Transitioning

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Big news: I'm transitioning to my new job as nurse practitioner, which also happens to mean that Mark and I are transitioning from Houston to Washington D.C. There are so many new experiences out there because of these transitions. Examples:

+I have lived in Texas all my life [except college, but I came home for summers. also, I wasn't born here, but whatever, I don't remember that part]. I am used to the fact that if I drive for a couple of hours in ANY direction, I will still be in Texas. This is not so where we are moving. We will be in D.C., but we could easily be in Maryland, Virginia, New York, West Virginia, etc etc within a couple of hours by train. That is SO weird to me; it's like this alternate universe of life in the U.S.


+I had to get fingerprinted to get my RN and NP license verified in D.C., and it turns out that I don't have any discernible fingerprints on my ring and pinky fingers. The fingerprinting lady said it was more common in women, as they are more prone to expose their skin to chemical cleaners and hand sanitizers. So basically, it might be difficult to be verified as a nurse in another state because I, as a nurse, had to use hand sanitizers multiple times an hour every day at work. How ironic.

+Mark and I are trying to get in some last-minute Texas experiences. Fortunately, we've been to the Houston Rodeo, the Texas Renaissance Festival, the Texas Hill Country, Galveston Beach, the Houston Museum of Natural Science Observatory, and a lot of the museums in Houston. So now we're concentrating on food: Blue Bell Ice Cream, and some of our favorite restaurants (Fadi's and Gugliani's. I highly recommend them).
I also went to Waco to see the impact Chip and Joanna Gaines of HGTV fame have made on the town. [According to Mark, outside of HGTV, the only claim to fame Waco had was the Branch Davidian cult complex that the FBI accidentally burned down in 1993]
One of the small towns on the way. This biker statue was creepy; he had real hair, real clothes...




The Silos
Kelli & me. We like travelling, food, and cats, so we're good friends
Didn't actually go in the Dr Pepper museum, but here's a truck
selfie version


















+I had my last day of work as a [paid] nurse on Friday. I decided to NOT follow the uniform guidelines of black scrubs for nurses, and it made me so happy. [I really hated when we went to black 5-ish years ago; it's so depressing.] Available co-workers threw me a party, but since nurses can't take breaks all at the same time, and since half of our unit is temporarily 12 floors above the home unit, picture opportunities were slim. 
The food spread
Pretty
Crazy

They are good people. And photogenic, despite lack of photos.

It's exciting. And scary.
It'll be fun. And sad.
It is my new ADVENTURE.

And now I have to decide if I need to re-name my blog....

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