Friends from Forever ago!

This morning I had brunch with two very old friends - my best friend from fourth grade and her sister, Kate's best friend from first grade!! Heather and Ashley left Marietta the summer before we started fifth grade and moved to Winston-Salem. For several years we kept up with each other through letters, but, of course, that eventually stopped.

As we were driving into Winston last Saturday, I suddenly remembered that the Roses had moved here all those years ago. We found a phonebook, looked up their parents, and found that they still lived about five miles from my apartment! Then, through the fabulous world of Facebook, I found Ashley!! After a few emails back and forth, we decided to meet for brunch this morning and reconnect.

It was so great to see them after TWENTY years! And I got to meet Heather's beautiful baby girl, Livy! We reminisced about old times - Friday night pizza sleepovers, watching Dirty Dancing and thinking Penny was "sick", walking to the neighborhood pool, and our "Best Friend" necklaces (Heather was Be Fri and I was St End)!!! Good times!

I hope I get to see more of them while I'm here in Winston!

First Days on the Unit

After a day of rest on Wednesday, I hit the ground running on Thursday. I was supposed to be on the Unit at 6:30am - super early for me! And, this hospital is HUGE! It's probably the size of UAB & Children's combined, but instead of covering several city blocks, it's all crammed into one with different towers and bridges. Needless to say, it's very easy to get lost in this place. So, to give myself enough time to drive to the hospital, park and walk the 3 miles, 4 elevators and 5 bridges to find my Unit, I left my apartment at 5:30am - and woke up at 4:30!!!

So far, I think I'm going to like working on this Unit. The girls seem helpful and appreciative of me. They are extremely short staffed at the moment - which could be good and bad for me. Good because it means I probably won't get called off and should be able to work some overtime. Bad because we're still short-staffed with me and the nurse:patient ratio isn't great. We have a lot of cardio patients on this unit so I really need to sharpen my cardio skills!

But, after two twelve hour plus days, I'm exhausted and excited to spend my Saturday on the couch watching movies and football!

WAR EAGLE!!

First Day and Nasty Sick

UGGGHH!! Today was my first day and I went through an entire box of Kleenex, 4 Tylenol Cold & Sinus and a half a bag of Halls! Long, uneventful day filled with tests, reading and PowerPoints. I'm one of three travel nurses who started today, so I spent the day with two other girls. Tomorrow we learn the computer system, I have Wednesday off to recover from this nasty cold, then work on the Unit for 12 hours Thursday and Friday. I'm really looking forward to getting on the Unit and seeing what it's going to be like. But, I don't want to be anywhere near those babies with this junk!
It's 5:30 now...I think I'm going to eat dinner, take a Benadryl, and hit the sack!
More to come later...

A Whirlwind Week

Well, I'm here in Winston-Salem now! This past week has been a complete whirlwind. Mom came to Birmingham last Friday to help me pack up...the movers came on Sunday to move everything to storage...then I worked Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, while being homeless. Fortunately, my fabulous friend, Sally, let me crash at her house (Thanks again, Sally & Leslie!!) while I finished up my last few days at Children's.
After saying goodbye to all my buddies in the Special, I headed over to St. Vincent's for the birth of my cousin's baby girl - Isabella Claire (http://aemcpherson.blogspot.com/2008/08/introducing-my-niece-isabella-claire.html).
After a brief day and a half in Marietta, Mom and I hit the road for Winston. We stopped in Greenville to pick up Jane, and arrived here around 3pm Saturday. My apartment is great - clean, spacious, bright, and HIGH - it's on the third floor! We spent the evening hauling boxes up two flights of stairs, then unpacking and getting settled. Here's the finished product:




ps...that's Mobi's monkey on the floor next to the chair, not something nasty!

Winston-Salem here I come!

So, I finally accepted a position at Brenner Children's Hospital in Winston-Salem, NC! My last day in Birmingham is August 21st and I start in W-S on August 25th.

I'm so excited about my new adventure, but hate leaving all my friends in Birmingham, especially the girls I work with - I will never find a group of girls like them anywhere! We all work together so well ~ and that was perfectly exemplified tonight! Love you girls!

Keep reading and I'll keep updating...