Here Goes Nothing!

So, since I am always behind in the ways of computers, I am now finally starting my very own blog. The catalyst of this venture is my recent career move. I have decided to become a travel nurse. This title may be confusing for some so let me explain. I work for an agency who works with hospitals around the country to fill staffing needs. So through this agency I set up a contract that normally last 13 weeks with a hospital in a city I am interested in visiting or living long term in. Then I work for them. The pay is good and the opportunity to live in exciting places are almost endless. The downsides really are that nothing can compare to working at the University of Utah Hospital in their Newborn ICU, and I miss my friends so much. But I'm ready to meet new people and learn new things and live places i could never live on my own. So for all of you here goes the adventure.

My first assignment is in Seattle, WA, my hometown. Seattle is a beautiful city full of diversity and family. But coming back here after almost five years away, created some culture shock. I had been tenderly protected as a missionary in Japan for 18 months and then as a single girl in Salt Lake City, that I often refer too as my home (sorry Mom), but it was time to reenter the rest of the world. I'm no stranger to the ways of Seattle, I lived here most of my life, and had even worked at the major trauma center when I was in nursing school, that was in the middle of what some would refer to as hell, but somewhere in that five years i forgot how diverse Seattle really was. Life is fast passed and exciting here, but it sure is different from Salt Lake. Let me share an example of this from hospital orientation last week. I was sitting there with some of the other nurses who were also starting most of whom were also travel nurses. Several of us were chatting about where we came from and that sort of stuff, when a woman who was a local asked me about Salt Lake and the patient population there. She then preceded to ask if the reason we had so many premies in Salt Lake was because of "all the Mormons" that lived there? I responded that no it wasn't because of the LDS population just the same teen mom, drug abusing, no prenatal care population that we see everywhere. She then questioned that again, repeating her question, like I was too dumb to understand it the first time. I again respond that it was not the Mormons. Then came the good part. She started saying that "i don't like the term lds, it sounds like a disease. doesn't it sound like a disease?" i responded no it sounds like an acronym not a disease. Someone else asked what "Mormon" was and I explained that it was a nickname, they asked where it came from and I told them from the Book of Mormon. The first woman then said "well i guess you would know you lived down in the middle of them" and I kindly informed her that "Yes I had and that infact I am one, raised here in Seattle and I even served a mission". Needless to say she changed the subject quickly. I forget how different it is outside of Utah. It was a really funny experience and the first time someone had suggested to me that my religion was a disease.