Its Christmas Time...In Vegas

Another week has flown! Work took up the first half and then of course I had salsa dance class on Wed. I can’t not go to salsa with Susie! So I booked my flight to Vegas for Xmas eve. My brother picked me up. He’s so handsome! I’m so proud of him. Each time we’re together he seems to impress me with his maturity. Yes, he’s my baby brother and I see him that way all the time. He’s such a good father. And my sis in law Denyse has compliments for managing the lives of those 3 precious kids! Ok, Celeste, yes you are a young lady but you’re still their ‘kid’. J (I call my patients, kids, so don’t take it badly!) Cameron is such a prissy girl and Colin is a shy sweetie! All are involved in some sport or activity at all times. Cammy is a lil singer and quite the performer! I love Colin’s dedication and concentration to details of projects. I see a lot of Casey in him.

Dinner at Denyse’s sister’s house was great. Such good food! Thanks again Jerry!!! It was such a pleasure meeting Denyse’s family. I’m glad to have been a part of that evening. After living in Italy for all those years, I kinda felt disconnected from the family. We had a great Christmas morning and the kids had a blast. Man, kids are so spoiled with all this technology!!! Electronic Monopoly!!! Barbie fashion electronic game!! I wonder if cases of carpal tunnel are occurring more in teens now??

Thanks to Denyse and her mad connections, I was able to take Mom to see the Blue Man Group at the Venetian. Such talented guys! They were funny and quite interactive with the audience. The pulled up a guy from the audience and made some body blue art with him and then there was the lady who really didn’t want to be up on stage. She was part of the twinkie routine. Her ‘bib’ leaked out cream filling and freaked her out! After the show, I took Mom down the strip! She oved seeing all the people, lights and buildings. Xmas night and that place was packed!

I had to fly out the next day. Have to switch to nights again!! Back and forth back and forth! One day my body is going to hate me!

Vegas Baby

Work work work as usual and then its rush to nap and fly to Vegas! I met Bill at the airport and we headed to our hotel where the Southwest Holiday Party was held. Those guys are a riot! I had a great time, despite the fact that the food poisoned me. I had to nap a bit more when we arrived since the 3 hours in the morning didn’t cut it at all. Big props go to Bill! I feel kinda like family as he’s the brother in law of my best friend, but this was the 3rd time we’ve met each other and he had to deal with me and my, well, issues. ;) The sweetheart walked to the store to get me drugs. I wasn’t sure I was gonna make it out of the hotel room or on the plane back to San Diego for that matter. LOL! Oh my life is grand!

I’m so grateful that I had a few more days off work to recover. In my dehydrated state, I knocked out a couple netflix movies. One which was so touching. Did anyone watch Seven Pounds? Will Smith was spectacular, but when is he not. I was so touched by the depth of his character’s guilt, love and sacrifice. Wow! Is really all I can say. If you’re wanting a good heavy drama, get it. And on a side note in reference to the movie, become an organ donor. For those that do it in life, big ups to you! In death, you can’t take it with you so why not donate your organs??

When I recovered, I went out on Friday to a Meetup group to see ‘Gay Comedy’. It was a hetero comic and his act wasn’t about the gay community or lifestyle. He was ok, but he kinda got on a soapbox towards the end when he realized that half the audience was gay and spoke of gay marriage. We came to laugh so make us laugh, don’t get all serious about things! Geez! A funny part of the act was the Dating Game where a gay gentleman chose from 3 contestants, some were gay and the others straight. Haha! The straight guy got chosen!!! The host was funnier than everything! I had to laugh though. A very nice lady who was part of my meetup group ’Drinking with Strangers’ didn’t realize that another group ‘Gay and Lesbian Professionals’ were all there. Not that it was a bad thing but, sometimes pics are taken at the functions and this lady was in the military…sooo. Needless to say, ducked out of every pic/video that was happening.

What a crazy night out!

The next day was with another meetup group to go ice skating in Viejas Outlet Center. I did pretty good considering I haven’t been on ice skates in at least 5 years! And I got to hang out with my sweet travel nurse from Missouri, Andrea. She’s such a blast! We couldn’t get enough of each other and met the next day for a little bit of kayaking in La Jolla Cove. We didn’t make it into the caves due to the high tide but it was a neat trip.

