Mercy

Hello, yes I'm writing in grey. Because that is what I see. I think the sun was out once since we've been here in Bakersfield. And like everywhere else we go, "this is such unusual weather", is all I hear. When we were in Rhode Island an it rained forever...Oh this is so unusual it never rains this much here. When we were in Phoenix and escaped the flood waters oh my it never rains like this here...how unusual. The same thing happened in Columbus and Orlando. I think we'll change our license plate to Rainmkr so you all know when we roll into town the crappy weather is here...at least for the next 3 months.
So, just as I suspected there is nothing in Bakersfield CA. Just work for me. My poor husband is bored to death. I have been working at the "downtown" hospital mostly because they haven't opened the tele unit at the smaller hospital yet. I heard horror stories before I came here...so did everyone else in my orientation group. I figured it couldn't be too bad since there was one person in the group who actually had been here before and was coming back. It's ugly downtown but not horrible. I lived through horrible in Columbus Ohio at Riverside hospital on 6 North...That was horrible. The kind of horrible where you hate to go to work everyday. You go in with the attitude it's going to be a great day and it just never is. When you are happy to float just to see if the rest of the hospital is just as bad. Mercy isn't that bad...But it ain't Phoenix or Orlando. Those were two of my favorite places to work...Besides home that is. I think the smaller hospital, Mercy Southwest will be much better. It's just a whole different attitude over there. They open their unit Wednesday so we'll see what happens.
Here's hoping your weather is better than mine...

Bakersfield

Hey all...We made it. Our first stop was the London Bridge in Lake Havasu Arizona. It is an actual replica with pieces of the original bridge. Nice little stop, I bet it would look better at night. Lake Havasu is a very pretty little town. We stopped in Laughlin NV on the way and stayed at the Edgewater in a room over looking the Colorado River...for under $40/night!! A cute little gambling strip (that's all we had time to see) then it was off to the Hoover Dam. A little over an hour sitting in traffic but we wanted to stop for some pictures..We had my niece with us and wanted her to see it. Then it was off to Vegas...I love that town. There's so much to see and do and it's always changing. We rode the monorail from Paris to The Sahara...It's a difficult thing to find but it was worth the walk. Our feet would have never made it that far. Bellagio was beautiful... The fountains and the conservatory which also had dancing water this year. We got to go downtown and stay a night in our favorite hotel the Golden Nugget and see the Fremont Street Experience light show. New Year's Eve was spent in front of the Aladdin hotel (where we also stayed a few nights). The sign in front of Paris counted off the seconds way too early and then didn't count them off when it was really midnight...Threw off the whole crowd. We were all wondering if they would really set off the fireworks..The wind threatened to shut them down but it was a really cool sight to see. I'm not one for crowds that big, there's always that one drunk person that keeps pushing you forward into other people. I would do it again if I could go to one of the roof top parties or maybe Downtown would be better . It was $35/person to be downtown. Maybe next year.
Our trip from Vegas to Bakersfield was quicker than I thought...Only 4 hours! You know what that means ....We'll be back. I start my job on Monday at Mercy Southwest...The per diem job didn't pan out. Access nurses didn't realize (even though I told them several times) that I needed to work like this week. Of course I got the new guy and he got confused so I didn't work this week. What a pain, I really hate it when people don't listen to me, or don't listen to the whole story. Hopefully we both learned from this experience.
World Health has delivered everything they were promising so far.. 2 bedroom apartment fully furnished including pots and pans and linens, TV with cable and the phone line. We even got pictures on the wall and a fake tree. Nice little touches. I'll let you know about the hospital next week. There are 150 travelers in this apartment complex... I'm thinking of renting out the club house and inviting them too meet each other...I'll let you know how it goes! Any suggestions for my party?Or what might make you show up to a party like that?