Pharmacy

More Pentagon Newbie Gouge...

Do any of your family members need a prescription refill? You can choose:

Option A: Let your wife bribe, threaten, and cajole the 4-year old to eat his breakfast, put on clothes, put on a jacket and get in the car, drive battling in traffic for at least 30 minutes (one way) to the Fairfax Clinic. Then she can wait in line forever with the rest of the dependents and retirees at the clinic. Meanwhile she'll try to convince the 4-year old to sit still and not touch anything and wonder what diseases he is getting exposed to while sitting next to all the other sick people in the waiting room. After she gets the meds, then she'll get to bribe, threaten, and cajole the 4-year old back into the car seat for another 30-minute car ride home. (This is what we did during our previous shore tour in the DC area).

Option B: Let your wife call in her prescription refill for the DiLorenzo clinic in the Pentagon. Stick your wife's ID card in your pocket before you leave for work. In between meetings at the Pentagon, walk 5 minutes to the DiLorenzo clinic. Walk directly to the counter because there is no line (there aren't any dependents or retirees, just the active duty folks that work in the Pentagon). Hand the pharmacist your wife's ID. The pharmacist scans the ID, spins around in his chair, pulls out the drawer with the first letter of your last name, pulls out the bag with the prescription in it and hands it to you. You walk out of the Pharmacy in less than 60 seconds. Later, divert your eyes and avoid the weird looks from other dudes walking past you on the sidewalk as you pick up the contents of your once-zipped backpack, to include pink pill cases for your wife. In spite of the momentary awkwardness on the sidewalk episode while running to catch the bus home, I think this option turned out MUCH better than Option A.

But wait! There's one more!

Option C: A friend of ours told us there is a mail-order prescription refill option here, but we haven't figured out the logistics of that one yet. That'll no doubt be easier than A or B above, but if you don't want to wait on the mail, I'd go with Option B.