Melissa cones to the bay area!
Redhook in New Hampshire...so tasty!
I know it's been awhile and I apologize. I am terrible at sitting down and actually writing a new blog. But I'll give you a quick update on what I have been doing.
For the last 4 months I have been in California, more specifically the San Francisco bay area. I started out at Kaiser Santa Clara on a Tele Med-Surg floor. I was there until the end of August. I met some awesome travelers there and the regular staff was great too. I think meeting people quickly is what makes the frequent moves tolerable. I tried to keep myself busy during my stay in Silicon Valley. I went with several other friends to wine tours up in the Santa Cruz mountains. The views were amazing and the wine was excellent. I also attended the gilroy garlic festival. Gilroy, California is the world's capital of garlic growers. At the festival, everything had garlic in it, from garlic calamari to garlic ice cream. Everything was delicious, but I felt like my pores were oozing garlic by the time we left. The night life was great in San Jose too. Their is never a lack of something to do.
I have found that California is way more expensive then I am used to. Sales tax is at 9.25% and everything seems to have a premium price tag. I went for my first haircut at a chain store and found out that it was going to cost me $70. I was already in the chair so I wasn't about to get up, but I found the price-tag a bit ridiculous for the little bit of hair that I have. It's commonplace to go out for a meal and spend a minimum of $30 a person and it usually was much more depending on where we are going. I am lucky to have my job, as it allows me to still enjoy myself event hough I am spending four times as much on goods and services.
I went on several different adventures during my stay in California. When I first got to California, I went up to Portland, OR and stayed with my friend Allison. Portland is an amazing city and the weather actually turned out to be perfect. I love the very laid back feel and unique personalities of Portland residents. Alison and I went to Astoria and to the beach, which was the site of the movie, The goonies" I was also lucky enough get a chance to visit with my cousin, Tim who I don't get to see very often, and I want to thank them both for an awesome vacation.
My second trip was in July and it was to Boston, MA. I had the trip planned for awhile, and had been looking forward to it even before I arrived in Cali. I was going to be visiting my friends Kris and Liza, and meeting up with my friends Adam and Mindy. These people are all good college friends and we tend to have a lot of fun and get into a little bit of trouble when we get together. The best part was is that my friend GArrett also came out to visit at the same time as a surprise. I was the only who knew he was coming and it made the trip even better. IT did however require a little change in plans. Five people in a Nissan Maxima with no air conditioning in 90 degree is uncomfortable but tolerable. However six people in the same vehicle was downright unbearable. We tried it once for 30 minutes and realized that it was no going to work out unless some of us rode in the trunk or on the hood. We decided to get a rental van, and we didn't want to spend that much money. I volunteered to figure out our best option. I called several different rental companies and finally found a place called budget rent-a-center. It was by far the cheapest option, which should have been my first waring sign.
Kris and I went to go pick up the car which was supposed to be at a repair shop in a somewhat shady part-of-town (warning sign number 2). WE picked up the car and we looked at the quote and it was $150 more than what they told me over the phone. Apparently, they added a $100 deposit and an extra 4 hours to our rental which they did not make me aware of. After a couple conversations we had it figured out. I went to get into the car and the dash was in Spanish and it smelled of velvet cheese. We ended up calling her Wynonna for some reason. It may not have been the prettiest or the cleanest vehicle but it had a/c and 7 seats. It was by far the best decision we made, and it took two calls when I got home to get the deposit back.
boston was great. We went to Maine and New Hampshire and toured several different breweries. Also, we went and checked out several different light houses along the Maine coast. Each was has it's own unique history and most of them has some sort of seafood restaurant nearby and it was delicious. I'm looking forward to taking a contract in the New England area and exploring more of what it has to offer.
I was excited because I have finally had visitors come to see me on my travels. Texas was fun but no one wanted to come to Abilene to visit and I don't blame them. My friends Melissa and Emily came down for awhile. I had the chance to see Wicked in San Francisco and explore the city a bit. It was great catching up with friends and showing them around. My aunt and Uncle decided to visit for a weeknd right before I moved. IT was short but a lot fo fun. The highlights were definitely Muir Woods, Golden GPart and the transvestite dinner show. Sounds odd but it was very entreating.
Finally, what I am up to new. I am currently on the peninsula south of San fran in Palo Alto, CA. I currently work at Stanford University hospitals and clinics on the Intermediate ICU and have been since August 23rd.. It's basically a glorified Med Tele unit but it means the my nurse:patient ratio is only 3:1. I am working days now which is very hard to get used to. There are too may people that want a minute of my time and it all adds up until I am running around like a crazy person. But it's going to be a great experience and I am excited to be in a university teaching facility again. Also the other nurses and travelers I have met have been very helpful and fun to work and socialize with. My goal is to expand my nursing knowledge as much as I can while I travel. IT's hard because I am really interested in ICU and pediatrics but ti is impossible to start a different specialty in nursing while traveling.
