses. MULTIPLE of them.

I'm sitting here at 130am, looking at treatment options. One guy had his abscesses drained, and it left ugly scars under arm. *cry*. and you can't shave your armpits or wear deodorant when it's healing, which can take a long time. so hairy and smelly armpits are in store for me. I really dont want them to cut my pits open. :( *cry*

the end of it...:(

So, today is one of those days where you wake up and get really freaked out about something. and this is definitely the end of a major, major crush. I'm sad to say that ending is so pathetic and embarrassing.

My crisis being that, I shaved my armpits on friday, and used deodorant on sunday before work. during work i was feeling this burning pain under my arms but didn't think much of it. It's been irritated before, and I just carried on with my job. then i developed a really bad headache because the pain in my underarm never went away. if anything it's increased in magnitude and got really uncomfortable. So i did a quick bathroom run to check on myself, and found really, painful, red almost pimple like bumps under my arms. ALL OVER. it just looked like a really bad case of folliculitis, and i had multiple of them. I grabbed a wet towel to wipe most of the deodorant residue off. and suffered through the day. When my sister met up with me for dinner, i couldn't even sit straight. i had her take me home because my head hurt so much i was goin to vomit.

When i went home i self-medicated, hoping that it would go away. i was praying that i didn't have to go to student health because mondays are not the days when my usual gyneo/ob would be there, and that would mean that i have to show this nasty situation to the OTHER doc, who is the cute one who i had a crush on for a while.

But of course with my luck goes, the pimples never went away. So i had to do a emergency walk-in this morning. And i have to say that it marked the official ending of my crush. I dont think anyone can stand showing their armpits up close to someone they like, not to mention, red, pus-forming, prickly (new hair growing out and unable to shave), smelly (couldn't put any more deodorant on on a hot summer day) armpits in his face. YES. I DID THAT. RIGHT IN HIS FACE. WITH PUS AND ALL.

He of course was being very professional about it. and comforted me that he's seen worse, and there's nothing to be embarrassed about. But i think at that point my heart just died, of humiliation, and disappointment in myself. Events occur in my life always has to be so friggin embarrassing, why can't i be like one of those perfect girls who never trip, never spills a drink, never had an accident with her period?

Anyway, i doubt that I will ever go back and visit student health. but this is really the least expected event of my life. you never want a crush of yours to think you're nasty. and with my recent infections all over the body, i think i've successfully proved him otherwise.

叫我第一名

ok, you don't have to. but i AM quite proud of my recent (and past) purchases. one thing i know for sure, is that I will make quite a good housewife in the future because i am just simply getting too many great deals (expert at searching for them). for example:

1. got a year of NYLON magazine subscription for FREE. yeah, i saw that online just randomly one day while i was on urbanoutiffter.com. Not a cent, and no strings attached (I didn't even have to give out my credit card/phone number). I was sold.

2. Got a year of Allure magazine for, again, FREE. I was introduced to a friend's Paul and Joe Beaute Toner. I liked mine, which is Japanese made. But while i was on the trip with her I ran out of mine. And hers felt absolutely amazing! It was moisturizing without being too heavy on my oily/acne prone skin. But she got it in tw. So i came home and did a search online and found it on Dermastore.com. they ship it for free, plus every order comes with a year of Allure.

3. Got a year of Glamour magazine for $1!!! One buck! i know. they had a banner add and i didn't believe it (usually it's $1/issue) but then apparently they had a anniversary sale. So yes, 12 issues for a dollar. MAGAZINE OVERLOAD! I am going to be reading a lot of these free magazines for the next year. You can never have too many of these, and they make good companions on the airplane. Now i dont have to spend $4.50/issue at the airport. I bring my own that's free! :D

4. Got $25 certificates to 4 restaurants for $2 each! Yes, i receive free newsletters on deals too. And restaurant.com had a 70% off sale. So essentially I can go to these places and pay only $2. and these are not the mom-and-pop restaurants. These are like high-end, hollywood like, bar/restaurants. I have wanted to try them forever. And now i CAN. :)so essentially i spent $8 on certificates that are worth $100.

5. Got free clothes at Nordstrom. Yes, because i accumulate my points on my credit cards which turn into free money at nordstrom. So now i have money to buy work clothes for the upcoming year with rotations.

6. Got a free PDA (Palm TX - worth $250-300): I spent days researching online for the best combination (redeem my points for my credit card company directly, redeem them visa card and get it somewhere else, redeem them for bestbuy card and get it there...etc.) then I realized the best option is actually redeeming my points for credit balance on the statement. Then go and buy the PDA on amazon.com. So essentially my credit balance will make up for my pda purchase, AND i'm accumulating points for my spending for the pda. (I dont know if this makes sense, but yeah, it came out to be free).

so anyone who knows me knows that i LOVE a great deal. And i never like to pay more than something is worth. Because if you look hard, there's always some kind of ridiculous deals online for you to grab. You just need a little more effort rather than just whipping out the credit card and buy it right away. YES it's pretty time-consuming sometimes. But if i can save upward $400-500 i think it's well worth the time spent. :)