We're not in Kansas anymore...

So.....once again I am slacking on updating! Things have just been busy, busy, busy in these parts since Christmas. My dad drove up on the Tuesday before Christmas after braving all the snow and closed roads on the way. Fortunately he is used to driving in lots and lots of snow so he made it here in one piece, just extra extra slow! Of course I worked on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day so we celebrated Christmas on Friday. My dad has been driving me to and picking me up from work because Kim's car got broken into on Christmas Eve morning and pretty much everything she owned was stolen. So, needless to say, I am a little paranoid and have been requiring my own personal chauffeur. Fortunately my dad was here to fill that role! Anyway....my dad picked me up from work on Christmas morning and when we got back to my apartment, my dad had put up a little tree and some Christmas lights. It was so awesome! I was kind of sad because I didn't have a tree or decorations or anything. So I was pretty happy. We went to breakfast on Friday and opened gifts. My mom got me a Wii. YAH! I also got some DVD's, games for the wii, new MAC, and cash which is always good. My dad and I decided to head up to Victoria, BC on Saturday. We took the ferry over and stayed at a hotel in town. We went to the Butchart Gardens on Saturday night. It was all decorated up for Christmas and it looked AWESOME! My dad has a great camera and took lots of pictures. But, seeing as I'm at work, I won't be uploading any to this post. But I will definitely post some pictures later. We came back on Sunday, and I am rounding out 2008 by working! yah! Unfortunately, I just got some bad news this morning. My agency called and told me that the Oregon State Board of Nursing has been closed for two weeks because of this storm we had. So....I don't have a license in Oregon and I can't work there. I was planning on leaving on Friday for Salem, but I guess that's on hold for now. My agency is looking at some short term options in other states where I have a license or states that will honor a license I already have. Apparently there are some available in Texas, Colorado and Kansas. Like I want to go to any of those places!! But whatever, I've got bills to pay and I guess I'm going to have to go where the work is. I just hope this doesn't screw up my cruise or anything else I've got planned. So, I am unemployed as of 0700 on January 1st. Who knows what is going to happen. Everyone please keep your fingers crossed!! I will keep you updated. And....HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Oregon Trail

Well, I know you have all been waiting with bated breath to find out where my next assignment will be! Drumroll please.........I will be going to the fantastic and luxurious Salem, Oregon! Okay, so I have no idea if Salem is either fantastic or luxurious because I have never been there! But it is a job and it's on the west coast! And only about 2.5 hours from here so hopefully it won't be the move from hell like moving up here was! My last day here is on December 31st (what a way to ring in the new year! yah!) and I start there on January 6th. I will be in a "recovery unit" which apparently means they do procedure prep (like say, lung biopsies, laparascopic procedures, cardiac cath etc.) and the recovery for a few hours to overnight after the procedure. They do some inpatient overflow from the telemetry unit as well. For now, they are not open on Sundays but I guess they are going to start taking more inpatients so they will probably start opening 7 days a week. Anywho...it pays three dollars an hour more than here, so that's nice! And the manager didn't have a heart attack about me needing time off for my cruise and to go to New York in February (I hope!) so I think it will be a good thing. The manager also seemed pretty laid back unlike the butthole manager here, so we shall see! All in all, this has been a great experience and I have met some awesome people here! But I am definitely ready to move on...

So, I did make it to Salt Lake last week. I didn't realize how much I missed it there! I almost shed a tear or two when I stopped by my storage unit. I really miss a lot of my "comforts of home" as Kim calls them. Especially my amazing bed and my washer and dryer. I went to lunch with a lot of my IHC peeps on Thursday. So much fun! I miss everyone so much!! here's a picture of most of us.

Patty, Sara, Me, Tessa, Elsha, Heidi, Sadie, Normandy, Erica and Hunter

Patty, Sara, Elsha, me and Tessa.