Ten Tenors Singing

Forecast on Sunday for the week….rain rain rain!!! When do I ever believe the weatherman? Never so, what’s on the agenda….wine tasting and a hike if possible. Tuesday was my first off day so I had a great lunch with my recruiter Ali. Congrats to her on her first baby. I’ve also extended my contract an additional 3 months so yeah!! I’ll be in SD till May for certain. Also we talked about me finding my own housing which I learned that I can do at the end of my current contract. So Feb I may be closer to the beach or even the center, we’ll see.

I met up with Bill in Murietta and we headed out to Temecula for wine tasting. Such good wine I must say! I'm definitely a Red girl. I prefer a Merlot but a nice blend is nice to the palate. But I must say, wine tasting before salsa isn't a good plan. I've learned this lesson before with margaritas. I know I should have known better, but it was such a lovely day for a tasting. :)

Thurs, I joined Scott to see the Ten Tenors at the Civic Center. OMG!!! Australian singers, um could someone wipe the drool off my face? Majority of the them were married which ruined the occasional fantasy, but what talent! If you get a chance to see them, please do.

I met an amazing lady at work and it was such fun hanging out with her. She’s like my Tina, but from the East Coast. Friday was a blast as we ladies enjoyed our night out! I needed one of those bad. Nikki as a sweetie and carpooled with me. When gas is $3/gallon, carpool is a very popular suggestion. We hit the Gaslamp district and went to ’The Bitter End” and “Henry’s” where we definitely got our groove on. My sweet man asked me if that’s how it has to be when ladies declare their night out. Ok, guys, I know you don’t wish for a night where you can just let go and dance, but we do. And guys attempting to hump our legs/back etc isn’t in that scenario. Sorry fellas. Go look for the drunken floozies that are hitting on everyone. They wanna be humped, go get em! ;) No, really, I can only speak for myself. When I listen to hip hop I love the beat and energy and I enjoy dancing by myself or around ladies. On the rare occasion I wanna dance with a guy, I have to let it be known that I JUST wanna dance! When I wanna couple dance, I’ll go Latin dancing. But that’s just me.

Then the weekend came and back to work I go. I think I’ve been working every weekend it seems. Hmm. Hey, my off days are my weekend. Less traffic in the places I go so that’s good for me. Until next time…ciao ciao.

Oh Twilight!

Ok, I succumbed to the pressure and went to see New Moon. Uhhh! Such hotties. I was drooling when I left the theater. I really enjoyed this one. It did feel a bit choppy at times with the story lines but I'm sure there was a lot of editing. Hell, do like Harry Potter and go for a 3 hour movie. I don't mind 3 hours of staring and drooling over Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner. Mainly Taylor though. Wow! Ok, I'm done now. Is anyone else a little warm?? Whew!!

It made me reminisce of a certain someone that is constantly on my mind. That's a whole other story, but at the same time its not. Loving someone that isn't good for you, wanting someone you can't have and taking risks for love. Yep, been there done that and still single! Gotta love it!

These movies are taking their sweet ass time coming out so I said screw it and bought the series. Hazard of going to the bookstore for internet and escaping the rain. So in a few days I can read everything! Mmmuuuahhhhhhaaaaahhhhaaaahhhh!

Life of a Break Nurse

Work Work Work and then play. Tuesday I met up with the Meetup group for a wine tasting. I was in North Park at the H2O Splash Wine Bar. I met a great couple and a really gal. Both of the husbands are in the military so that’s an interesting dynamic. Brandon warned me about those military guys. No eye candy for me though. :(

Wednesday and Thursday I went to Balboa Park near downtown and visited all the museums there plus some of the famous gardens. I was very grateful that I bought the Passport card which got me in to all for a lower price. Some of the museums weren’t of my extreme interest so I’m glad that I didn’t limit myself to just a few museums, because you just never know.

My favorite museums were the Photography Museum and the Museum of the Living Artist. The Photography one had an exhibit of an Indian man who documented in photos woman that had escaped their domestic violent homes or brothels that their poor family sold them to and arrived at this shelter. It was quite moving. The Living Artist museum is an exhibit of current works of artists for sale. Such imagination and creativity surrounded me. I loved every moment of it. It would be so nice to have a couple of really nice pieces of art for my house but I have no clue!

