What do you do when it's 96 degrees in November?

You go to the beach! 

I moved to Raleigh, NC thinking that I would have the best of both worlds as I was living in the middle with the mountains to the West and the ocean to the East. Ask me, how many times in 3 years did I got to the mountains? ZERO. How many times did I go to the beach? Maybe 10 times. 

I'm proud of myself, only 3 weeks into it and I've already spent a few hours on the beach at Santa Monica! God was so gracious to provide me with 2 friends at work, Jill and Erin. You see, at DC I started work with several other travelers and there were lots in the PICU which made for instant friends (plus a really friendly staff- shout out to Becca and Anastasia). But at UCLA I started alone, and didn't have "that" person. You know "that" person is the friend that you can talk to who understands your situation at work, sympathizes, tells you when to suck it up, etc. Fortunately, both Jill and Erin are experienced nurses from CHOP (Children's Hospital of Philly) who are facing the same difficulties as myself. As I referenced in a previous post, West Coast nursing is different than East Coast. As we laid on the beach we shared our concerns over patient safety, unit policies (or lack of), how the doctors could care less that we exist and know what's going on with our patients, etc. It was so nice to make friends! And an added bonus, no sunburn for me!