I just watched a homeless man wash his hair in the bay behind our apartments. I don't think this was the same guy who escaped from Alcatraz...

First Day of Work

We went in today at 8:00 this morning and only worked till noon. We just toured the hospital and did paperwork. The hospital is very small. Its only like a 150 bed hospital. However, their NICU is huge and has 40 beds! All the other units have like 8 beds to them. None of the rooms are private most units are one big room with curtains dividing the beds. The best room you can get is a semiprivate room with 2 beds. We actually start taking care of patients tomorrow night, we'll work 11p-7a and then wed and thur 7p-7a. These are the only 3 days I know for sure because these are our only orientation days after that we're on our own! Kinda scary!!! I do know we've swapped our weekends...so for those of you at work coming to visit...we'll be working Renee's weekend but we only work friday and saturday night. Their weekend is only 2 days. We'll get the rest of this month schedule tomorrow. Even though we won't ever see the ED we were curious about it. Apparently they have 2 separate EDs, one acute and one non-acute. We sat today in the lobby right beside the ED and both me and Laura were wishing we were in there instead...we already know we are not floor nurses and I'm pretty sure we're gonna miss the fast pace. The charting for floor nurses is way different too. We've gotta do nursing diagnosis again...I haven't done that in 3 years!!! Its a lot more charting which is different from what I'm use to.

For the first year of my nursing career in the ED I had one goal...it was to not kill anybody and I didn't and still of course I don't want to kill anybody but I don't lay in bed at night going over every little thing I did with each patient the way I use to. And I've been thinking about doing floor nursing now...which I know nothing about...my goal for this job is just to not hurt anybody. It would be to not kill anybody again if I thought I'd have really sick kids but it sounds like we'll be getting the healthiest of the kids in the hospital so I don't really think I'm going to be running around pushing the code button all the time. But we're gonna see a lot of new stuff (PCA pumps, epidural pain meds, etc) so my goal is to just not hurt anybody. Hopefully I will achieve this goal over my 3 months as a floor nurse.

Sorry for the above rambling...we are getting ready now to go down the street to a jazz club called Yoshi's. I'll let you know how it is!

Update About Our Neighborhood:
So one morning I took Toto out and there were row teams out in the water rowing and a homeless man started screaming "Row, Row" in time with the team...it scared me and Toto to death so we ran back inside. I've came to the conclusion that this homeless man was the one guy who escaped from Alcatraz and was never found. I think he was cheering the row team on to freedom...anyway, the row team was out again this afternoon practicing. It is very cool to watch them and a lot of people from out apt complex was out watching them today. The coach sits in boat beside the team with a megaphone and screams at them through that. Anyway just another cool little tidbit about our complex.

One more thing...Laura started a blog (she has not finished it yet so its not really on the internet yet) so we were trying to find quotes to title hers and I came across this one which I really like and it suits me..."Without travel I would have wound up a little ignorant white Southern female, which was not my idea of a good life.". This is why I'm doing what I'm doing.

Our Neighborhood

We slept late today and finally woke up to a gorgeous day. The sun was shining and it was actually warm so we decided we'd take a walk around Jack London Square. As soon as we left it started raining a bit but we went on to Barnes and Nobles. We read up on several San Francisco and Oakland books of travel to find stuff we HAD to do while we were out here and bought a few books. When we left the rain had cleared and it was gorgeous again. We walked around several blocks and found all the stuff to do and went shopping in World Market and Bed Bath & Beyond, and then we found the BEST store EVER!!! Its called BevMo and I think we might just be regulars. They have all kinds of wine, liquor, and non-alcoholic beverages and its cheap!!! I bought some Skyy vodka for $12 usually this is around $20-25 and I found my wine that I love (see story of it several posts below). We also found this old bar called First and Last Chance (see pic) and it happens to be literally 1/2 block from our apartment. It is a really old bar that has been around since the late 1800s...again I think we may be regulars. Tonight we are going to find somewhere to watch the superbowl or we might drive back into San Fran because its so dang pretty outside. Tomorrow we have to go to work...so I'll let you all know how that goes.

Pics from the Ferry Ride

Bay Bridge

San Francisco skyline

Golden Gate Bridge

Alcatraz

We rode the ferry over to Alcatraz this afternoon and toured it. It was a really good tour...they give you headphones and real people who were inmates there give the tour. If you are ever in the area I recommend doing this. Only problem was it rained the entire time and it was all basically outside but rain doesn't stop people here. I think Alcatraz needs to come back and be a prison again...forget these prisons where inmates can get a college degree put them in a hole with a bed and toilet...then they'll think twice about doing the crime.

 

Riding the Trolley

This was my mama and daddy's first time to visit San Francisco and I'm so glad they have gotten this opportunity to drive cross country and see a new city. Me and Laura would not have made it to Cali without them. Daddy helped me drive A LOT and got us through the snow storm with no problems. He also helped us get all of our stuff in our apartment which is on the top floor. Thanks for all the help!!! Love you!

More in San Francisco

Gah!...I love this bridge! Driving over the Bay Bridge but during the day. Its prettier at night but it was gorgeous today too with fog.

We had our first in and out burger experience today for lunch. Their burgers are pretty good. They have a sauce on them that tastes like thousand island...its still nothing compared to a milos burger : )!!!

This guy was passing out free hugs today and he gave the best!!!

Coit Tower

What do we do first???

First we drove by the hospital where we are going to be working...

