Work and a New Car

I'm off work tonight with nothing to do (not complaining)...so I thought I would update! I meant to get up early today and go down to Fashion District and buy a new purse but I ended up sleeping all day because I was up all night. My schedule is opposite of the rest of the worlds! I've been on my own at work for 4 or 5 shifts now and everything has gone pretty smoothly. I feel confident walking into work, and I know that if I need help or have a question my fellow night shift nurses are right there to help me out. I really love my job and the people I work with are great. So far I think I'm doing a pretty good job of being an RN I, I even got a written compliment from a family and also from a student nurse on the floor (my manager showed me).

Here's a video that Johnson & Johnson produced about nurses. All of the pediatric patients (babies, children, & teens) were filmed at CHLA and were cared for by nurses at my hospital. This video makes me SO proud to be a nurse and know that I can make great impacts in peoples lives. It makes me want to tell everyone what I do for a living!


It has rained almost everyday since I bought my new car! Everyone has been asking me to post pictures of it, but I haven't had a chance to take a pic of it outside in the sun. February is the rainy month here in SoCal. Here's exactly what it looks like though...it's a black 2009 Volkswagen Eos. It's sooo hot! I absolutely love it. The convertible top is hard and you can hardly tell it's a convertible when the top is up. All you do it press a button in the car and the top goes down in 22 seconds...pretty sharp!!My little sister from my Delta Gamma sorority is coming to visit me the first week of March. She has a friend that goes to UCLA, so she will be spending a few days with her and the next few days with me. I'm super excited to see her! Then the next week, Amanda will be coming to visit me. I'm so lucky to have such good friends that come visit me all the time!

One of my best friends from nursing school, Rachel Terhaar was offered a job at CHLA in the PICU. I think she's going to take it!! It won't be til August that she moves out, but I am SO happy that she is deciding to do this! We will probably end up living together. It's not for a while, but hopefully things will continue to work out for her and she'll end up in LA with me.

Nat's baby shower planning is coming along, and I'm dissapointed that I won't be able to be there. I plan on coming home to see baby Ethan and Nat after he is born. Probably the 2nd week in April or the first week in May, I have to discuss my schedule with work. Hope everyone is doing well, miss and love you all.

RN Residency Ceremony

Since the links aren't working for you at home, I've gotten some requests to post a few pics from the residency "graduation". It was a really nice ceremony. Click on the pics directly to make them bigger.

6 East RN Residents (my floor)

Mom, Dad, and I outside before the ceremony.

Out of State RN Residents (from L to R): Minnesota, Florida, Delaware, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Illinois


All of the Sept 08-Feb09 RN Residents

Cupid's month

3 of my favorite love songs, in light of Valentines Day :)

#1. Coldplay- Yellow
#2. The Flaming Lips- Do You Realize
#3. Foo Fighters- Everlong

pics/links

Here's a link of the slideshow presented @ our ceremony:

http://web.mac.com/tracykumono/iWeb/slideshow/chlarnresidency2008cohort/

Here's a link of the professional photographers slideshow pics:

http://web.mac.com/tracykumono/iWeb/slideshow/chlarnresidency020509/

And here's the link to more pictures that the photog took: (event ID: chlarnresidency020509)

http://web.sendtoprint.net/proofbook/login.asp

I'll post more later! :)

Sunset @ Griffith Observatory

SUNSET

Reunited at last

Well, this has certainly been a busy week for me! My 3 best friends from nursing school came out to visit from Friday through Tuesday. It was the best/most fun weekend I have had in a long time. We did LOTS. On Friday we started off the day with a nice lunch on Venice Beach, then shopping @ the Santa Monica promenade and Melrose. At night we went to The Standard Rooftop Bar, on the 13th floor of The Standard Hotel in downtown LA. The view was beautiful, the sky was clear and full of stars, and we were surrounded by the glowing lights of the surrounding skyscrapers. LOVED IT and definitely added that place to my faves list.

On Saturday, we woke up & drove to Malibu for a day at the beach and lunch at my favorite beach side restaurant, Dukes. We layed/walked around the beach, and then we drove to West Hollywood and got milkshakes at a place called "Millions of Milkshakes" on Santa Monica Blvd. They were sooo good. Sat night we did sushi dinner at Geisha House and we decided to get bottle service @ Boulevard 3, a dance club in Hollywood. It was Rachel's birthday so we splurged a little. We had the VIP treatment and it was super fun!! We danced all night and ended up getting a sweet deal on our bottle of PINK vodka :)


Sunday we did nothing but lay around, order take out, and watch dvds.

Monday night we went to aopen mic comedy show right here by my apartment @ a mexican/cuban restaurant called "Cuba Libre". We had a good dinner, and even Adam came along. Then we walked across the street to the Dresden, one of my favorite bars here in my neighborhood. I had class the next day and the girls flight left kind of early, but our weekend was great!!

I'm picking up Mom & Dad at LAX in about an hour. I can't wait. I called in sick today so I could spend the day with them. Oh well! I have sick time and I figure this is a good enough excuse to use it. My "recognition ceremony" aka transition from RN resident to RN I is tomorrow. I will make a post about it! Miss and love everyone.