And my next stop is....

I realized the other day I haven't told anyone but my family where I am going next.  After many phone calls back and forth with my recruiter and a little bit of stress, I have decided to stay in Portland for another 13 weeks!! I am going to a different hospital, Providence Milwaukie (yes it is spelled this way), it is a super small hospital, only like 77 beds total and the ER only has 20 beds.  They are implementing the computer charting system my current hospital just went "live" with, so many of the travelers I currently work with will be heading to this hospital too.  I am glad the girls I have been getting to know here are staying, especially since we are heading into Spring and Summer and the weather will be much nicer to get out sightsee, camp, and hike (well I won't be hiking).  Since my last post nothing exciting has been happening. My days off have been random and I haven't been able to do do much other than some day activities.  The weather is finally turning a corner.  I never realized how much I needed a little bit of sun, until I didn't have any sun for about 10 weeks straight!! This week, it has been 60s and 70s and sun nonstop, it has been wonderful, considering my friends and family were just hit with a late winter/early spring blizzard.  I can say, I'm not sad I missed the blizzard this year!!

In 2 weeks I will be home for just a few days for my cousin's wedding.  To say I am excited to be home is an understatement!! I can't wait to see my family, especially my little nieces! Even though we utilize facetime as much as possible, it is not the same as seeing them in person. I love that they are excited to see me too, I was a little worried they would forget about their awesome Aunt Apple :)

For all of my photography savvy friends I am wanting to upgrade my camera, do any of you have any suggestions on what to purchase?  Also, do any of you photoshop your pictures?  Since I have been out here I have noticed that my camera doesn't quite capture all of the beautiful scenery, I have done a little bit of editing on iphoto, but it is still is not quite capturing the essence of Oregon.  I would take any suggestions!!

Happy Easter to everyone!!

Camping 101

This past weekend I went camping for 3 nights.  First rule of camping: look at the weather forecast prior to packing!  I packed clothes for a cool summer night, not a freezing spring night.  We arrived to the campground on Thursday afternoon, set up camp and then went to the beach.  By dusk, it was starting to cool off considerably and I was adding the layers.  Since camping is not my first love and fashion is, I had packed enough clothes that I could layer everything up and stay warm enough...so I thought!!  Since I had worked on Wednesday night and went straight to the campground I was going on no sleep, I went to bed early.  I took a double air mattress to sleep on because there was no way I was sleeping on the ground, did I mention this is also princess camping, I certainly thought I would be warm with a blanket, sleeping bag and an air mattress...WRONG!!  I woke up several times during the night so cold I could hardly move, after some minor adjustments to the position of my sleeping bag, I finally found warmth and was able to get some sleep.  When I woke up on Friday morning there was ice on my tent.  I never looked at the temp but I am guessing it dipped down into the low 30s upper 20s on Thursday night.  I think that some of the girls were expecting me to pack it up and go home on Friday, but I stayed and camped through till Sunday!! It was a lot of fun and can't wait to go back, I will definitely be packing a little different next time!! I loved that you could hear the waves hitting the shore from our campsite and it was so peaceful at night.  I am not going to lie, on several occasions I did have fleeting thoughts that I was going to be murdered in my sleep, I guess that is what watching Criminal Minds does to your psyche :-), all in all I felt safe the whole time.  We also weren't the only ones camping, there were actually a lot of people there this weekend so that also made me feel safe!!
The Beach at Cape Lookout State Park

 My tent and bed

 Our campfire

 Lots of yummy food

 Sunset over the mountains

Sunset over the ocean

 One of the girls brought glow sticks to decorate our campsite

 me waking up on Friday morning with ice on the tent...sooooo cold

 Our campsite at night with the glow stick chain

twenty-five things...

Life in Portland has been pretty quiet these past few weeks.  The hospital went "live" with their computer charting (which is the reason why I am here). I must say it went fairly flawless, they were very diligent about getting their staff educated and experienced with the new computer system and it made a huge difference.  I can also tell a difference in the staff's attitudes, the must have been really stressed about EPIC because they are so much nicer now that the "go live" has commenced!  I had a nice stretch of days off, unfortunately I came down with norovirus, so I spent all my time off on my couch and in my bed. It was not pleasant, but not nearly as bad as my patients act when they come to the emergency room.  Since I do not have any pictures or sightseeing adventures to post about, I thought I would do a "get to know me" blog.  Here is a list of 25 things you might not know about me!!

1. I hate to sweat
2. I am tone deaf
3. I spent 4 years in marching band never once playing my instrument while marching because I had to focus on keeping the pace marching ( I couldn't do both).
4. I am an online shopping junkie, I hate going to malls
5. My favorite color is pink
6. I love sequins, sparkles, and glitter
7. I absolutely have no desire to have kids and I don't feel bad about it
8. I love to watch tv
9. Sleeping is in my top 5 favorite things to do
10. If people talk to me for to long and its not a topic I am interested in, my mind turns to a screensaver
11. I have 5 tattoos and would like more
12. I love gay guys but lesbians intimidate me
13. I don't understand the mullet hairstyle and who are they going to that is recommending they keep that hair style
14. If I wasn't a nurse I would be a make-up artist
15. I loved living at my parents house the past two years
16. I think the book "The Catcher and the Rye" is one of the worst books I have ever read
17. I totally judge a book by the cover, if it has a cute cover, I am going to read it
18. I currently do not have a tv, I am watching all of my shows on the internet and I love it
19. I love all the "die hard" movies and can't wait to see the new one
20. As a nurse, I have decided that the general population is truly stupid
21. I went camping one time and liked it and have been wanting to do it again, which is amazing since I hate the outdoors
22. I think having an iphone is the closest I will get to having a personal assistant, I would be lost with out it
23. I spend way to much time on facebook and should be embarrassed by how much time I spend on facebook, but I'm not
24. I attempted to go hiking a few weeks ago, made it 5 minutes on the trail and turned around, went back to my car and read a book while my friends finished the trail
25. The older I get the easier it is for me to be honest with people and to speak my mind

This was way harder that I thought it would be!! Thursday and Friday of this week I am going camping with some of the other travelers down in Tillamook, OR.  The campground in on the beach, I am really excited, and the weather is suppose to be great!!