Its the weekend! (for me anyway)

I am on my night off after two nights of working.  My shifts went just fine.  I had one slightly confused patient try to call police on the room phone because the IV pump started to beep.  I had to tell my patient, "you are at the hospital so that means you can use the call button to call the nurse instead of the police, we would be happy to help you." I don't know if my patient thought that because it is night time all the nurses had gone home or what.  It is a constant source of surprise for some of them that the nurses are there all night too. What would I do with a boring job?  I tell you what I would do, I would be bored.

I am writing this whole post with Saber Tooth draped across my arms, it makes typing a challenge, but he just does not want to move.  I do have to admit that he is a good cat, he is super cuddly and loves having his belly rubbed, there is nothing better than petting a cats belly.  It is one of the finer things in life that should be properly appreciated.  Most of the time petting a cat belly is a very risky endeavor so be forewarned if you indulge, you may not come away from the experience with your epidermis intact.

We also hit the gym tonight which was good, I like working out at 0300 in the morning, that means there is no one there when I look dumb grunting trying to lift pathetically small weights.  I can be as goofy and spastic as I want.  Tonight I practiced my jump roping skills which were sadly rusty.  I am sure the people screening the security footage get a kick out of me.

I think there is a farmers market in town tomorrow so we will try to go check that out and see if it is a worth while event.  yipee skippy.

Strawberry

Well, last night we did find an activity to do.  We went to a strawberry festival!  I was surprised by the lack of strawberries.  It was a rodeo, fair, carnival type deal.  We tried to get up early which didn't work out as well as I had hoped, 1800 is early... really it is.  We still made it over there in time for the last part of the rodeo, and we did all of the carnival rides.  I do want to say one thing though, the amount of cowgirl bling was stunning, seriously what is up with that?  Everything has rhinestones on it as if they all went on a bedazzling spree, and I saw a bunch of "buckle bunnies"  google it.  My tastes run pretty simple and neutral, but I am very much desirous of a pair of cowboy boots.  The rides were cool, and there were the obligatory scary carnies.

So that only kept us occupied until around 0100.  Then what?  well I made some biscuits and puttered around in the kitchen and then wasted a bunch of time on the internet.  The first birds start singing around 0630.  There is an awesome shed thing out back that we had been keeping the chicks in, but it needs some work so we started to overhaul it and make everything a bit neater.  We also found about five pallets so I am deciding what exactly I want to do with them.  I had the worst scare ever this morning, around 0830 this tattooed scary vato comes into the yard holding a gun and asks which dog is ours.  I guess his dog got beat up really bad last night by some dog and he was trying to figure out who owned it because he was going to shoot it.  It freaked me out because this gentleman is know to be a procurer of certain items and probably a.) does not have the highest moral standards, and b.) not totally screwed on right because of indulging in said items.  I guess he lives down the road, and the husband wasn't worried so I guess I won't be worried either.

I also got to ride a motorcycle tonight wheee!  It had been forever since I rode so it was fun.  Like riding a bike, you never forget.  So that sums up my experiences.  There are some events that I am looking forward to that we have mapped out as evening activities.  There is a stargazing thing coming up, and a star wars symphony so I do have some plans, just not very many.  I hope this summer has a bunch of meteor showers.

Tales from the night shift

I am back sort of.  A ton of stuff has happened in the two months that I haven't blogged.  I will list them in order:

1.) Sold all of the animals

2.) Sold a ton of our earthly possessions

3.) Packed up the house

4.) Flew on a plane to Texas

5.) Started working as an RN on a med/surg/peds/tele unit 

6.) Got 10 new chickens

7.) Started working night shift

8.) Accidentally got a cat

9.) Started blogging again

It was hard to leave Oahu, but part of me was glad, the last year there was a struggle on a lot of different levels, the top two being financially and emotionally.  It is hard when you don't have a clear idea of what you are going to do and how you are going to get there.  I was super frustrated about not being able to find work as an RN, I guess I could have stayed and worked as an LPN forever, but I didn't suffer through school for nothing, so in some ways the move has been good. I feel like I have my fighting fire or inner strength back or whatever you want to call it.  I still have some feelings of sadness, but I just shove them back into their box where they belong.  I will deal with them later.  

The new chickens are great, I am not emotionally attached to any of them, and quite frankly I can't tell them apart.  They are all red star production layers who will hopefully in three months time begin laying large brown eggs.  The farmstead is going to start back up, it just might take a little more time to get the wheels spinning.  We would love to get a dairy goat again, and also some ducks this go round.  We brought the rabbit wringer with us so I am sure we will get some more rabbits.  The cat was truely an accident.  We stopped at a gas station and the cat jumped in the car.  I am sure it belonged to someone as it seemed totally lost outside, I posted on craigslist that I found a black cat, but so far no takers.  We named the cat Saber Tooth.... not sure where that name came from, but it sounded like a good idea at the time.  He is kind of a pain in the butt.... I am regretting the choice of gas stations.  

The new job is pretty cool so far, I think I am still in the honey moon phase.  I am sure I will come to loathe it eventually, but for now I don't mind going to work.  I am working the night shift, I have very mixed feelings about it.  On one hand it pays way more and the pace is slower than days, on the other hand it means that I am awake all night on my nights off in small town Texas... you can read that as 'absolutely nothing to do'.  The challenge is staying occupied at night time and not becoming a weird internet troll.  If you note the time that I wrote this blog entry you will see it is around 3 in the morning.... so much for not being a weird internet troll.  I suppose I could start playing world of warcraft, a level 90 dark elf would be within my grasp.  I did find a gym that is open 24/7 so hitting the gym has suddenly become a very attractive way to spend my time.  I suppose that will be for the best, I haven't been careful about my diet lately.  

So this newish blog will be about me finding creative ways to stay occupied on my nights off, and about my forays into homesteading here in Texas, and how well that works out being that I am a creature of the night.