My living situation is a bit different this time. As most of you know I typically had my company find me housing. This time, however, I opted to find my own place to live. If I find my own place, my company gives me a set stipend for housing and I get to keep the difference. I flipped back and forth between finding my own one bedroom or living with roommates who had an extra room. I decided to go with roommates, thinking it would be a good way to meet people right away. I started my searc on craigslist. I found several places that looked great but it is very difficult to get people to respond to you when you're interested. I ended up putting an ad on craigslist saying that I was looking for housing and see if that produced any results.
I ended up checking out a couple of places and was terrified by what I found. I felt like I was interviewing people for a new season of hoarders. The one place had someone who was trying to combine three households from previous family deaths and she had 5 tiny dogs that ran around like a heard of cattle the entire time I was there. The second place had a backyard and room full of at least 50 rubbermaid tubs full of stuff that apparently the owner sold on bay. Business must be going slow, because the amount of junk was overwhelming. I was about to give up, but I had one more place to look at. The let place I went to visit was from one of the people who responded to my ad. I prepared myself for the worst, due to my previous experience. Much to my surprise this place was perfect. The place was nice and clean and had a great feel to it. What sold me on the place were the roommates. Pablo and Gina are both awesome people and are a lot off fun to hang out with. The seem to have similar opinions and views on life which makes it that much better. The second I walked in I knew it was the place I wanted to stay. I am happy that they both agreed and am looking forward to the next couple of months.
I've already made some friends from work and I still have friends from my last job in the area so I am very happy. California is great and I am worried that I will end up sating. My family is still a huge pull for me back to the midwest. In fact I am currently on a plane heading back to the bay area from a trip home to Iowa. Spending time with family and friends is one of my favorite thugs to do and it was great to see everyone again. Phone conversations are nice, but don't make up for quality one-on-one time.
Sorry this is so choppy but I did not want to write a novel froth last time I posted. Their area a lot of things I am sure I missed but you should be able to keep up with most of it via Facebook. Thanks again for reading and I will do my best to post more regularly again.
I know it's been awhile and I apologize. I am terrible at sitting down and actually writing a new blog. But I'll give you a quick update on what I have been doing.
For the last 4 months I have been in California, more specifically the San Francisco bay area. I started out at Kaiser Santa Clara on a Tele Med-Surg floor. I was there until the end of August. I met some awesome travelers there and the regular staff was great too. I think meeting people quickly is what makes the frequent moves tolerable. I tried to keep myself busy during my stay in Silicon Valley. I went with several other friends to wine tours up in the Santa Cruz mountains. The views were amazing and the wine was excellent. I also attended the gilroy garlic festival. Gilroy, California is the world's capital of garlic growers. At the festival, everything had garlic in it, from garlic calamari to garlic ice cream. Everything was delicious, but I felt like my pores were oozing garlic by the time we left. The night life was great in San Jose too. Their is never a lack of something to do.
I have found that California is way more expensive then I am used to. Sales tax is at 9.25% and everything seems to have a premium price tag. I went for my first haircut at a chain store and found out that it was going to cost me $70. I was already in the chair so I wasn't about to get up, but I found the price-tag a bit ridiculous for the little bit of hair that I have. It's commonplace to go out for a meal and spend a minimum of $30 a person and it usually was much more depending on where we are going. I am lucky to have my job, as it allows me to still enjoy myself event hough I am spending four times as much on goods and services.
I went on several different adventures during my stay in California. When I first got to California, I went up to Portland, OR and stayed with my friend Allison. Portland is an amazing city and the weather actually turned out to be perfect. I love the very laid back feel and unique personalities of Portland residents. Alison and I went to Astoria and to the beach, which was the site of the movie, The goonies" I was also lucky enough get a chance to visit with my cousin, Tim who I don't get to see very often, and I want to thank them both for an awesome vacation.
