Bakersfield, California (Again)

Thirteenth Assignment: Bakersfield, California
Dates: May 4th, 2009 to September 12th, 2009
Address: Villa Sienna Apartments
6900 Valley View Drive
Unit 205
Bakersfield, CA 93306
Hospital: Bakersfield Memorial Hospital

After over three months off, I headed back to Bakersfield. This time I flew out to CA because I had to start quickly. I also had food poisoning, which made for a terrible trip! I got to Bakersfield and rented a car for a month. My parents drove my car out to me in June. While they were there, we went to Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Venice Beach, Malibu, Santa Barbara and then back to Bakersfield.

It helps a lot going back to somewhere you have already been. It makes a big difference when you already know the nurses, routine and paperwork. This time around I worked day shift. So busy!! Big contrast to night shift at Bakersfield Memorial. Eventually I got my routine down so I could keep up with myself with all the admissions and discharges coming back to back!

Socially, this time around was so much better. I went to Nelly's going away dinner at Macaroni Grill. We all had a good time. I went to Jacinta's 40th Birthday Party at Sheila's house and acutally did karoake...we had a blast!!! I went out several times with Sheila to this hole in the way bar called Lone Oak. That place is crazy. It is a mixture of young and old and everyone in between. I met some fun people there! I also had a roommate for a few weeks. Kim is from the bay area and was traveling back and forth to come to work for 3 days a week, so I said she could just stay with me. It was nice to have someone to talk to after work. We went to Santa Barbara for the day and shopped, ate, and laid out of the beach. So relaxing.

I did my usual exploring while I was there. I spent a couple days in Santa Monica and stopped in Burbank on the way back to Bakersfield. I noticed the traffic was getting heavy so I decided to stop and go ride a few rides at Magic Mountain. I rode X2 again....so much scarier that I even remembered. I screamed so much! I was able to ride 6 rollercoasters while I was there for 3 hours. Then I drove back and went to work the next morning. That was a very tiring day! I also went over to Pismo Beach, San Luis Obispo, Morro Bay, and San Simeon for a few days. It was nice over there, but very cold! I was able to see Cindi and Suzanne while they were in San Francisco. We took a tour of the city and I was able to see a few things I hadn't see before, Golden Gate Park and Twin Peaks which looks over the city. I also spent some time with Butch in Monterey Bay and Santa Cruz where I went to a concert at Mountain Winery where he works. It was the Heroes of Woodstock with a very interesting group of people. I also flew down to see Missy and Tom. Missy was about 5 months pregnant at the time. We went shopping and only went in baby stores. It was a nice change of pace. I helped them pick out things for the their registry at Babies R Us. Katie is going to be one spoiled baby! We picked up Aunt Nell at the airport in Fort Lauderdale to go to the Hard Rock Casino. I spent the night there and played some slots and actually left with some money the next day. Aunt Nell and Missy went on to Orlando for their annual trip. I also went up to Portland, OR for a few days. I enjoyed Portland very much as it reminded me of Boston a lot. It is also a walking city and has really good public transportation. It is also on the water, the Willamette River. It is the City of Bridges and the City of Roses. I was able to go to the Rose Test Garden, the Japanese Garden, on a river cruise, and to the Pittock Mansion where I was able to see Mt. Hood in the distance. I really enjoyed my trip to Portland.

I stayed an extra 6 weeks because there was still no travel assignments available. I am glad I did because Boston came up again. While I was in Portland, OR I found out I was going back to Boston! I was so excited! My dad flew out to help me drive from Bakersfield to Boston. We took a different route than last year from Bakersfield to Lowell. The first day we went from Bakersfield to Gallup, NM. We stopped in Williams, AZ which is a very cute town that my parents had stopped on their trip to bring me my car. The next day we went to Tulsa, OK. Then on to Indianapolis, IN by way of St. Louis to see the Gateway Arch, which we just drove by and took a couple pictures. We also stopped at a casino for an hour in Oklahoma and drove into Kansas about 5 feet and then turned around, just say we had been to Kansas. The next day we went from Indianapolis all the way to Mystic, CT. It was a 16 hour drive. We saw Penn State along the way which has a very nice campus. It is a very beautiful drive through the Pennsylvania mountains. We came very close to the Poconos. The final day of the trip went spent about 6 hours in Foxwoods before I drove the last little bit into Boston. We moved all my things in to my new apartment, explored Boston, and then my dad flew back to GA.