things learned in 18 hours of orientation...

Orientation is complete! Three days, lots of powerpoint presentations, handouts, and videos...

Some things I learned:

1. I will be working in an Accredited Oncology Program
2. A video about empowering patients had the quote, "Nothing about me without me." Seems an important concept to keep in mind about healthcare but also life in general. Sounds similar to grab life by the horns but presents it in a responsible, thoughtful, nicer way
3. Some people who do presentations say the word "chasm" like "ky-as-m" (3 syllables)
4. Concepts that improve the assembly line production of Toyota cars influence health care...
• Lean Concepts
• improve productivity
• eliminate waste
• improve quality
5. Parkridge Medical Center seems like it will be a fun place to work... Check out this video (don't watch more than 30 seconds unless you are really bored and you have already read the comics)
6. The PMC main campus has intelligent water sprinklers. They sense heat and only the sprinklers close to the fire turn on... I thought all of those things were all or nothing.
7. A kitchen cutting board contains 50x more bacteria than an average cutting board... gross... what can you do about that? cut boards on blocks of frozen bleach? there doesn't seem like a good solution for that

One other thing I learned know is that I am missing these guys today...

First night shift is this coming Tuesday! Start your prayer engines! 

a picture= a thousand words, right?

so if one picture is equal to 1000 words, this could be a long post... but feel free to skim through as fast as your pointer finger can move...

Since I have moved to Chattanooga I have...

Turned 23 and celebrated in style with Monkey Town doughnut company

Celebrated with the otters at the TN Aquarium

and the largest catfish ever...

Birthday dinner at Tony's with AC, the fam, and Becca!!  

Freaked out over my new cuisinart 

 Continued celebrating with a surprise visit from Kara!

who helped me put together my grill I got for my birthday! 

which we used 0.085 seconds after we put it together 

to make amazing burgers! 

Rafted on the Ocoee with AC, Jim Shulman, a work friend of Jim's, and an elderly couple enjoying their retirement freedom by RV-ing it around the country and rafting as many rivers as possible...

 

Nearly drowned...

And struggled to remain in the raft while my companions laughed at me...

Attended the 3 Sisters Bluegrass Festival, thought these were so cute 

was entertained by the dancing antics of this couple who was later seen skipping arm in arm to the port-o-potties... true love right there!

Witnessed traditional Aztec dancing and incense spreading at the Chattanooga Market Culture-Fest 

Helped AC dig up dirt with a spoon to help out our mum Stuart who was looking a little droopy

(I am pleased to tell you Stuart made almost a full recovery) 

Made pesto in my new cuisinart using basil from Herbie our herb pot

and put that pesto on grilled cheeses with farmer's market tomatoes...  

Went to Colquitt, GA where it is cotton ginning season- this is a module of cotton being let out of a module truck (pronounced modg-u-truk, one word)

Watched bale number 772,531 come into existence... may turn into my t-shirt one day...

Got a picture with the roommate in front of a cotton bale made by a new John Deere machine

Saw a local production of Swamp Gravy (a musical, not a food) and gawked at the uniforms nurses wore in the Vietnam war era... so thankful for scrubs! 

found one of Samford's mailbox plates in a museum in Colquitt 

Volunteered at a skeet shoot at Quail Country Plantation, learned how to "throw" the clay pigeons, and learned I would be doing it by myself... I just acted like I knew what I was doing...

Shot a gun for the first time, and I even hit a clay pigeon thing!

Got a precious visit from the McGinnis family on their fall break. We took a ride on the Southern Belle since the captain delayed the boat a few minutes for the McGinnis's to arrive

Made a trip to Nashville during which I: had dinner with Nancy, attended Body Flow at the YMCA with mom (Tai Chi, Pilates, and Yoga... throw mom and me, who aren't too flexible, into the mix in our nike shorts and we don't exactly mesh with the yoga outfit meditators), errands with Lori, getting the night shift low-down from Erin Rodgers, watching dad remove chicken from the grill with his bike helmet and light on...

dinner with Aunty and Elsa, scrub shopping at Costco (who knew),  errands and good conversation with mom, and helping set up the 59" TV that now resides in our living room... All in all an amazing success!

This weekend I... 

Got to hold baby Betsy!

Helped celebrate Jam and Carl's birthdays at an awesome party!

Guarded the Greenlife parking lot at 5 am preventing the people who have trained for months to run the first ever 7 Bridges Marathon from parking in a convenient parking lot...

Got to see the sunrise

Passed out medals to the finishers (nbd I gave the first marathon finisher his medal...)

Wondered why this woman, who didn't run, had THREE danishes when they were running out of food for the people who did run...

Gave Carl his medal as he finished his FULL MARATHON in UNDER FOUR HOURS...

Not bad for 35,000+ words worth of information!

Headed to the Mayfield Dairy today for a tour and corn maze!! Pictures to follow!

joining the workforce...

I have a job!