I took a trip to the MAC counter in the blizzard on Saturday with Erin and we stopped at PF Chang's for some lemon pepper shrimp while we were there. Yum! I made the mistake of eating some leftover Mountain of Meat pizza from the Pie on Saturday afternoon. Let's just say it did NOT agree with me! I ended up meeting up with some friends that night and of course it was fun, I just wish I wouldn't have felt so crappy. I guess we will just have to do it again next time I am there and I will try to avoid any food with "mountain" in the name. I was happy that it snowed while I was there, but I was even happier that I got to come back home and not have to drive in the snow. Oh, how wrong I was! I came back to....snow! Apparently Seattle/Tacoma does get snow occasionally, but they are calling this one the Blizzard of '08. Don't get me wrong, if we were in Utah or somewhere equally as prepared for the inclement weather, this would really be nothing. But these people don't have plows and they don't spread salt on the road. Not to mention they DO NOT know how to drive in the snow. I thought they were bad drivers when the roads were dry! HA! I was thisclose to getting stuck in my parking lot on Thursday thanks to a bonehead move by a lady driving in front of me. Fortunately I was able to get myself out of the situation after screaming a few choice words! People just don't think sometimes! In any case, it snowed off and on all day today and I was happy to stay in and finish cleaning my apartment!

I had another adventure on Friday. I took a fun day trip up to Forks with Kim and another traveler I work with, Trish. What a trip! I have to admit, Forks really wasn't anything all that exciting but I am very happy to be able to say that I have been there!

This is on the way to Forks...it was pretty awesome scenery most of the way there!

Yes, you are reading that sign right, there was a road called kitchen-dick. And if you'll notice, the sign down in the corner is for weaner pigs. I couldn't make this up if I wanted to! We saw several interestingly named roads, but this one was definitely the best! We laughed about it for the entire trip!

Crescent Lake on the way to Forks. So quaint!

Finally made it to Forks! I wanted to pose with the famous sign, but it was kind of up on a hill and as you can see it was snowy and pretty darn cold, so I didn't want to climb up the hill.

This was a hotel with a clever sign!

We also found Forks High School.

Me and Kim, apparently Forks is the logging capital of the world? I mean, that's great and everything but really the most important thing is Twilight! Right?

We stopped at the ocean on the way home and did a little self photography. It was freezing, but totally breathtaking! I just love the ocean. The sound and watching it....I could sit there for days if only it was a little warmer. It was a fun trip with some fun friends and I'm glad we got to do it!

Saturday night I went out on the town for one last time with Kim and Emile. The town was pretty dead since the "blizzard of '08" was in full force. But we found a karaoke joint yet again and again, Kim talked me into singing a few songs with her. It was fun, as always! I'm definitely going to have to go to Boston and sing some more karaoke and have Kim show me around!

I can't remember what Kim and Emile were singing but they were really feelin' it!

This picture doesn't really do justice, but this is the gigantic hill on the way to our house. We have pretty much been avoiding it since it snowed, but I thought it would be fun if we drove down it. Kim agreed and down we went! It was fun, sliding all around on the non plowed roads. It was late enough there were not very many people out, so Kim could drive as crazily as she wanted. This is what all the roads in town looked like as well. Good times!

My dad is coming up tomorrow to hang with me for Christmas! I'm so excited! And we are going to head up to Canada on Friday or Saturday. Yay! I just wish I wasn't working on Christmas Eve and Christmas day....but I will live and I will be making time and a half. I hope everyone has the merriest Christmas ever! Thanks to everyone for being such great friends! I am truly blessed to know all of you!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

SHOES!

So, I got cancelled from work tonight. Random. I didn't think that they could cancel travelers. Whatever! It worked out nicely since I am leaving for Salt Lake tomorrow and I haven't even started to pack yet. Plus, it's always nice to get some sleep before I travel. Anyway, I was perusing my blog today and I realized that there is something vital missing!! There is not even the slightest reference to shoes anywhere on my blog! I'm pretty disappointed in myself! Anyone who even sort of knows me knows how much I love shoes! I was pretty devastated to have to leave most of my shoes behind in a storage unit in Salt Lake. Maybe that's why I'm so excited to go back...I get to visit all my shoes!! I'm probably going to buy a new outfit for a Christmas party I'm going to and I know I won't have to worry about shoes to go with it. That's if I can get to where they are in the storage unit. Anyway...I also purchased a new pair of shoes the other day! It has been far too long since I have fed my addiction. And the best part is...they were free! In fact, I got 8 cents back. That's right, just call me bargain shopper! I knew you would all want to see them, so I had a little photo shoot...
I mean, really, how cute are these shoes! I'm going to be honest. I have like three other pairs that are very similar to this one, but I just couldn't resist. And like I said, they were free! (I had $10 Kohl's cash and a $25 gift card!). So, now that I look crazy since I posted an entire blog related to shoes, perhaps I will go pack my bags. I only hope I can find an outfit that will do these shoes justice!

