Sacramento!

Week 3 ends and week 4 begins here at Stanford!  My other travel nurse friends and I were talking earlier tonight about how quickly this month has flown by and how sad we are it's almost over! It means Minnesota moves to Connecticut to work at YALE ( ! ) and I move to Sacramento for my next assignment.  We are so sad to see Minnesota leave, but we are also so happy she gets to go work at Yale.  What a story--from one coast to the other! We're sad to split up, but we already have plans for visits.

So, I finish my job here at Stanford the night of the 6th.  I will begin work at Sutter General in Sacramento on Thursday the 5th for the hospital-wide orientation day.  It's a 6 week assignment with a "probable extension" from what the lady at the hospital told me.  I will be working on the oncology unit there and working 5 x 8 hours a week, the evening shift, 3p to 11p.  I've never worked 8 hour shifts and think it will be bittersweet.  I will have more of a life the days I'm working instead of eat, sleep, eat, work, shower, eat, sleep, eat, work, shower, etc.  I will be able to squeeze in a workout on workdays and who knows what else!  But, I won't have as many days off or as many opportunities to take trips either back here or home. It's only a 6 week assignment and if I don't like it, 6 weeks will go pretty quickly.

Sacramento is about 2 hours NE of Mountain View (the city I'm in now) and about an hour NE of San Fran.  It won't be a big deal to head back to SF to hang out with the girls here, so that's nice.  I'm very excited to have a job so quickly, to not have a lull in paycheck, and to still be in the area!  It's great!  I'm not sure what I think of going to Sacramento, though. : ) I'm sure it will have a very different atmosphere than the young, vibrant personality here. It'll be nice to explore the area up there and probably check out Napa Valley.  I have  6 weeks to write about Sacramento, so that'll do for now!

Hope all is well where you are and you're not freezing there in LBK!  Oh, and those of you going to the Chili Cookoff . . . please eat some for me, ok? Ok!

One Breezy Bay . . .

A Bostonian and Texan took to the streets of San Francisco, driving past the Victorian homes, apartments and businesses perched atop many a steep hill to conquer:  1. Lombard street; 2.  Cycling across the Golden Gate Bridge; 3.  The Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory!

1.  Lombard Street


I apologize, but my camera died before we got to a shop so I could buy some more $1.50/ea AA batteries, so I have no pictures of the 1000 block of Lombard Street!  Click here for the Wiki article about the street and some good pictures.  I have to say, driving the STEEP ( ! ) hills of San Fran is really a thrill the first time!  The grades are crazy steep.  Lombard St has a grade of 27% straight shot down.  The 8 switchbacks now give it a 17% grade which still feels extremely steep as you look down over the city and bay as you drive it!  This street is known as the "crookedest street in the world."  The streets of SF offer incredible views of the city and it's really breathtaking to see the beautiful city from atop the hills and then gaze over the beautiful blue waters of the bay surrounding the city.

2.  The Golden Gate Bridge

We packed our bikes up in/on my car, made the hour-long drive into the city, found FREE parking, as close as you can get to the bridge, and then did our best to climb the hills from the bay up to the Golden Gate Bridge (we were at 0 feet and the Golden Gate Bridge stands 220 ft above the sea . . . how a 220 ft climb can feel like 1,000, I'm not sure, but we definitely felt a good burn!).  We couldn't have asked for better weather to do the GGB and were fortunate enough to have a fog-free experience and got some amazing views of the Bay.  GGB facts:  construction started in 1933 and was completed in 1937; project cost was $35 million and provided thousands of jobs; 11 people died in accidents while working on construction; more than 1,000 people have committed suicide by jumping off (there are signs on the bridge with numbers to suicide hotlines).

The art deco towers stand 746 feet tall,

which is 191 feet taller than the Washington Monument.

Kelly and I, looking super-cool and super-hot 

in our cycling gear!

The view toward Angel Island.

The large cables suspending the bridge house

27,572 wires and are 3 feet in diameter.

These pictures do not do the Bridge and Bay justice!

