Life

I am very bad at following through. I promised a post over a week ago on this blog, yet I don't see one! Life gets in the way. I'm not complaining, honestly, I'm glad that I'm busy with life here and forget to post... it means I have things to do around here and I'm not as bored as I thought I might be.

Work is going great! It's kind of crazy being a real nurse on the floor, but I'm adjusting well and I LOVE going to work each day. Even if I do get tired and some days drag and my feet want to fall off, I still love going because I worked for this. I earned it. I'm bummed that next week I am back in the classroom and not on the floor, but it's all part of orientation.

I am surprised that it was easier than I thought to find a couple of girls that I already consider pretty good friends. Both are new nurses like me and one of them actually is moving to the same apartment complex I live in! My own roommate just moved in for good the other day too and so it's been nice to have someone else here.

I'm still adjusting to being in an area that has considerably less to do than where I am from, but at the same time I'm finding that between working, sleeping, and relaxing, I don't really mind! I am so so glad it's finally fall, my favorite season, and this area is the perfect place to be when the weather changes!

I am going to TRY to come back with a couple posts this week, one about fall here and another about future travel plans. In the meantime, my friend from home is coming up to see me for the night and I can't wait to see her and catch up. I've been missing my family and friends from home so it's nice that she's bringing a piece of it to me =)

Oops

So this blogging thing is harder than I thought... I always forget about it and then POOF it's a week later, two weeks later, etc. and I realize I haven't posted. When I realize I haven't posted, I don't have anything particularly interesting to share, so I choose not to post at all. It's a vicious cycle... I promise I will post something with substance tomorrow, since I have the day off.

Work, Nails, Eat

My first week of work was a very big change from sitting in my apartment all day, waking up at 10, and generally doing nothing! It's so nice to be working full time, even if it does require waking up before the sun rises. Although I have started work, I have a long orientation process so I haven't actually started my 12 hour shifts on the floor yet. That will come soon!

The one thing that stresses me out about starting a real full-time job is that I don't know how all this scheduling works (what's earned time?!?!) and how to decide what benefits I want-- healthcare, retirement, etc. I'm only in my 20s! I do have sessions to help explain those things this week, though, so hopefully I'll feel a little more educated! Because of medications I take, I need to set myself up with a primary care here, but I can't do that until I sign up for health insurance and it takes effect, in about a month. A new doctor, a new dentist, a new license... real life is more paperwork and phone calls than I expected!

Speaking of "new"s... I went to a nail salon near my apartment Saturday to get a pedicure with one of the girls I've met in the past couple of weeks. I'm going to try to save my money and make smart decisions with it, but I'm pretty sure that a pedicure every two or three weeks is going to be one of my splurges-- it's just too relaxing and wonderful! Anyway, we went to this new place, and they were terrible! My nails smudged even two hours after leaving the salon... they were still tacky and got ruined. Oh well, now I know I won't be going back there... luckily there are a few other places nearby to check out! The important things in life =)

I added a page to this blog called "Fitness". There have been so many times I've said I was going to change my lifestyle and it all got thrown out the window when I got busy, lazy, or just didn't do it. Now that I'm living on my own, working and don't have classes to study for, etc, and can buy and prepare my own foods, I've decided it's really the perfect time to make good choices and change myself for the better. It's not so much that I want to lose a ton of weight to be skinny, but just I want to get in shape and feel good about myself. Right now all that's there is a weight loss ticker (I do want to lose about 20 pounds!) but I plan on adding exercise info and other related things as I go, to track my progress.

Here's to a great second week of work!

... I'll love ya, TOMORROW!

*Please note that the title is from my favorite musical ever, Annie*

Tomorrow I start my first full-time, bona fide professional career. I will log my first hours as an RN, even if it means I'll be sitting in a general orientation from 8-5 and not doing anything nurse-like. That's fine with me, because after that I'm pretty sure I'm going to be tumbling head first into everything nurse related. I'm SO excited! I know most people are pissed that summer vacation is coming to an end, but I've been waiting all summer to start this job. I simply need to keep a positive mindset and try to learn as much as I can!

Today, in preparation for real-life, I went grocery shopping with an actual list of items to buy to make specific meals. I picked a handful of recipes that I've found through blogs and Pinterest, and decided to make 4 or 5 of them this week. Tonight, I actually made two of them and froze a third for cooking later in the week. I'll devote another post to what I cooked and how they turned out-- delicious!

I'm going to try to make it an early night... if 10:30 counts as early... because my alarm is set for 6:15 tomorrow morning. First time that's happened in a LONG while, it's definitely going to be an adjustment.

Wish me luck!

Green?

More like brown.

This, my friends, is a spinach and blueberry smoothie. I've seen all these recipes recently about making "green machine" smoothies by adding spinach to them. This morning I woke up and realized I have so many things in my fridge that are going to go bad if I don't start using them, spinach and blueberries being two of those things (the problems with living alone...). I looked online and found this recipe that claimed you can't even taste the spinach in it, so I decided to try it out.

Spinach Blueberry Smoothie

• 1/2 cup frozen blueberries (I used fresh, because that's what I had)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup fresh spinach 
• 1/4 cup fruit juice (it was weird to me that they don't specify which type of fruit juice, but since all I had in my fridge was Orange Strawberry Pineapple, that's what I chose =\ )
• 2-4 ice cubes

As you can see, the first thing I noticed was that it doesn't look green and pretty like the pictures on the recipe websites claim. More like brown sludge. Hmmm. The taste is actually not so bad. Not something I think is delicious, but not terrible. However, the recipe-writer lied when she said you can't taste the spinach. That's about all I can taste. That and a hint of blueberry mixed in. The fruit juice really doesn't matter, I guess, because I couldn't find that at ALL. 

I'm glad I tried it. It's not something I would probably make just because, but if I had things I needed to use up, I'd consider it. I also like that it's pretty good for you-- I always feel so accomplished when I make something that's actually healthy (usually because I spend the rest of the day sitting around... oops).

Now I just need to get motivated to start going out and buying items for pre-planned meals, and actually making said meals so that I will have things to bring for lunches and dinners when I start work... in two days! I won't need that stuff right away, because at first I'll be doing orientation and classroom, but once I'm on the unit for 12 hour shifts I will want some good meals to eat!