So...

...it's been a while. Sorry 'bout that. I have been working at the clinic for 2 months already. It's hard for me to believe. I re-read over my post from my first weeks and I laugh at myself. I still love my job, but the fairy tale that I painted before has faded. Not every day at work is amazing. Days can get frustrating and high stress. But I'm pretty sure every job is like that. The good days make it worth it. I laugh a lot at work. Urology is very humorous and if you don't have a sense of humor you won't make it. Some of the things I tell patients are things I never thought would escape my mouth. But it's funny, and I have some pretty good stories because of it.

I also got my very first car of my very own! She is a 1995 GMC Jimmy with 4 wheel drive, leather interior, and is just stinkin' cool! Her name is Jiminy Cricket. And I love her. :)

(And amazingly she is still clean on the inside)

I'm really jazzed because next week I'll start an adult ballet class. After youth group one night, in which we watched a dance concert I decided I was going to sign up for a dance class. I have always loved to watch dancing and took a ballroom dance class in high school, but I didn't really pursue it. And I've always loved the grace and beauty of ballet. I finally decided I should do something about it. I'm excited to get started.

Love the Job!

Who new working in urology would be so much fun! I was excited when I got the job because it was a job and it was a nursing job. And I had met some of my co-worker and it seemed like it was going to be a good fit, but it is a great fit! Yes, working in urology means that I get to perform urine analysis for most patients and see body parts that usually go unseen, but it's a lot more than that. I get to have a relationship with patients because I don't just take care of them once and send them on their way. They come back and call in and all that kind of stuff. And my co-workers are great! I really feel like I fit in with the staff and it's so much fun. I just can't describe how much I love it. It still feels in some ways like I'm still a nursing student because I have someone who is there to train me, and I have to ask a lot of questions. At some points I feel like I should go home and write a paper or something. But then my co-worker will say "you organize your desk and your exam rooms how ever you want them", and I realize they are my exam rooms and it is my desk and that's just a weird thing to wrap my head around. But I'm getting closer. :)

The job search has ended!

Last Wednesday I got an interview with the doctors of the urology department at the Clinic, and I was really excited about it. It's a faced paced clinic because there are only 2 urologists in the Corvallis area and they are both in one office. I'd be assisting with in-office procedures and have a list of patients that require nurse-only care (rather than care from a medical assistant). I'd be busy, but I like busy. And I have a normal work schedule; Monday through Friday, eight to five. Weekends off! I thought the interview went well, but was told they were still interviewing other applicants and I would hear back after they were all done.

After a brutal week of waiting (a week is a long time for someone who isn't very good at being patient), I got a call yesterday. But it wasn't a job offer. It was a call for another interview in a different department. I was still excited about having another interview, but I really wanted it to be a job offer. Really really.

This would have been my 5th interview with the clinic and I was running out of professional outfits, and I didn't want to let them see me in the same outfit twice so I headed down to my favorite shop (Second Glance). In the middle of shopping, I get yet another phone call. This time it is the job offer!! I GOT A JOB!! :) I get to stay in Corvallis, and I get to start looking for my own car (sharing with my brother has been a little hard for me), and I have a job!! I get to go take a drug test today and after they are done with my background check, they'll call me and tell me when I start. I am so excited!

Oh, and my other interview was canceled and I saved money because I didn't have to buy a whole new outfit. Good day! :)

The Job Search

I'm pretty close to having a job. At least I hope so. I'd been looking a little before I left for my trip, and there are a bunch of places hiring nurses, just not new nurses. Everybody wants someone experienced because it doesn't cost the hospital or organization as much to orient/train them. I had looked at job postings at the Corvallis Clinic, but because they were asking for 6 months of prior experience I didn't apply. But about a month ago my dad got home from taking my grandma to her weekly doctor's appointment and handed me a business card. My grandma has been bragging about me and mentioned that I had been having some trouble finding a job. Well, her nurse said that I could use his name on my application as the reference if I applied for the open positions they had at the clinic. I guess it really is all about who you know and who they know. :)

The day I left for the Caribbean I got a phone call asking me to come in for a pre-screening interview for a job I applied for at the Corvallis Clinic. They laughed when I told them that I was leaving for St. Thomas for 2 weeks, saying it was the best excuse they had heard for needing to postpone an interview.

