No Nervous Breakdown in Week One

I feel like it’s a little weird that I haven’t had a total meltdown yet about being here, moving away, starting a new job and not knowing a single person. So, I’m not really sure if I just have zero feelings because I don’t have any idea what to expect or if there is one looming down the road. Nevertheless, I made it through week one.

I didn’t even cry when I was an hour late on my second day on the floor at the hospital. I completely overslept. That was fun. #dayshiftproblems Especially because I was already stressed out due to the fact that I was orienting on a cardiac step-down ICU unit and I have no idea what I’m doing. My preceptor was really awesome though and all my patients are alive so I consider that a victory. I have one more night of orientation tomorrow night (we get a whole 3 shifts) and then I have my first solo shift on Wednesday night.

Anyway, so a few things I’ve noticed during the last week here: other runners are very friendly here which makes me happy, incredibly large crows or magpies or whatever they are, abnormally small squirrels and accents that I have a hard time understanding.

I can’t imagine what I sound like to these people around here. I had to ask my preceptor more than a few times to repeat herself because I could not decipher her accent. I got to a point where I just started doing the laugh and head-bob deal. Based on the looks I received from her a few times I’m pretty sure those were inappropriate responses. Oh well.

The first time I told someone at work that I came from Wisconsin they immediately asked me how much I love cheese. For crying out loud. They were actually very disappointed when I told them I can’t even really eat cheese. Ok, also, it’s very weird and I feel somewhat alarming how many people outside the Midwest do not know where or what Lake Michigan is. HOW!? I’ve experienced this several times when I have gone out west to California but I just thought they were idiots. Turns out that must be an actual thing everywhere other than the Midwest? It’s basically a freshwater ocean so I do not understand the lack of education. I’m going to start dropping Great Lakes pamphlets everywhere.

I told people I would discuss my dating life, if one were to exist, on here so here goes. I’d actually sooner die than date anyone right now but I figure it would do me no good to sit down here and wallow in self pity. So, I jumped on an app for the heck of it and managed to find one human that looked cool enough to talk with. We ended up going out to dinner on Saturday night and actually had a really nice time. Dude is on the US men’s bobsled team and was actually supposed to be going to the Olympics next week but hurt his back. I’d be crying but he’s surprisingly upbeat. We had a coffee date today and so far he seems pretty legit. So we will see if it continues to go well. He’s also only here until the end of spring because they start training in Lake Placid, NY and then compete for the rest of the fall/winter. I was just telling someone that it has taken everything in me to not bring up Cool Runnings. I’m trying really hard to act casual. Stay tuned.

Andy and dad came down to visit yesterday. Andy is only 2.5 hours north of me right now so that was fun. We went to a brunch place called Scrambled! which was delicious and obviously popular as we had to wait an hour. During the wait we visited a coffee place called Common Grounds. Some dude playing a ukulele (I think) was selling the coffee so the vibe was pretty sweet. After brunch we visited the historical museum. It was literally just the history of Greensboro. Which was surprisingly interesting. Turns out this town was a huge textile town and one of, if not the, largest manufacturers of denim. Wrangler is based here. Also did you know Wrangler owns Northface? I did not.

I think that’s it for now. It’s meal prep time for the week.

I think I managed to add a “follow” button on this site? Please feel free to comment or whatever and let me know if it actually works. I had to do some legit code generator stuff to get it on here without having to pay some fee so I’ll feel very good about myself if it works.

Ta Ta For Now!