It’s been a long few weeks filled with needles and endless paperwork. After a few fiasco’s involving TB skin tests, I’m in Southern California. I started the drive down last week, stopping to visit Mom B for a full day. I wish it could have been longer, I needed the relaxation. Alas, I had to be in Albuquerque to have a skin test read, so I had to keep moving. After Albuquerque I was able to slow it down a little bit and took the scenic route into Tuscon. I do enjoy driving through the desert and a couple beautiful days of it was just fine with me.

 

As I headed into Tuscon, I booked a last minute hotel with my phone and totally lucked out with a beautiful spa resort. I was actually laughing as I pulled in because it was so nice. I ended up with a room next to the pool and awoke to stunning views of the surrounding mountains. From Tuscon I made the push into California. In Phoenix I happened upon a Rudy’s BBQ, somewhere I was upset about missing in Texas. I wasn’t even that hungry, but I just had to stop and have a brisket sandwich. It was well worth it.

 

Coming into California was pretty easy. My hotel is right off the interstate and only about 30 minutes away from work.

 

Yesterday was my first day of orientation. There are 6 travelers and of course they had no idea what to do with us for the first half of the day. It was a pretty big cluster fuck, but that doesn’t surprise me anymore. I met a couple that travels together who seem quite nice. We made friends immediately and they told me horror stories about places they’d been and gave me some advice on places to check out. One of which happens to be back in Tuscon, a city I’d like to check out some more.

 

So I’m going back tonight for a night shift orientation, and then I’m done. They’ll release me into the wild. A bold move as I’ve only had about 2 ½ hours of computer training. I hope that my co-workers like to answer my annoying questions.

 

Tomorrow I’m meeting with with a lady who answered my Craigslist ad. I’m going to be renting a room in her house. She lives in a 55+ community, but evidently you just have to be 55+ to buy the house. I think it’s promising. She seems nice. She’s a nurse as well and she used to work night shift. The room has black out shades and she’s letting me have kitchen access.

 

I’m anxious to get moved in and settled and then finally start exploring a little bit. I’m not too far from LA and San Diego as well as some cool stuff to see in the Inland Empire. I’m ready to eat some delicious food and of course, to make some money.

The way I structured my pay doesn’t give me any incentive to work overtime, so I’ve applied at a local staffing agency while I’ m here. They seem to think that I can work at the same hospital under two different agencies, something I’m pretty sure my non-competition agreement prohibits. But I’m sure there’s plenty of places near by to get some work.

 

The adventure has begun. I’m interested to see where it takes me.