When I got back I went in and the first interview went great. They explained to me at the end that it is a long process. This was just the first of what will be about 4 interviews. They called me back the next day and I had another interview last week. It was a panel interview but it went really well too. I was nervous but prepared. They were really warm and gave me immediate positive feedback. They mentioned toward the end that they move kind of slow at calling back and I might not hear back for 48 to 72 hours, possibly not until next week. But I heard back within 24 hours! I'll called today to set up the third interview - it's on Wednesday at 11. This time the interview will be with the physicians from the departments I'm being considered for to make sure I'm a good fit for them.

It seemed like the way the interviewers in the panel put it, these next interviews are more like a formality than anything else. I still have to impress the physicians, but I'm through the hardest part of the process. I'm excited to start working, and the possibility of being able to stay in Oregon and the Corvallis area. :)

Adventures in St. Thomas

Warning in advance - this post is super long. I thought about posting it in two posts, but I couldn't figure out how I would split it up, so I didn't.

My vacation was awesome! St. Thomas is definitely somewhere that I want to return to. The island is beautiful and the people are some of the most friendly that I've ever met. Despite how much hardship they must go through, they still have a spirit of joy that is amazing.

So day 1 - we flew into St. Thomas around 11 and got our rental car and headed into town. The first thing I had to get used to was driving on the left side of the road. Luckily for all of us, Bonnie was doing the driving, but even being in the passenger seat was weird. Everything feels turned around - left turns are like right turns in the states and right turns like left turns. After spending 2 weeks there though, coming back and driving on the right side of the road was a little weird.

Anyway - we went the downtown area Charlotte Amalie. There are a bunch of shops, but they also have a place for the locals to sell their merchandise. That is were we went to find Anna. Last time Madre went to St. Thomas she had her hair braided, and Anna had been the person to do it. She was still there and both Madre and I had our hair done. Also in the locals market was a lady selling Corona, so we sat, had our hair braided (which feels like a scalp massage - very relaxing), and drank a Corona! Welcome to the islands! :)

(This is Olga. She is the one who did my hair.)

If you ever go someplace like St. Thomas where you are going to be doing a lot of swimming and such, braids are well worth it. I just got up and went in the morning and while swimming and snorkeling my hair never got in my face. It was so nice!

After stopping for a lunch/dinner at what would become one of my favorite restaurants, The Greenhouse, we checked in at the hotel. Bluebeards Castle is where Bonnie has her timeshare, but it is currently under renovation, so they put us up in a very nice unit overlooking the harbor. We had a balcony so we could go out and sit and enjoy the tropical weather. We could see cruise ships come and go and during our first week there was a youth steele drum band/orchestra that practiced close by that was fun to listen to. At night the harbor lights would come on and it was beautiful.






A typical day on island time started off by deciding on which beach we were going to. It would depend on if there was a cruise ship in or not, and how far we wanted to go. One of my favorite beaches (Brewer's Bay) was pretty much un-discovered by the cruise ship people and therefore mostly deserted, except for the locals. It was near the airport, but planes don't fly in too often so it's mostly quiet. It had the white sand and the turquoise water and it was lined with tiny shells. I started off thinking I would do a "shell for the day", because I'm used to the Oregon coast where the shells you find are broken and not all that interesting. But at this beach I was taking home handfuls of shells in my beach bag. There were tons of different little shells that were unbroken. To me, they were like finding treasure.