I also met up with Scott for a visit to the Contemporary Arts Museum and saw an amazing exhibition by Tara Donovan. Her show included a ceiling of ’clouds’ that were made of Styrofoam cups, “rubber tires” that were old rolls of typing paper, like old calculator paper, rolled over and over to create these massive circles laid over each other. The folded mylar paper that formed circular half globes for a space like ground formation. Then there was the tiles of roof asphalt/tar stocked on top to create what to me looked like volcanic striations of the Earth . A favorite model was the wall of straws moved closer or further from the wall to create a “Haze”. Another was the bubble wall where she had small circles of the silver mylar paper rolled up and attached to look like multiple balls of mercury beading up all over this wall. It was so neat! Such simple items creating such extraordinary works of art!!!

And Friday I attended the Tran Siberian Orchestra concert along with fellow meetup members. We met up at a beer bar called Gordon Biersch. I got caught in hellacious traffic so I didn’t eat and chatted up before carpooling to the concert. I met a fellow travel nurse whom shares many similar interests. Next week would be nice if it wasn’t planning on raining so much of it!!! ;( We’ll see. San Diego rain could be like Houston in the sense that it rains for 2 minutes and dries. I crashed hard afterwards as I had to switch of nights to work all weekend.

I do have to comment on something that I got to experience first hand this Saturday at work. Break nurses. According to California law, nurses can never be monitoring more than the specific ratio for their unit. ICU being 2 patients:1 nurse, IMC 3:1, Tele Med Surg 4:1. In TX, there is no such thing as ratio safety laws for nurses and I could get tripled in ICU, have up to 8 patients on the floor! Hell no! I’ll never work the floor for that reason alone…I could end up with 8 patients. No thank you! So yeah, break nurses are there extra, with no patients to watch the other nurse’s patients as he/she goes on break therefore one nurse will never cross over the ratio. Great Idea!!! So I got to be a break nurse and the resource nurse all night. Resource is basically an extra hand to do anything from sinking NGs, starting IVs, insert foleys urine catheters, helping with coding or not coding a patient for that matter. I had fun. It was an easy 12 hours that I’m glad I had. I’d do that as opposed to get canceled!

I’m really having a good time here. But at the same time I miss my friends in Houston. I talk to my family pretty frequently since I can annoy them for the simple fact that they are family. I still have my man obsession that I can’t get seem to get over or maybe I‘m not meant to get over. Time will tell. Why do I torture myself?!? Need to keep more and more busy!!!

Week 2 SD

I’ve got a random schedule at work since I jumped in the last half of the current schedule. So I’m off one work two off two kinda crazy.

Thanks to meetup.com I’ve got lots of things to do and choose from. Monday I joined the 2 “Daytime Nighttime Hikers and took a 6 mile walk around University of California San Diego. Tuesday I went to cheap movie night and saw Blind Side with Sandra Bullock. I really liked it. Definitely a feel good movie. Afterwards, I head to La Jolla and when to the Last Salsa Tuesday at the Firehouse YMCA. (See previous post as well) I found the young salsa crowd…they’re hiding in La Jolla. I also met Ms Susie Nguyen a ranked competitor of Salsa Dancing. I love her style and I went ahead and attend her complimentary dance class the next day ( after I got cancelled on Thanksgiving eve!!) I was determined to take her class at any cost.

I met a nice mature man who invited me to see a play. I had a great Friday evening with Scott and we saw Bonnie & Clyde at the La Jolla Playhouse. Such good voices and melodic tonality. I enjoyed every minute of it! We closed the evening up with some great conversation and salsa dancing along with some ballroom dancing lessons. Scott’s multitalented. Oh and he drives a kickass electric car, the Tesla. It really does remind me of a roller coaster.

Thursday was Thanksgiving and I wasn’t sure I was gonna get called in or not, so I typed in beach in the TomTom and had him lead me to the nearest beach which was Torrey Pines Nature Reserve. I walked along the beach and made some phone calls. I watched the sun set and ate a turkey sandwich. :)

Then it was back to work for the weekend!

Silly for Salsa in San Diego

My grandma says that I should keep a diary while in SD. So here's my attempt since who writes in book/diaries anymore?!?!

I'm really enjoying San Diego. I really haven't seen much of it during the day but the nights have been fantastic! I've worked a bunch of days in a row and had a couple off but didn't try to switch to being awake during the day!

Its been salsa that has gotten me out and about. And since it is time of Thanksgiving I'd like to say...thanks to TomTom for leading me and not getting me lost and always leading me home safe! =)

My first night out I hit up Cafe Sevilla in the Gaslamp district of San Diego. Then the next night off I meet up with a wonderful lady Annabelle to carpool to attend Sevilla on the Sea which was a salsa cruise. Had a blast and danced till my feet felt like they weren't attached anymore.