It's breathtaking!

3.  The Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory

My Bawstonian friend and I decided we would reward all of our hard work and cycling about 3 miles at a very strenuous pace of 6.4 mph with $8 sundaes at the Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory soda shop! : )  Good end to a day in the city!

This picture is not from today, but, if you look carefully, you can see the Ghirardelli sign, which is the factory. : )

I haven't forgotten I have a job here as well, even if it is very easy to forget!  I have had 2 shifts on the floor and have 2 more this weekend.  Everybody is very friendly, but being new to a floor, new to the systems/protocols/policies, is an adjustment.  I'm thankful they are very stringent on their nurse-to-patient ratios! Everybody has been very friendly so far.  I haven't decided how I like the e-charting software.  Ask me in 2 weeks, when I leave! :)  Hope you are all doing well!!!

New Places, Small Spaces, and New Faces

So, week 1 in Cali has come to a close and what an amazing week it has been!  I have only been in "orientation," which means we've been listening to people talk about policy, procedure, the computer programs we'll be using, we've been oriented to their pumps and IV start kits, etc . . . My first shift on the floor is tomorrow evening.  I am nervous about the e-charting and I am nervous about how relationships will go with those I will be working on the floor with (agency nurses, like myself, are the bottom of the totem pole, and can be "dumped" on . . . so, we'll see! Everybody's been very hospitable and welcoming so far, though.).

Stanford:  It's a beautiful and large campus!  8,180 acres v. Texas Tech's 1,839 acres.  Stanford is the second-largest contiguous university campus in the world; Texas Tech is the second-largest contiguous university campus in the US.  I haven't yet explored the campus itself very much, but, from what I've seen so far, it's very nice. The GPS and MRI were invented at Stanford.  The technique of creating recombinant DNA was discovered at Stanford.  And, my Grandma is probably proud to know that Tiger Woods went to Stanford.

Palm Drive

People relaxing on a Sunday afternoon at Stanford 

(frisbee, football, sitting, reading, walking)

The hospital itself is very large as well and is a "Magnet"  hospital (click "Magnet" for more info).  I will be working on the Oncology unit.  I've always wondered about the differences/similarities between institutions, so for my nursing friends, I'll list some.  Some of the differences between my old hospital and the new one include ELECTRONIC charting ( ! ) in the new v. hand-charting in the old, COWs ("computer on wheels") in the new, med scanning (new), insulin pens (new) instead of drawing each injection up, and, using the same IV pumps as the PCA pumps at my old hospital, just with added "channels" on them.  Some similarities:  our old angiocaths--needles for IV starting-- (I'm very excited about this!  I liked the old ones better and they don't bleed as bad, so good news for my patients!); the PCA pumps; hourly rounding and AIDET (but nowhere to chart the hourly rounds!).

I have been so fortunate to meet other young women in very similar situations as I, in the same stage of life, and who have made the cross-country trip to Cali to work here.  They are so much fun, so friendly and such blessings!  It has been a relief to have somebody to laugh with about the crazy and unique experiences we have had driving across the country, shelling out tons of cash to get started, the "misinformation" incidences, learning Cali together, etc.  We have laughed a ton and I think we were all "friend hungry," so we really hit it off.  There are two from Boston, who both drove the entire way, one drove down the long way through New Orleans, Austin, etc.  We have another from Illinois and another from Minnesota.  We have enjoyed checking out the sights together such as downtown of our hometown, we drove to the coast for a nice dinner by the water and dipped our toes in the ice-cold Pacific (a couple of us for the first time), and hiked the Redwood forest together . . . They're great women!  Three of them will stay for full 3-month assignments, while "Minnesota" and I will move on in a few weeks. : (  Good times!

