The Traveling Kind

Well y'all, we've made it to Denver. We left Chicago right after I got off work and drove straight through the night to maximize our time at home with family and friends. We got to spend about 5 days catching up and on Friday we started our trek Raton, NM our midway stop. We moved in on Saturday and by that Monday I was sitting in the first day of my week long orientation. Then, by the time I got home Ryan was already asking if we could extend here. Ha! I hadn't even been on the unit yet. But I have to agree, Denver is pretty amazing. There are so many craft breweries here! In fact, there's two right by my hospital, and one or two right by where we live. Convenience. Ha. Our first 9 days here consisted of moving in and work. The last few days we've really gotten to explore our area a little bit. Yesterday we ventured to the front range of the Rocky Mountains and drove the Lariat Loop which is a 40 mile scenic loop through the mountains. The little mountain towns her...

Welp, another three months have come and gone. Ryan and I have approximately 15 days left here, 6 of them I will spend at work, 5 will be spent with my mom when she visits for Christmas, and the rest will be filled with purging, packing, and cleaning. I can't wait!! This is seriously the best and worst part of traveling so often. I'm just getting used to the unit I'm in and getting comfortable. Friendships I've made are easier and more natural feeling instead of new and awkward. I know I always say this but after three and a half years of traveling, leaving new friends never gets any easier. On the flip side, I'm getting so excited for our next adventure! I actually secured this next assignment way back in September before I even had a job in Chicago. After a week long trip in Central Texas for Christmas with the Sladek's, we will be making our way back out west, in the land of mountains, skiing, craft brew, and legal pot! Not that the last part really applies...

Ryan and I are officially settled in our new city. We've really lucked out in the weather department so far, I'm hoping it stays that way till January 2nd. Fingers crossed. Everyone here seems to think it's going to get really cold. Haven't they heard about El Nino!? :) Oh. My. Goodness. The move in to Chicago was probably the easiest in my 3 year travel experience. I've started going through a new travel agency and our housing comes fully furnished down to the silverware-without any extra cost to me! If we really wanted to make it easy on ourselves we could've just traveled with our dogs and our suitcases and been just fine. Going with this new company has definitely been a learning curve. I'll cover the pros and cons of large/small travel agencies in another post. I'm definitely likin' the way things are going so far,  but my momma didn't raise no dummy so I'm cautiously optimistic. We spent our first two days here getting to know our a...

Holy Moses. The last 18 days have been fun, anxiety-inducing, and exhausting! I started off working 6 out of 7 days in a row. Then, we hosted Ryan's parents for a week. Now, yesterday I finished up my last three shifts on 9South at Johns Hopkins. And I only just got my new assignment last Friday, 6 days before my last shift. Talk about cutting it close! Having to leave a unit for a second time stinks pretty bad, to say the least. I LOVE my 9South coworkers. Coming back and getting to know them even better just makes it harder. It's very comforting to know, however, that I can go back. That's the beauty of travel nursing. Options are ALWAYS open. I sure am gonna miss this skyline!!  See ya later Hopkins!! Well, I guess I'll get to the exciting part of the post and let y'all in on where we're going next! After 27 years of successfully avoiding any type of "real winter", Ryan and I will be going to CHICAGO next!! We'll be there through Ja...