So anyway - the weather was wonderful. We'd get to the beach, lay out our towels and lie down for a bit and get all warm from the sun. Then it would be time for a dip in the ocean to cool off. And the water was the perfect temperature. Then it would be back to the towels. It was a difficult life. :) We bought snorkel gear on one of the first days in St. Thomas and it was fun to go snorkeling too. Another beach (Hull Bay) had a great reef with lots of colorful fish, and interesting things to see. The pictures you see of the colorful reefs and the brilliant blue and yellow fish - it's really like that. I got to swim with a sea turtle, and he was really friendly - not scared of us at all. He just went along with his business and let us get pretty close to him. The day we swam with the turtle was also my friend George's birthday, so in honor of him we named the turtle George. And then it became habit. Everyday we named a new animal George. A pelican, an iguana, a little lizard, a baracuda, and one particular seagul that came to visit us on our balcony everyday - all named George.


One of the things I liked about the ocean in St. Thomas was how easy it was to float. You could just lay back and you didn't really have to tread water to stay on the surface. It was so relaxing. And the surf is calm, so you didn't have to worry about being swept out to sea or moving around too much.


On both Sundays we were there we went to Magen's Bay. It has been recognized as one of the top 10 beaches in the world. And it is wonderful. Usually it is packed but we went on a day that there was no cruise ship and got their early enought that we were there with only a handful of other people (on a day when a cruise ship is in, it can be towel-to-towel packed). On the first Sunday we went there was a church meeting in one of the covered facilities near the beach so we could hear their steele drum worship music and we listened to them talk for a while. They have such cool accents. They enunciate every syllable almost or something, but it's just fun to listen to them speak. The second time we went, there were locals having a birthday party. They know how to party! We enjoyed the music and danced in the ocean.



We found out from a local about a beach called Linquist Bay. Not many tourists know about it, so it's usually not very busy. We looked for it for couple of days without any sucess of finding it. But one of our waiters was more than happy to give us directions. He also told us it was the beach that they film Corona commercials on. So we got Coronas and went and made our very own "commercials". :)







And then there was all the food. I think I could write an entire post just on what we ate and how good it was. Lots of seafood, but lots of other good things too. There wasn't a bad restaurant we went to. I committed dietary abuse and had a "food baby" almost every night - sometimes a food baby twins. :) Two of my favorite places that I would recommend to anyone are Mims and Mafolie. Mims had a great atmosphere - right on the ocean with outdoor seating and amazing food. And Mafolie (also with great food) was up on a hill with a great view of Charlotte Amalie.

Lani and I with our food babies.

The four of us at Mims

The view from Mafolie

And some other fun pictures...

Day 1 - notice how white I am!

Day 8 - I have a little bit of a tan! :)

One of the beaches we went to had pretty good sized waves - enough for the surfers to come out.

Sail boat races in the harbor
The Iguanas are everywhere!
Charlotte Amalie
St. Thomas sunset

(Pictures courtesy of Alaina Bryn. )

A little teaser...

I've been house sitting and been away from my computer (where the pictures are), but I have a quick moment to post a picture from my vacation to St. Thomas. I'll post more pictures and write a lengthy post soon!

Photo courtesy of my friend Alaina Bryn. :)

What to write?

Ever since graduation, my life has been pretty simple. I have great parents that are letting me live at their house until job plans pan out and I can get a place of my own. I have spent the last 2 weeks or so studying for the NCLEX and now that I have passed it I'm getting ready for my next adventure...Two weeks in the Caribbean!! :)

As for the job plans - I don't currently have any. I've applied to a handful of hospitals but I haven't heard back. But then again, I'm not seriously looking until after I get back from my vacation. Right now, I'm just happy with being able to say I'm a nurse.

The other thing I've been working on is getting back in shape. I got a Nike Plus chip that fits in my shoe and communicates with a receiver that I plug into my iPod. It tells me how fast I'm going, how far I go, and the calories I burn when I run. And after each run I sync my iPod to the internet and it keeps track of everything and allows me to compete with people on an international level. It's pretty sweet. It has kept me motivated to run on a consistent basis.

So yeah, that's life as I know it.