The End of an Era...

I know it's going to probably be a while before I post again, so I figured that I better do one now while I have a second. Thanksgiving was awesome!! Of course, it was way too short and there wasn't nearly enough time to spend with the family, but the time we did have was fun! We had a huge dinner on Thursday and then my mom and I got up to go shopping at Wal Mart on Friday morning. Yes, we are crazy! And we got some great deals!! I spent $150 on...myself. Kinda dumb, but some deals you just can't pass up! And my mom got my Christmas present. Since I'm not going to be surprised by it, you will be! I'm not telling what it is, but I'm so excited! Amaria and I made a gingerbread tree on Friday. It turned out so cute! And it was so much easier than those flipping gingerbread houses! Unfortunately, even though my mom saved our gingerbread house from last year and was beyond careful with it, it didn't make it through the year very well. I salvaged it as best I could, but it looks like we will have to make a new one next year. Boo!! If Amaria didn't love doing it so much, I would not even bother with it. Oh well.

Robert carving one of the turkeys. YUM!!

Me and Amaria and our finished gingerbread tree! So cute!

My mom and I also went shopping on Saturday. It was fun to spend some time with her and get a little shopping done so I don't have to ship everything back to Las Vegas! I got to see Ralph and Gladhes, but only for about two seconds. There's never enough time to see everyone!!

So, after I got back, I got a text from my cousin Linda. I haven't seen her in probably 5 or 6 years. She lives in Portland, but she joined the Marines and has been in boot camp until a couple of weeks ago. We had talked about getting together, and Linda told me that she was going to come up and see me! I was so excited! I had Thursday, Friday and Saturday off and some friends from work were planning on going out on Thursday, so she decided to come up Thursday afternoon. We went to dinner and then out to a karaoke joint. We played some pool (I observed!) and sang a little karaoke...Kim even talked me into joining her for a song!! I have really come out of my shell, haven't I? So, here are a few pictures from our FUN night out!

I work with Amie, Kim, Emile and Trish and that's Linda on the right. Emile thinks he's pretty cool!

Me and Linda.

Me and Kim jammin out to Journey's Don't Stop Believing. It was so fun!

So, I had a blast with Kim (and everyone else), as always. But it made me realize how much I am going to miss her! We hung out last night, too and I am so sad that it could possibly have been our last chance to hang out outside of work. She has become such a great friend and we have so much fun together! We were going to try and get an assignment together, maybe in California, but some things have come up for her and she needs to be close to home for her next assignment. I am thinking about maybe heading back east for my next assignment so that we can get another assignment together, but I don't know if I want to be that far away from my family and friends. Also, we all know the economy sucks right now. People are still getting sick, but hospitals are cutting their budgets just like everyone else is and travelers are pretty much the most expensive employees there are. So, it looks like a lot of hospitals are cutting traveling positions as much as they can. I probably will be able to find an assignment, but it might not be exactly where I want to go. So, everyone keep your fingers crossed....so far I've only been submitted to a hospital in Glendale, California which is near Hollywood. Definitely not my first choice for places to live, but California usually has a good pay scale and I would only be about a 5 hour drive away from my mom. So....who knows what is to come for me! I am headed to Salt Lake on Wednesday! I'm so excited to see everyone. And to get my hair done! It's a scary mess right now. I might be going to Las Vegas to see my mom again before Christmas the next week, but I'm not sure. Of course, I have to work on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Eve. CRAPPY!!! New Year's Eve is my last scheduled day at this assignment. My dad is supposed to be coming up here for Christmas, and at least I'll be getting time and a half, on the holidays right?? I knew I would have to work holidays when I went into nursing school, but it still sucks.

I guess that's about all the excitement in my life for now...please keep your fingers crossed that I don't end up somewhere like Bismarck, North Dakota for my next assignment!