A few weeks ago I didn't know if I would ever say those four words. Over the course of the summer and my time in Chattanooga I applied to roughly 200 jobs. While most of these were nursing jobs at various hospitals I did apply to Starbucks, Panera, Lowe's, and Rock City... Can you imagine me dressed as Rocky the gnome? Waving to buses of children, foreign tourists, and leather clad bikers to welcome them to the wonders of Fat Man's Squeeze and endless rock candy? And I got rejected from Lowe's... Thanks Ida V...

But thanks to Jesus and an ambitious nurse recruiter I now have a job. I will be working night shift at Parkridge Medical Center on an Oncology floor. I am excited and intimidated at the same time.
And one of the best parts? I don't start work for three weeks... So it is like I have a job and I have three weeks off...

Before you start working you have to have a comprehensive health screening from Occupational Health Services. Everyone in the HR office calls it Occ Health... I was really confused. My health screening was today. I went to HR, turned in wads of paperwork covered with my signature and social security number. Then walked to the building next door to the hospital and entered into the intriguing world of Occ Health. I walked in, the secretary pointed out about fifty more places for me to sign and date on the paperwork and then told me to have a seat. This was one of those awkward waiting room experiences where no one makes eye contact. You know what I am talking about? People stare straight ahead or pretend to be asleep. The TV is on but no one is watching. People our mom's age are pecking out text messages on phones with the keypad volume turned all the way up. I think most of the people were there for worker's comp related injuries... So everyone is sitting in the hard chairs thinking, 'I'm about to have to pee in a cup... You're about to have to pee in a cup...' Better just not to look people in the eye...

After the nurse called me back and treated me like a pin cushion (one shot, four tubes of blood, and a TB test later) I had to get tested for a respirator mask thingy. Here is a picture

(photo credit to Nurse Angela)

So I have the mask on and the machine is rumbling, some salt water mist is being put into the air, and the nurse tells me that I have to sit there for 11 minutes. It almost goes without saying that my nose itches for 10.385 minutes of the 11. The nurse instructs me to turn my head from side to side, up and down, and makes me read a passage about rainbows. The passage talks about how rainbows are formed and references the boiling pot of gold that can be found at the end. Who knew the pot of gold was boiling??? How am I supposed to carry it off once I find it? Wait for it to cool? Anyways, after my 11 minutes were up the only thing I learned was that if I ever need a mask while working on the hospital I am to ask for a green regular one...

So bring it on October 19th... I am ready for you!!!

beginning this little Chattanooga adventure...

People keep asking me, "Why Chattanooga?" The answer goes back a little bit...

A few months ago on a mountain not so far away...

This summer I worked as a nurse at Camp DeSoto. It was a challenging summer full of daily medications, fruit questions (pirate or ninja?), icy pops, and laughter. On a night out after NCLEX questions and laundry AC and I were using the internet at the Mentone General Store. I was googling Chattanooga hospitals,

I said, "what if we moved to Chattanooga?" 

She said, "Let's do it" 

I said, "No, really though... Let's do it!"

She said, "Ok!"

We spent the rest of the summer in a bizarre limbo of camp life and apartment and job searching. Our camp friends can attest to the hilarity of our nights off. Craigslist stalking and googling that boiled down into 4 or 5 frantic hours of driving around the city like mad women pursuing anything that looked promising. We learned a lot, for example, always drive by your potential new digs in the dark before you sign anything. We drove by one apartment complex and realized there was no outdoor lighting at all! Like, pitch black sketch ball. So we drove on and probably got Ice Cream Show. One of the most entertaining things we found was a hill. A really steep, really awesome, intense to drive down, earth falling away, road disappearing from under the car, kind of awesome fun hill. If you come to visit we probably will take you down it. 

And that (plus like 268 other nights of pursuing Craigslist leads like crazy) is how we ended up in a lovely apartment in a brand new city! So far we have enjoyed a lot of things about this city! The riverfront area offers a lot of free concerts and everyone in this chaco wearing town enjoys being outside so there is always something going on. Events we have gone to include: Brewfest, Riverfront Nights, the Farmer's Market, Kickin' Chicken Wing Cook-Off, a concert at the Camp House, and this weekend we are planning on attending a kayak race and a free Bluegrass festival!!

Some pictures...

 Brewfest! Sampling microbreweries across the southeast

 AC and I love Monkey Town Doughnut Company!!

 Monkey Town amazingness!

 Lovely flowers from the Farmer's Market

Kickin' Chicken Wing Cook-Off

But some of the highlights of our time here may surprise you... they have wings... We have two bird feeders that keep us entertained while we endlessly hunt for jobs on Craigslist or hospital career websites. We have a lot of chickadees, cardinals, sparrows, finches, and a couple of doves. They eat seed like crazy and leave their shells on the patio.

I am loving being here and taking advantage of all that the city has to offer. Hope to continue to explore and discover new treasures!

a blogs beginnings...

Well, I am blogging... I could go on in a cliche way about how I didn't ever think I would blog (which is the truth) but I won't. In general let's you and me try and avoid cliches on this blog...

This is just a quick post before I shut this portal to the world wide web and go help my roommate with her Psychology test, but posts to come about my glamourous magazine-esque life... oh wait, more like hilarious retellings of adventures in my new city!!

I will leave you with a sample of the Chattanooga sunsets... best city ever people!