A LOT has happened since the last time we conversed. Tons. It's crazy. I'll start with the good things before I delve into the clusterfuck that was my last place of employment.
P and I were able to spend Christmas this year with my family in Charleston. It was nice. I don't think I have many pictures, they're mostly of the cat and dog. I guess this is what parenting is like? Our worlds revolve around our animals, haha. I'm not even complaining, we have the best animals in da wholeee world.
Next on the list of good, crazy things that have happened is that I decided to begin travel nursing. I wanted so badly to be able to stay in Texas so that I could be close enough to home in order to visit more often. Well, that wasn't a possibility. Texas hospitals weren't biting so my recruiter asked where else I was willing to go. She said, "I have Salt Lake, Flagstaff, Phoenix, San Diego... let's chat." At that point, I decided maybe to get my butt in gear and expand my horizons. I thought about those places, and remembered that I have family in Arizona, right outside of Phoenix. I agreed to let her submit me to Phoenix Children's Hospital and Oklahoma City (OK is still within 5 hours of home). I interviewed within days of both of those hospitals, with OK City offering me a job on the phone interview. I called my recruiter and told her everything, including how the interviews went and how I felt about them. While on the phone with her, she got the offer from PCH in Phoenix. I immediately signed my contract after that. It was so exhilarating, I couldn't believe I was about to move 14 hours away from my home in Texas to begin traveling in Arizona. I had always thought that I wouldn't like living somewhere where there weren't any mountains or beaches. I packed my car and drove to Phoenix on January 19th. I did the trip in 2 days, stopping in Las Cruces, NM. I was in awe of how beautiful NM was! Mountains everywhere!! Who knew??
I got to Phoenix and was blown away by how beautiful it was. I mean, mountains literally 360 degrees around me, with insane sunsets and cactus as tall as the empire state building (maybe being a little facetious). It is SO beautiful here. The weather in the wintertime is mild to cool, so it's been comfortable the entire time I've been here. I'm working at PCH from January 23rd until April 22nd. I have been SO happy traveling. I haven't been able to head to the Grand Canyon or Saguaro yet, but I sure will coming up with my 8 days off! I'm getting to spend way more time with my grandma and uncle, also. It's been really great. I plan on heading to Sedona as well. I tried to summit one of the mountains here, and it started to get dark before I could reach the top so I turned around to head back down. There are 7 summits of Phoenix, and I plan on reaching the top of all of them.
Traveling has given me such a high. I went to San Diego this past week to meet up with my friend Stephanie from nursing school who lives in Bakersfield. It was amazing. We stayed at a super adorable AirBNB right near the gaslamp district. San Diego is fantastic. I will eventually try to get an assignment there. I love how understanding P is through this whole thing. He knows Texas didn't have my heart and I was stir crazy. I have a gypsy soul and I don't feel like I was ever really happy in Texas. I loved being near P's family and loved being home with him and our furbabies, but I needed travel in my life. Also, traveling alone is fantastic. I think for my next assignment I'm ready to go to the Pacific Northwest. I want to either get a contract near Seattle or NorCal. I can't wait to hike the trails up there and finally see Mount Rainier.
You know, maybe I'll leave the clusterfuck story to another post later on down the road. I'm still pretty bitter about what they did to me and this was a happy post so I'll leave it happy and not mix too many emotions to ruin the happiness, haha. Until next time!
