Job Interview

A few weeks ago, I came home from work MAD. Mad at my supervisors, mad at my co-workers, mad at the whole hospital. I decided that the most cathectic way to deal with my feelings was to send out resumes to various hospitals in the area. After a day or two, my anger had subsided and I almost forgot about my rage filled applications. That is until I got a phone call to schedule an interview. Today I had an interview at New England Medical Center. I had applied for a full time position in the NICU. I show up, and they tell me that the NICU position is no longer available, but they were going to interview me for their pediatric float pool. If you've ever spoken to me about my feelings towards floating at Franciscan, you know I'm not a fan. But I didn't want to turn and walk out of there just like that, so I stayed, interviewed and toured the units. This afternoon, to help me get my mind together, I've made a list.
Pros...

and Cons...


They haven't offered me a job yet, so I don't know why I'm thinking about this already, but you know me... I like to have a plan. Let me know what you think. Keep in mind that come June- we have no idea what we're going to do or where we're going to be so I will likely be changing jobs in June again.

I am a Pediatric Advanced Life Supporter

Today, I can officially put the jitters and nerves behind me. I have successfully completed the Pediatric Advanced Life Support class that I had been taking this week. Last night and this morning, I was studying me heart out and apparently it paid off! I did well on the skills portion of the class, and as for the written test- I kicked it's ass! 96%!! Hooray for me!!
Next on my agenda is an interview tomorrow. A few weeks ago, I came home really angry at my job, so I sent out a bunch of my resumes. A few days later, I wasn't mad anymore, but NEMC called me to schedule an interview. I am not exactly excited about this interview, but I figure that it won't hurt, right?
Now off to do laundry so that I have something to wear to the interview tomorrow and I'll have clean clothes for work Friday.

The Countdown

Can you believe that in a month Christmas will be all over? Not that I'm stressed about Christmas this year. All of my shopping is done (except for Andrew- but I have some good ideas)! My apartment is mostly decorated for Christmas. I just need to hang Christmas lights and get a tree (hopefully we'll do that this week). My Christmas cards are ready to be shipped out. I'm wrapping presents as they come in so I won't be rushed last minute. I am excited about Christmas, but I"m a little sad, too. I have to work Christmas Eve from 3p-11p. We don't want to drive to NY in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve, so this is the first time in my life that I'm not going to wake up at my parent's house on Christmas Morning. I think that I'll cook Chocolate Chip Pancakes on Christmas Morning. You know- start new traditions that I'll be able to carry on with my family. Like for example when I hung our stockings, I put a little holiday stuffed animal in the top of each one. I did that last year, too and it is really cute. Ahhh, traditions. Can't wait to get our tree!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! What's my favorite part about Thanksgiving? My turkey!

He sits on my windowsill and I love him!
Well, I'm off to work until about 3 or 3:30, then off to my Aunt and Uncle's house for Thanksgiving Dinner. We're bringing pickles from the Pickle Fest (pickled carrots and pickled asparagus), Andrew's special cranberry stuffing, and my White Russian Cake (yummy!)
Hope everyone has a lovely and peaceful Thanksgiving!

Pickle Fest 2008

Sorry it took me a few days to get this post up. My camera is dying so I needed to wait until me mom send me her pictures (anyone who wants to buy me a nice Christmas present, please re-read the first part of that sentence).
I actually don't have too much to say about the Picklefest. It was a lot of fun, but my mom and I were so busy selling hot dogs that we didn't get to do much in the way of Pickle related activities. I was, however, up to my elbows in hot dogs.

Yum... hot dogs. And not just any hot dogs. They were Eat Me Weiners. (Ignore the date in the bottom of the picture- I'm not using my usual camera and I don't know how to fix the date)

That's right, folks. The shirts are in. If you're interested, it's $15/t-shirt. Just met me know. We have various sizes and colors.
So anyway, I was working my ass off making hot dogs...

I only ate 2 hot dogs all day...

But man were they good.

I spent some quality time with the Big Pickle.

And brought home a jar of Rick's Picks pickled asparagus.

Yummy!

I'm a doofus.

So I offered to drive Andrew to work this morning because of the cold and rain- even though I worked the past 3 nights. I got him there free of problems. Then, I was driving home and next thing I knew, I was on the Mass Pike Westbound. What the hell? Why...How did I get on the Mass Pike? And the traffic on the Pike back into Boston was awful, so I came home on back roads. Whew! What an ordeal. Now to get a few hours of sleep before we're off to the Pickle Fest!!

Montréal

Montreal was a lot of fun. We were able to leave at 5:30 on Friday, but there was so much traffic that we didn't get into our room until midnight. We were so tired. But our room was awesome.

Saturday morning, I wanted to go to the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal (the Museum of Contemporary Art of Montreal). There was this exhibit there by an artist named Vik Muniz. I had never heard of him before, but he is awesome. He does really cool stuff. Check him out.
Here is one called Medusa Marinara- made with Spaghetti and sauce.

Here is another one called Toy Soldier. He made the design entirely out of plastic toy soldiers. Cool, huh?

