Heavy sigh....

I am sad to report that I am indeed back from Mexico. What a fabulous trip!! The girls I was with are amazing, and contrary to what I thought before going, it was so fun to have such a large group of singles on the boat. We were meeting new people every time we turned around! The weather was as perfect as it gets! We had sea days on Monday and Tuesday so we pretty much just laid out by the pool until it was time to get ready for dinner. I even got a little bit of a tan! Too bad I probably won't see the sun again for 4 months so I'm sure I will lose it all. I have to say that I was quite disappointed in the food. However, we had the AWESOMEST people at our table for dinner and it more than made up for the food! And of course there was the 24 hour soft serve ice cream...you can't really go wrong with that! On Wednesday we were in Puerto Vallarta. Perhaps I mentioned that we decided to go zip lining....and I am terrified of heights. So, we were on our way and I was a little bit nervous, but I thought I would be okay. Once we got there and started going up the windy (windey, whatever, I don't know how that's spelled) rickety metal staircase to the first line, it pretty much took everything I had to not start crying. I was so scared! My friends were awesome, encouraging me. I pretty much felt like a little kid. Once I got up and got the first few lines under my belt, I really wasn't too scared any more. I even ended up going backwards with the camera guy filming me. What a rush! It was so much fun!! I totally recommend it to anyone, and I'm sure I'll be doing it again! I was going to post some pictures, but I just realized that I don't have any because my camera broke yet AGAIN!!! I was so very mad! Luckily Sara had her camera and we hauled that around everywhere and took tons of pictures. She will be sending me a CD of all the photos but I don't have it yet. I think I got like 75 pictures on my camera before the stupid thing broke on Tuesday. How annoying! Anyway, we were in Mazatlan on Thursday. First we went to a really nasty market. They had the usual souvenirs and crap in it, but there were also several different meat markets and such as well. It stunk so bad, I thought I might puke! There were pig's heads and whole fish and all sorts of nasty stuff. Not to mention there were flies and bees on everything! We pretty much hightailed it out of there quickly. As usual, we ran into some people from the cruise who informed us that everyone was going over the the resort El Cid. So we hopped in a taxi and hung out at the beach over there. Sara and Normandy even talked me into parasailing! It was an absolute blast! I thought I might be a little afraid of the initial takeoff, but I had no problems at all. It was absolutely breathtaking! I definitely want to do that again, too. We went over to Senor Frog's for some lunch and had a ton of fun there, as well. I think we took about ten million pictures and Patty got fondled by the waiters! And it was all captured on film! We took an open air taxi back to the boat and yelled and waved at people the whole way there. Friday we were in Cabo. Erica and Patty went whale watching and over to lover's beach and Sara and Normandy and I went shopping and found a nice little Mexican joint and had some lunch. I think it was a great day for everyone and a nice end to the trip. Saturday we were at sea again and the weather had been perfect up to that point, but it was a little chilly. We had planned on hanging out by the pool again but it was only in the 70's and windy, so we kind of just hung out around the boat and got things ready to go. Sara decided to get a massage and talked me into getting one, too (she really had to twist my arm). What a fab way to finish off the cruise! It was kind of sad to have to say goodbye to all the friends that we'd met during the week. It's amazing how close you can get with people in just one week. Hopefully we can all get together when I am back in good old Salt Lake!

Me and Sara at the lifeboat drill. Who knew orange life preservers could look so HOT!

Patty, Normandy, Sara, me and Patty's birthday cake on Sunday. What a great start to a fabulous week!

Patty, me and Sara on our first formal night.

Me + towel dog.

And...that was pretty much the end of my lame camera. Looks like I will be sending it in for repairs again. Perhaps when I get Sara's pictures I will post a few more.

In less important news, I did finally get the GRE out of my hair. What a lame test! Seriously! I don't know that I did that well on it but I'm not even sure that it's that big of a deal. I am almost done jumping through all the hoops for my application for grad school. I got fingerprinted for the ten millionth time in three months today for yet another background check. I took my drug test, got my recommendation letters, paid their fees...etc etc etc. Now I just need to finish up my statement of professional goals (another lame waste of time!) and get my resume put together and I will be good to go! Everyone please please please keep your fingers crossed, pray, call your friends with connections at Westminster, whatever! I want this so badly and I'll be pretty upset if I don't get in. Not to mention I'm missing all my Salt Lake peeps and I'm looking forward to heading back for another long, hard winter. Okay, so I'm not looking forward to the winter part, but I do miss everyone there.

I also made it to my grandparent's 60th anniversary party on the 17th. It was a really quick trip but it was nice to see everyone, if only for five seconds.

AND....I finally finally got my Oregon license!! Of course I got it on Wednesday, the day I left Oregon for Las Vegas. Whatever. I feel so blessed that those morons in Oregon decided to grant me the oppportunity to practically give up my first born child so that I can practice nursing in their state. What a joke that whole process was! And speaking of jokes, I learned the hard way that there is a $500 fine for pumping your own gas in this state! Seriously? No, I didn't get a fine, but the gas station attendant made sure to point out that I was basically the biggest moron he'd ever come across in his life. So, if you ever happen to be coming up to visit me (hint, hint) whatever you do, DO NOT pump your own gas! You are far too stupid to be able to figure it out on your own and the gas police will hunt you down! There's my rant for the moment. As for the job, I started on Monday and worked last night as well. I was supposed to orient on both days but they "cut my orientation short" (translation: no orientation at all) so it was kind of interesting trying to do my job when I don't even know where the thermometers are or how to work their med machine (it's an omni cell here. why can't they just be the same everywhere?) But everyone that I have worked with so far has been awesome! Apparently there are a bunch of new travelers who will be working the night shift. When I asked who would be charging if all of us were new, I was told it would be me!!! Or another newbie (or rent-a-nurse as a fellow colleague called me this morning). So let's hope we don't get sued for malpractice.

Whew! That is probably the longest most rambling post EVER! It might explain a bit to say that I worked last night and haven't slept today yet, so I'm terribly sorry if I don't make any sense. Anyway...it has been an eventful and fabulous couple of weeks! It kind of makes it hard to come back to reality. Actually, it doesn't kind of make it hard, it REALLY makes it hard. But I suppose we have to work hard to play hard, right? Next step.........admission to grad school!! Wish me luck!!