California:  The first things I thought were "Wow . . . it's so dry!" and, "Does that brown cloud EVER go away?"  (The answer is no, btw.)  I have made many wrong turns, hit the curb probably a hundred times (not used to small parking spaces), need to work on my parallel parking (not as good as I used to think I was!), feel like I am doing well to make myself go broke (EVERYTHING is so much more expensive out here), hope I don't have lots of red light tickets coming in the mail (LBK has not been good for me in that respect), and, am not used to all the pedestrians who don't mind just stepping out in front of you at any moment.  The area is absolutely beautiful (what gets better than an awesome city, mountains, the coast, the golden gate, the bay, forests, the valley, and vineyards?).  I have been shown around the city by a native and was able to meet an old TTU buddy and his friends in the city for the game yesterday, which helped make the week awesome!

All in all, it's been an amazing experience so far.  I'm looking forward to actually nursing and being a contributing member of society again. : )

Hope you are all doing well and are blessed!  Enjoy the cooler fall weather!

(More pics of the trip to the Redwoods here)

Redwoods, Highway 1, and Santa Cruz

You guys told me to post lots of pictures. So, here are some from my first Sunday afternoon here.  It was a good way to spend a day until I have friends!  (I can't keep doing things like this alone, or I'll never make friends, but, in the mean-time, it was a good pastime. : )

There were dozens of people cycling up this mountain range!

Highway 1. Tons of brave souls cycling this road as well.

Stop number 1:  Pigeon Point Lighthouse

She's out of commission because she's about to fall down.

But good news:

They tell you what to do if a tsunami's after you!

I read in the "fog house" that California has one of the foggiest

coasts in the world.  Hmm.

The shore at Santa Cruz.

What an amazing day!  I wish you were here to enjoy it with me!

Happy fall, everybody!

How many the miles?

Maxed out.

Nothing like getting some exercise, in the cold, after 6 hours in the car

with about 8 more to go! Really, it was amazing!

See the rainbow in the canyon?

You may or may not be able to see the

the other end of the rainbow.  

We drove a couple of extra hours

so we could do this . . . Was it worth it, Mom? : )

3 days (29 hours of drive time); Stanley Marsh's Cadillac Ranch; a saloon in Dad's hometown; a fighter jet practicing barrel rolls, loops, and turns; the Painted Desert; a visit with my aunt, uncle and cousins on the road; the Grand Canyon; a hard brake to avoid a pack of coyotes; "customs" (?) at the CA state line; the Mojave Desert; the glow of LA; the smell of wildfires; vineyards; olive groves; Napa Valley; the Golden Gate Bridge; San Francisco; and, finally, "home," which is my extended stay hotel efficiency unit.

1,694 miles.  : )

Our route

"Lubbock or Leave It?" But I Lubbock!

So, I'm officially no longer a Lubbockite and am currently a Sunrayan for 2 more days!  (I just realized, I'm thankful I have no stalkers, because they would know where to find me . . . ! )  Mom and I head out on Tuesday and will take three days to get out to Cali.  We'll stop on the way and see some family, see if we can make our voices echo in the Grand Canyon, maybe drive through Vegas, then up to Sacramento to complete some paperwork, then down through Oakland, San Fran, and to my temporary "home," near Stanford.

Moving was as fun as you can expect it to be!  My dear, sweet mother helped me finish up the last of the packing and clean.   I rented a 10 x 15' storage unit and I'm pretty sure I will have to have whoever opens it sign a waiver stating I will not be held responsible if an avalanche of Sabra's furniture and stuff buries them.  I'm not exaggerating!  Mom and I had to make a trip back to the unit and we couldn't get the door to open because stuff was pushing up against it from the inside.  Beware, if I ask you to open it and I'm sorry if you are injured (but you signed the waiver!).

The picture above is from my last night in LBK.  I asked friends out to dinner and was so overwhelmed with the turnout.  These people have been a huge support throughout my time in Lubbock and are like family.  I cannot express how wonderful it's been to share this time with them and how blessed I am by their friendship. Thank you, everybody, for your encouragement, love, support, the laughs, the rebuke, the growth.  I love you all and will always remember how you've blessed me!

Here are some more pictures from that night, if you're interested (If the link works. I'm wondering if you have to be signed into facebook to view it, since it's technically not my album and I'm linking you to somebody else's page).