Then we walked around Montreal. I chased a flock of pigeons.

We waled through Chinatown, Old Montreal and had some fun at the Old Port.

Old Montreal was beautiful.

And the Old Port was really cool right on the St. Lawrence River.

There was a wonderful view of Montreal from the Old Port.

Then we went back to the hotel and hung out for a little bit... what a nice view from our room, huh?

Then we got all dressed up to walk around the Latin Quarter and The Village before we went to eat at a fancy French restaurant.
Us before dinner... we clean up nice don't we...

The worst part of the trip happened next. I was walking down the street to the restaurant when I tripped over... I don't know what... and fell FLAT on my face. Like it wasn't even a stumble. I was spread eagle, face on the ground flat! My knees are all scraped and bruised. It was awful!
Then we went to the restaurant and had a lovely meal. We had escargots (which I always order at French restaurants and they are extra yummy!) and Andrew had Duck à l'orange and I had Duck in a raisin sauce. The for dessert, I had a white chocolate mousse cake and Andrew had Crème Brûleé. We also had a bottle of wine. It was really romantic. But also really expensive. I've never had a $150 meal before!! But it was worth it.
Then we went back to the hotel and went for a dip in the hotel pool and hot tub.
Sunday Morning, we woke up and went to the Biodôme. That was totally cool! There are 4 climate zones with wild life. It was awesome. I had my usual fun...

Then we walked around Olympic Park (from when Montréal hosted the 1976 Olympics)

Then, coming home Sunday, we were stopped at the boarder for literally an hour and a half! Then the officer was ridiculous. He asked the usual questions... "Where are you coming from? How long were you there?" Then he asked the question that pissed us off... "Was your trip worth is?" I WANTED to say "Your Mother thought so..." but I didn't think that was the best idea, so in stead we said "Yeah."
We had an extra day because if the holiday, so we decided to take a scenic drive on back roads of Vermont and we spent the night in Rutland. That was a cute town. Then today, on the way home we stopped at the Normal Rockwell museum. Figured how many times are we going to be able to stop there?
Now we're home long enough to drop our stuff off before we head down to the South Shore to meet my family for dinner at Jake's- a yummy sea food restaurant that is going to close for the season next week! Whew!
Then this week will be busy- I work 3 nights in a row then we're off to Rosendale for the 10th International Pickle Festival!!

Off to Montréal

I have the car all packed up and we're about ready to hit the road for a weekend in Montréal. Before I go, I wanted to quickly post some pictures of She-Ra that I took this afternoon.

She's getting so big, right?
À Bientôt!

Stressful week

This week has sucked! I worked Friday night through Monday night, had like 23 hours off and had to be back at work Wednesday for a day shift. It is really freaking hard to get your body to switch sleep cycles in less that a day. I had a stressful night at work Monday night and came home in a REALLY bad mood Tuesday. Andrew found out Tuesday evening that a program that he applied and interviewed for did not accept him. So to try to forget this bad week, we're planning a weekend trip to Montréal. We'll leave tomorrow evening (Andrew has to be at work until like 6:30), so we'll get there probably close to 1am, but at least we'll be there. Then we'll have Saturday and Sunday to have fun in Montréal. We're planning to stay in a fancier hotel. I'm looking forward to a nice romantic weekend.

Now- in honor of planning a weekend in Montréal:
Cette semaine a été mauvaise. J'ai travaillé vendredi par lundi soir, j'ai eu 23 heures à la maison, et j'ai dû être de retour de travail mercredi à matin. C'est très difficile pour votre corps au sommeil de commutateur fait un cycle dans moins qui un jour. J'ai eu une nuit stressante la nuit de travail lundi et suis venu à la maison dans une humeur VRAIMENT mauvaise mardi. Andrew a trouvé que mardi soirée qu'un programme pour lequel il s'est appliqué et a interviewé ne l'a pas accepté. Pour essayer d'oublier cette mauvaise semaine, nous prévoyons un voyage de week-end à Montréal. Nous prévoyons de partir demain soir (Andrew doit être au travail jusqu'au 6:30 similaire), ainsi nous y arriverons probablement près de 1am, mais au moins nous serons là. Alors nous aurons samedi et dimanche pour avoir l'amusement dans Montréal. Nous prévoyons de rester dans un hôtel cher. J'attends avec intérêt un week-end romantique agréable.

Giving Back

My sister-in-law Breanna sent me an invitation to Kiva. It is a program where you can lend money to people in developing countries trying to start a business. Loans aren't 100% guaranteed, but some are a lower risk than others.
I was looking through the people asking for loans and found Sirri Magdalene. She is a widow and mother of 6. She is trying to start a pig farming business. I lent her $25 towards her business. This loan is considered a "high risk" loan. But if I don't get it back, it's only $25. And $25 might not seem like a lot to me, but I bet it means a lot to her. As of this minute, she has raised $275 but still needs to raise another $925 to reach her desired loan amount of $1,200.
Lending money like this makes me feel like I am giving back. I wish the best of luck to Surri Magdalene and her family!