I went to Firehouse last night and was amazed at the quality of dancers there. Susie Nguyen runs the Ooh LaLa Dance Company and most of her dancers were at the Firehouse. I've looked into taking classes with her but it all depends on my work schedule which I still dont have for the month of Dec!!! Hello!!!

Tonight I hit up the La Jolla Marriott for Salsa Wed and rocked out. Such great dancers that make me a better dancer! I felt so good. I grabbed a couple of pics but for the most part I was dancing my tooshy off and never got another chance to snap away. Plus all the sweatiness isn't very attractive. =)


I'm glad and not glad that I was canceled tonight. I miss the money that I would have made, but at the same time I met so many people tonight and had a fantastic time. Thanks Susie, Jen, Paulina, Micheal, Bobby, Micheal #2 (I wont tell him that I thought of him like that), Bryan and Kris and Victor for an amazing night.

Its always a good salsa night when you dance so much that there is not a dry piece of clothing on you!

At the same time I miss my Houston Salsa crew! But watch out guys, when I return to H-town, I'm gonna knock your socks off!!!

Week One San Diego

Beginning Sun Nov 15

Arrived Sunday just in time to get the key to the apt and unpack before the office closed and the sun set. Got the cats situated and kinda crashed. I made lists of things that I needed. Shower curtain was top of the list. I discovered the grocery stores and 99cent store and thanks to Tom Tom GPS, I found the stores themselves. So after spending a small fortune…my first week check… at Target, Albertsons and 99cent store, my apartment is completely ready and cozy for me and the girls.

I searched the net to find the hip things to do and Wed night I headed off to the Gaslamp district and danced all night at Café Sevilla. A Spanish restaurant/nightclub/bar. Such good dancers!!! I need to find a school here! The salsa crew of Café Sevilla also offered a salsa cruise that Saturday which I attended as well. I contacted a lady Annabelle on the meetup group to carpool. We had a blast. I danced with a lot of older guys and prayed that this wasn’t the standard salsa scene, but realized later that it is kinda the Café Sevilla crowd.

Tuesday I had sat through an all day orientation which only I was the attendee. Fun times! Thurs and Friday was my on the unit orientation. Really nice people that I get to work with. I enjoy working nights. I haven’t done it since Shock Trauma, but I like the night and I don’t have a problem sleeping during the day so it’s a win win thus far.

Road Trip

I loaded up my car and made the 1600 mile drive to San Diego with my girls. Thanks to my blackberry a good portion of the trip was captured. First night in Las Cruces NM, second in Scottsdale AZ at Tina's, third night...in my apartment in San Diego. Wootwoot!

The girls got themselves comfy for the ride

First day on the road...beautiful sunset

Yep...long road with not much of a view

Woohoo...I made it to Arizona finally

Yep....bunches of rock mountains and hills

this is how enthused Ciccia was

Pit stop and saw this at the light

An hour away from Tina's and a major wreck happened. I was stuck here for another one and a half. It sucked but the people in the wreck had it worse so I really couldn't complain.

Beautiful Rainbow

Finally made it to Tina's. She prepared her famous Monkey Juice!

Just before I went through a major dust storm

There wasn't anything 'verde' in Mesa Verde

San Diego county here I come

Bahamas

Thank you Amy and Royal Caribbean for giving me such a beautiful adventure. Of course it did have its bump but we made the best of it.

Amy and I both sent each other texts stating we were running late. It was me though that caused us to take the next flight to Miami. Thank God there was an early flight. We get on the ship in Miami and go straight for...you know it...the buffet! :) This girl is always hungry! Its the metabolism, I swear it has sped up this past year.

Of the 4 night cruise, we entertained ourselves at all the shows and daily excursions. The weather behaved for most of it. My favorite events of the trip were our Atlantis day excursion on Paradise Island, Bahamas which included our shallow swim with the dolphins, our multiple water slides, and lazy river trip and the cruise's shows of Love & Marriage and The Quest.

Amy and I had ourselves a good time. I have to say though, that our cruise with Carnival was better. The people on this RC cruise were great. Our waiter Rakesh was fantastic and we had tons of fun. So did our dinner guests Laura who made Rakesh and Manuel blush at every opportunity! :)

Its all about good times and meeting new people. Thanks again Amy.