Then we drove over the Bay Bridge into San Francisco. This bridge was amazing and the sun was setting so it made for gorgeous pics! Personally this bridge is better than the Golden Gate Bridge cause its 2 floors...

looking at the San Fran skyline from the Bay Bridge

We drove around downtown San Francisco for an hour or so. We went down the curviest street in the US, Lombard St, but it was so dark I didn't bother to take pictures plus I was driving...I'll get some of it tomorrow and then drove over the Golden Gate Bridge and back...(sorry for the crooked pic I don't know how to fix it)...

we ended the night at Fisherman's Wharf where we ate dinner. We will be heading back here tomorrow for some tours of the city...stay tuned!

We are now California nurses!!!

I was expecting to spend the entire day at the California Board of Nursing argueing with different people over different things but this actually went very smoothly. We took our application in, went to get fingerprinted, turned it all in and payed them and about 20 min later we had our temporary license.

We've Arrived!!!

We finally made it to Oakland!!! We drove the 2 ours to Sacramento, got our license with no trouble and finally made it to our apartment! Our complex is right on the water although we don't have a view but its awesome! We're in love already! We also are getting free internet (from the neighbor I guess) so we are not going to have ANY bills!!! We saw the Golden Gate bridge on our drive over and it really doesn't look that big but we were pretty far away...no pics yet. We are about to go sightseeing and tonight or tomorrow I'll post pics of our new home, the view, and San Fran!!! I'll send my schedule to everyone sometime next week so ya'll can plan your visit out here to see us! More to come...

Day 3-"The Never Ending Road"

Since we got into Flagstaff so late last night we didn't see how gorgeous it was. We woke up this morning with at least a foot of snow on the ground and 3 feet piled up on the side of the roads. The town was surrounded by huge mountains covered with snow (the ones in the pic are called San Francisco peaks). Through some parts on I40 we would go down a hill and see miles and miles of a stretch of the interstate we still had to drive on. I felt like cheering when we finally reached the end of I40. We drove today though every kind of weather and terrain imaginable. We started with snow in Flagstaff and then went on to desert and mountains, then to just desert, then to grassy hills, and then grassy farmland. Southern California is absolutely gorgeous! There are grassy hills everywhere (this was in Barstow). There was an old train tunnel that went through one mountain and then thousands of cows grazing on the hillsides...it looked like a postcard! We are now sitting at a Best Western and finally found some free internet!!! Woohoo! We're about 2 hours south of Sacramento which is where we have to go tomorrow to get our nursing license. After that we'll get into our apartment in Oakland and then its some siteseeing before Mama and Daddy fly back Sat night.

Day 2-"Snowed In"

Its a good thing we drove so much on Tuesday cause we had an adventure on Wednesday. We started out good, New Mexico was gorgeous. We drove into Albuquerque with no problems. Albuquerque was very mountainous and it even came a small snow shower which just made it more pretty. I also thought it was neat that all there overpasses are a pinky color (there very pretty). About 20 miles west of Albuquerque it started snowing again and then it got to going harder. Within 15 min we could not see 20 feet in front of us and the road was covered with snow! We were traveling behind an 18 wheeler and just kept them in our site but everytime another 18 wheeler would pass us it would stir up the snow and you couldn't see at all! We finally just pulled over on the side of the road and sat for a few min. About 10 min later the snow stopped and even though the road was covered we just started following the 18 wheelers again. A few min later we came to a complete stop. We sat there for 4 hours!!!! Apparently there had been a 15 car pile up just a couple of miles ahead of us due to the snow. We all took turns peeing on the side of the car or peeing in a cup. Me and Toto played in the snow as long as we could stand it but it was about 10 degrees. We made friends with a Canadian man in front of us. He came back and asked us "How long do these snow storms last here?" We said "we're from Alabama and have no idea!" We finally got started again and of course stopped for a drink (our nerves were shot), we made it to Flagstaff by 11:30pm. During all of this we got a call from our recruiter saying we were suppose to be in Oakland by Friday so we kinda freaked out about this too!

Day 1-"Chasing the Sun"

As most of you know me and Laura started our journey to San Fran Monday night after we got off work. We left bham around 9:00 monday night and drove to Memphis. We spent the night in a motel just across the Mississippi River in Arkansas. We woke up Tuesday morning and began driving again. We made such good time, we went through Arkansas, Oklahoma, and then Texas and finally stopped just over the New Mexico border in a town called Temancali (or something like that). We drove a total of about 12 hours. We decided we HATE Oklahoma...there is absolutely NOTHING there! The wind was blowing so bad in Oklahoma...we stopped and tried to get gas but the town was out of power due to the wind blowing a pole down. We also passed these windmill things in Texas...I think these supply power. We felt like the day was forever long because we were driving into the sunset. The sun finally went down around 7:15 that night. We spent this night in a run down Motel 6 that was not very nice but we slept great after a long day of driving.

Across the US

 

Last Day of Work

 

 

My car before we left...

 

I'll miss you guys so much!!! Love you all!!! Come visit us!!!

Last Day with the Other Week

 

Lunch with Kam

Since I'm leaving soon Kam cooked lunch for me today. If you've never had Kam's cooking you are missing out! Kam is the BEST cook! He had a big spread of sushi (which is my fav) and teriyaki chicken with rice. The best part for dessert we had banana foster...YUMMMM!!! Kam thanks for lunch and I'll miss you soooo much!!!! Love you!!!

Toto Gets A Haircut!!!

I wanted Toto to fit in with those California dogs so we got a MAJOR haircut today! Here he is! I got one today too but mine is not as obvious.

The Girls

Allison, Jennifer, Me


Laura, Michelle, Sarah


Future Cali Girls!!! For those of you who don't know...this is Laura...the girl I'm going to San Fran with. We leave in less than a week and are soooo excited!