Official MA Nurse

I received confirmation today that my Massachusetts RN license has been issued. Too bad I didn't have this information 2 days ago when I submitted my first job application (to Massachusetts General). We will see what happens!

Nursing Honors Society Induction

On Saturday, I (along with many of my classmates) was inducted into the Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honors Society! Very exciting!! I got the nice purple and white cord that I will wear at graduation in a few weeks.

It was so great seeing many of my friends from nursing school, several of which I haven't seen in a long time so it was a mini reunion! So much fun. :)

Several of my nursing buddies

(minus the girl on the far right - we have no idea who she is)

Another group shot

The ceremony was at the Nixon Library right down the street from me and my guest was my lovely mother! (Brian was speaking at a conference for LMU that same afternoon). After the ceremony, we were able to tour the grounds, so my mom and I walked around a bit. Here are some more photos:

My mom and me outside in the garden

The house where Richard Nixon was born

The bed where Nixon was born

The bathtub!!

The view of the garden - beautiful!!

Do you know who Mark Zuckerberg is!?

I was reading the Parade magazine from this past Sunday's newspaper and they had "What People Earn", showing all different jobs and annual salaries. What I found absolutely shocking was this: Taylor Swift makes $17.2 million, Jay Leno $32 mil, Ellen DeGeneres $35 mil, Stephanie Meyer (Twilight author) $50 mil, Tiger Woods $110 million....but Mark Zuckerberg...the CEO of Facebook, makes (are you ready?) $3 BILLION! OMG! Is your jaw as low to the ground as mine was!? I just can't even believe that. Oh, and I suppose I should note that Mr. Zuckerberg is age 25. WOW. Mark Zuckerberg, 25 - Celebrity Salaries | Parade.com

Girls are like Apples!

Right now I am housesitting in Ladera Ranch - my Mastiff buddy - Max, the Labrador - Rose, and the 2 cats. These 4 animals are so lovable, which must come from their loving owners! Anyway, I saw this on their refrigerator and thought it was cute, so I had to share it with you.

Girls
are like apples
on trees. The best ones are
at the top of the tree. The boys don't
want to reach for the good ones because
they are afraid of falling and getting hurt.
Instead, they just get the rotten apples from the
ground that aren't as good, but easy. So, the
apples at the top think something is wrong
with them, when in reality, they're amazing.
They just have to wait for the right
boy to come along, the
ones brave enough to
climb all
the way
to the top
of the tree.

I hope you all had a beautiful Easter! My spring break is over now, but Brian is on his from Servite, so he is hanging out in Ladera with me. It is pretty crazy to think that we have just a little over a month of school left and then we are going to have to start packing for our move. Of course, all in the midst of the wedding planning (and job hunting for me)! We are so excited for all these big events!

Visiting Boston - Day 4

We woke up and packed our bags. Then we walked to the "B line" and headed over to Ady's office. We met with him at 11 and signed all the paperwork for our apartment. Immediately after, we got on the train and headed to St. Ignatius Church at Boston College for Palm Sunday Mass. We went to the bilingual service at noon.This is from the website - I didn't take any pictures because there were so many people around. Some day I will though...since I am sure this will be our parish soon. The church was packed!! Tons of people of all ages, but a lot of younger people. At the beginning of mass, the priest and deacon, as well as others, walked down the aisle waving their palms and trying to get everyone excited. It was cool. Then there was a little dancing and since today is the longest reading of the year, they did a little skit to go along with it. All this was definitely different for us, but I really liked it! It kept my attention for sure!

We then went and had lunch at Pino's Pizza - we got a pizza of course. It was delicious. :) Then we went back to our hotel and grabbed our bags and hopped on the "C line" to go to the airport. In the terminal Brian ran into one of his students from last year, so they sat and talked a while. That was pretty neat for him to see someone he knew. :) The flight home was long...but I was able to finally watch "The Blind Side", so that helped make the time go a little faster.

Sorry I didn't take any pictures today either, but we had a wonderful trip to Boston and can hardly believe that we have a place there and are moving in less than 4 months!

Visiting Boston - Day 3

Today we met with a realtor at noon - we walked 1 mile to meet him. Ady, our Romanian realtor, picked us up and took us apartment hunting. The first couple he showed us seemed like a not-so-nice area, but apparently he is not allowed to tell us how "safe" the area is otherwise he will lose his license. So, we looked anyway and they didn't seem so bad inside, but they were small. Then we went to another area that was nicer and we liked the first one we saw in the building, didn't care too much for the 2nd one, and fell in love with the 3rd one. The 3rd one was in the basement, but was pretty much brand new - only 2 years old, so new paint, huge kitchen (which is unheard of around here) and nice bathroom with granite countertops. One thing though was the lighting wasn't the best since half the windows were covered because we were below the ground. We really like natural light. Anyway, from there we went to quite a few others, some great and some okay.

Around 2:30 we were pretty set on the basement one and went back to see it one more time and the resident was there. We talked to her for a while about the place. She has lived there since August and is also from the West Coast. Safety is a huge deal to her and she said the bums rummage through the dumpster which is right outside her bedroom window and they stand outside and can look inside at her. We never thought about these things! She lived alone, so she felt really uncomfortable because they pretty much could tell when she was and was not home. She also said that in the summer it gets really hot and humid in the basement and because of the bums, she never opened the windows and then mold developed - she had to buy a new mattress because of this! She did have some great things to say about the place too, but we wanted to take into consideration what she said. So, we went and had lunch across the street and talked it over.

