Life in C'ville

I can't believe I'm writing a post that should have been started in June, but here goes. After leaving NYC I went to NC, then to WV for a family wedding, then to my parents house in OH to pack for my move to Denver. I had finally secured a Denver contract with the Children's Hospital in Aurora (what I thought was going to be my dream job, maybe even the end of travel nursing). I repacked all my clothes, did tons of laundry and sorting, packed up my car and headed down to Louisville to spend the wkd with my sister and then we were going to drive out West together. We even had friends plan a BBQ to honor the Kraftsingles arrival to Denver! Sadly my contract was cancelled and a wkd with my sister turned into a week and a half on her couch waiting out for news on my next job. I was looking at San Diego, Milwaukee, and Charlottesville, the last being where I ended up. UVA was fast about responding to my profile, the interview went great, the unit sounded more critical than NYU and a summer in VA couldn't be the worst option out there!

I moved to Charlottesville in late June after taking a trip out to Michigan and Chicago for a wedding/NC friend reunion/birthday trip. A former Duke Resident that I remained friends with via facebook saw my post about going to UVA, we got reconnected, and I ended up moving into her townhouse just 2 miles from the hospital. I was worried about living with someone as I've been on my own for several years now, but learning to share my life and be more flexible to my personal tastes/needs/wants v. someone else's on a daily basis was something that I've been thinking about lately and thought this would be a good experience. It's been SO nice to live in a fully furnished house with real dishes and kitchen gadgets and have a bedroom that was almost the size of my NYC studio! Alaina has been a great roomate and we've enjoyed some neighborhood walks, dinners with friends, adopting and domesticating a street cat named Cupcake, and spending our rare evenings off together catching up on her DVR. (Can you believe I've never had DVR before? I'm now a fan of "The Good Wife" and "White Collar" thanks to her DVR selections!)

UVA's PICU is really nice. It's fairly new with good equipment, all private rooms, lots of computer work stations, an actual employee break room/kitchen and locker room that multiple ppl can fit in at the same time (way different than the tiny closet of a kitchen lunchroom at NYU that 3 ppl "comfortably" could fit in at one time!) The staff is a mix of experienced nurses >5 years and new grads/Clin I's. There are several other travelers here, two of which I know from when I was in DC so that's nice. The night shift crew is pretty awesome, but day shift isn't quite as "fun". However, I do enjoy how my body feels on days, even if it's not as entertaining/encouraging.

Sadly I've worked a ton of wkd shifts and have only made it to church once this summer. Thank goodness for podcasts! I've hung out a few times with coworkers, mostly visiting some area wineries. I've gone down to Lynchburg several times to visit some old college friends, and then had the chance to meet up with my family for a few days in Myrtle Beach, met up with Em in KY, and went home to my parent's for a wkd as well. It's so hard to believe that my 13 weeks are up. Time really does pass faster the older you get. I'm not quite sure what is next for me, but Denver is still the dream! I'll let you know, when I know!