My second trip was in July and it was to Boston, MA. I had the trip planned for awhile, and had been looking forward to it even before I arrived in Cali. I was going to be visiting my friends Kris and Liza, and meeting up with my friends Adam and Mindy. These people are all good college friends and we tend to have a lot of fun and get into a little bit of trouble when we get together. The best part was is that my friend GArrett also came out to visit at the same time as a surprise. I was the only who knew he was coming and it made the trip even better. IT did however require a little change in plans. Five people in a Nissan Maxima with no air conditioning in 90 degree is uncomfortable but tolerable. However six people in the same vehicle was downright unbearable. We tried it once for 30 minutes and realized that it was no going to work out unless some of us rode in the trunk or on the hood. We decided to get a rental van, and we didn't want to spend that much money. I volunteered to figure out our best option. I called several different rental companies and finally found a place called budget rent-a-center. It was by far the cheapest option, which should have been my first waring sign.
Kris and I went to go pick up the car which was supposed to be at a repair shop in a somewhat shady part-of-town (warning sign number 2). WE picked up the car and we looked at the quote and it was $150 more than what they told me over the phone. Apparently, they added a $100 deposit and an extra 4 hours to our rental which they did not make me aware of. After a couple conversations we had it figured out. I went to get into the car and the dash was in Spanish and it smelled of velvet cheese. We ended up calling her Wynonna for some reason. It may not have been the prettiest or the cleanest vehicle but it had a/c and 7 seats. It was by far the best decision we made, and it took two calls when I got home to get the deposit back.
boston was great. We went to Maine and New Hampshire and toured several different breweries. Also, we went and checked out several different light houses along the Maine coast. Each was has it's own unique history and most of them has some sort of seafood restaurant nearby and it was delicious. I'm looking forward to taking a contract in the New England area and exploring more of what it has to offer.
I was excited because I have finally had visitors come to see me on my travels. Texas was fun but no one wanted to come to Abilene to visit and I don't blame them. My friends Melissa and Emily came down for awhile. I had the chance to see Wicked in San Francisco and explore the city a bit. It was great catching up with friends and showing them around. My aunt and Uncle decided to visit for a weeknd right before I moved. IT was short but a lot fo fun. The highlights were definitely Muir Woods, Golden GPart and the transvestite dinner show. Sounds odd but it was very entreating.
Finally, what I am up to new. I am currently on the peninsula south of San fran in Palo Alto, CA. I currently work at Stanford University hospitals and clinics on the Intermediate ICU and have been since August 23rd.. It's basically a glorified Med Tele unit but it means the my nurse:patient ratio is only 3:1. I am working days now which is very hard to get used to. There are too may people that want a minute of my time and it all adds up until I am running around like a crazy person. But it's going to be a great experience and I am excited to be in a university teaching facility again. Also the other nurses and travelers I have met have been very helpful and fun to work and socialize with. My goal is to expand my nursing knowledge as much as I can while I travel. IT's hard because I am really interested in ICU and pediatrics but ti is impossible to start a different specialty in nursing while traveling.
My living situation is a bit different this time. As most of you know I typically had my company find me housing. This time, however, I opted to find my own place to live. If I find my own place, my company gives me a set stipend for housing and I get to keep the difference. I flipped back and forth between finding my own one bedroom or living with roommates who had an extra room. I decided to go with roommates, thinking it would be a good way to meet people right away. I started my searc on craigslist. I found several places that looked great but it is very difficult to get people to respond to you when you're interested. I ended up putting an ad on craigslist saying that I was looking for housing and see if that produced any results.
I ended up checking out a couple of places and was terrified by what I found. I felt like I was interviewing people for a new season of hoarders. The one place had someone who was trying to combine three households from previous family deaths and she had 5 tiny dogs that ran around like a heard of cattle the entire time I was there. The second place had a backyard and room full of at least 50 rubbermaid tubs full of stuff that apparently the owner sold on bay. Business must be going slow, because the amount of junk was overwhelming. I was about to give up, but I had one more place to look at. The let place I went to visit was from one of the people who responded to my ad. I prepared myself for the worst, due to my previous experience. Much to my surprise this place was perfect. The place was nice and clean and had a great feel to it. What sold me on the place were the roommates. Pablo and Gina are both awesome people and are a lot off fun to hang out with. The seem to have similar opinions and views on life which makes it that much better. The second I walked in I knew it was the place I wanted to stay. I am happy that they both agreed and am looking forward to the next couple of months.
I've already made some friends from work and I still have friends from my last job in the area so I am very happy. California is great and I am worried that I will end up sating. My family is still a huge pull for me back to the midwest. In fact I am currently on a plane heading back to the bay area from a trip home to Iowa. Spending time with family and friends is one of my favorite thugs to do and it was great to see everyone again. Phone conversations are nice, but don't make up for quality one-on-one time.
Sorry this is so choppy but I did not want to write a novel froth last time I posted. Their area a lot of things I am sure I missed but you should be able to keep up with most of it via Facebook. Thanks again for reading and I will do my best to post more regularly again.
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