Tough and important decisions! We went back to Ady around 4 and asked him about another one we liked. He showed us again where it was located and we decided to go with it. The only thing about this one is that the move in date is June 1 and we wanted August 1, so we were going to have to pay for those 2 months - Ady was working on it for us though. In the meantime he remembered one other place we might like so he took us over to see that one. It was a lot like the apartments back home - big building, super nice entry way with concierge, pool on roof, fitness and business centers, etc. A lot newer, but it wasn't near the subway - we would have to take a bus to get there. Oh, and it was a little more than we wanted to spend. So, we are sticking with the other one we liked. We fill out our applications, but are going back tomorrow at 11 to meet with Ady and finalize everything. It looks like he could postpone the move in a little, but only till July 15 (but we will still be in Europe, so really it will be right when we get back!). Anyway, we are excited. This apartment is walking distance to a few hospitals so we are going to pray (hard!) that I can get a job there!! That would be AMAZING!

From there, we hopped on the subway and headed into downtown Boston!!! First we went towards the mall, but one girl on the subway told us to go to Newbury street, so we made our way over there...

A walk through the park


Downtown buildings

The Public Garden


Us freezing in the Garden


Me in front of a statue of Washington

We just walked down Newbury street and then ate at Tapes restaurant (we had to wait like an hour - we tried walking around, but we decided it was nicer to just stand in the small entry way and stay warm). :P After dinner, we headed back to the hotel, riding on the very crowded "C line". It was fun.

Visiting Boston - Day 2

Today was pretty uneventful for me. Brian left around 7:30 am to head to Boston College. He said he was frozen by the time he got there. It was raining and began snowing and he was walking about 2 miles to get there (we are still trying to figure the transportation system out...but he did take the shuttle back). I stayed in the hotel room ALL day working on a paper and watching TV. It was very lonely! Then, Brian got back around 5:30 and we chatted for a bit and then went out to get dinner. We ate at Dragon Star restaurant - it was Chinese food and had good reviews, but Brian and I weren't that impressed. Tonight we walked the opposite direction on Beacon street than yesterday thinking there would be more to eat than the other way...but I guess there just really aren't too many places to eat - or places to shop. We were having a hard time finding something - we wanted Italian. Oh, and it's freezing outside! I think I would actually be at a bearable temperature if I wore ALL the clothes that I brought, because 2 sweaters and a jacket is just not enough! So, we pretty much just went out to get dinner and then headed back to the hotel. So, no pics today! Sorry!! Stay tuned though...I know we will take some tomorrow! Night!

Visiting Boston - Day 1

We have arrived in Boston!! You should have seen our faces when the pilot announced that the weather in Boston was windy with a temp of 18 degrees! OMG - we were in complete shock. Once we actually walked outside, we realized that we must have heard it wrong or he said it wrong because it was pretty nice outside. The picture above is us on our first subway ride!! :D Here are some pics of us waiting to get on the Green Line train:

Once we exited our stop, we were walking to our hotel and I had my first dog encounter and it was to a GREYHOUND! I was SO happy! His name was Irish and he was a blind rescue greyhound. Here's me with Irish! :D
It was pretty much dinner time when we got here, but we hadn't even had lunch yet! So, once we made it to our hotel and got settled in, we went out to find food. We ate at Boloco's - which was like a healthy Chipotle (sorry for all of you who think Chipotle is healthy :P j/k). Then we walked over to Boston College and checked out where Brian needs to be tomorrow morning for his "Accepted Students Day".
Then we walked back to our hotel and took this lovely picture of the reservoir right here - it has to be like 3-4 miles around! It's gorgeous, especially at night. :)
That's all for tonight! I am sure I will have more pics for you tomorrow evening.

A Joke

Today I was passing an elderly man in the parking lot and he randomly asked me "do you know how many seconds are in a year?" I said, "No, how many?" He replied, "12 - January, February..." HAHA!! Get it!? Seconds = 2nd's. Cute. I could not stop smiling from this encounter! What a sweet and happy man!!! It truly made my day! :D

My weekend

I had to work night shift on Sat night - how horrible is that?! You basically lose your entire weekend due to sleep! I feel like I wouldn't mind it so much if that (work) was my life, but when I have a bunch of other things going on, it is really hard to lose my weekends. Anyway, one nice thing that came from working was that I was able to watch the sunrise on Sunday! I was in my patients room and saw the sun rise behind the fog, creating a pinkish purple sky. It was lovely!! I was really excited, but I don't think my patient was as excited as I was. Lol.

Also on Saturday was a baby shower I hosted for Julie, my close friend from nursing school. Here are a couple pics:

Julie & Me

Della, Julie, Stephanie & Me

The weather was amazing this past weekend - it was just too bad that I had to sleep through most of it! I was driving to the hospital and looking at all the people out walking and I was wishing I was doing the same. Oh well. Anyway, that was pretty much my weekend! I hope you had a great weekend though!!