A little bit of this, a little bit of that

What a fun few days it has been! Moving and living on your own is a lot of work! I really had it easy at home since my parents did the grocery shopping, we split the laundry, and just random things were taken care of. Plus, cooking for one is really hard! I wish the Rocket Scientist was closer so we could do little things together (grocery store, cooking, other errands not necessarily related to food!) and of course so I could see him more. There's about 75-90 minutes between us, and it's hard to go round trip in one night. We shall see.

In other news, I kind of started my job yesterday! I had a day of hospital orientation (with everyone else who is starting the hospital, regardless of their job) and a day of nurse orientation (where it was just one other new nurse and me). Both were super condensed versions since so few people were starting, which was good because we didn't have to sit through eight million lectures, but I also feel like I kind of got gypped because I might have missed a lot of information. We were given powerpoints of the lectures, but we all know that powerpoints are only supposed to guide lectures instead of acting as "note cards" to be read off of. However, they gave me a coffee mug (which I needed anyway since I realized I didn't bring any with me!), so I guess I'll survive. I have my first day on the unit tomorrow, which I'm a little bit nervous about since I haven't seen a patient since December and haven't thought much about nursing since I passed the NCLEX in February. Yikes! I hope it comes back quick.

In other fun news, I'm now a resident of the state of Pennsylvania! I got my Pennsylvania driver's license, so yay! That was step one. Step two was registering my almost two-week-old car. I don't have any license plates or anything since it seemed silly to register it in Illinois and then turn around and transfer it to Pennsylvania. (And PA taxes are MUCH cheaper than Illinois. Just a little perk.) Anyway, I got to the auto tag place, and they said I couldn't register my car for the following reasons:

1. I don't have car insurance in the state of Pennsylvania. I have Illinois insurance. I'm not sure why this matters, but it's state law.

2. The car dealer where I bought the car didn't put any odometer information on the title. I have a slip of paper that talks all about the fact that there were only nine miles on the car when I bought it, signed both by the dealer and me, but since it's not on the title, I had to overnight it back to the dealer. That cost me $24.

3. My mom had to cosign the car loan with me since I don't have any credit. In the backwards system that is America, you don't have good credit even if you pay off your credit cards in full every month. Therefore, my mom's name is on the title and she has to be present when I register my car. I could get power of attorney and all that jazz, but really, that's a pain.

So I'm waiting until June when she comes to visit to register my car. Hopefully it will go smoothly.

Since this is a running blog (or at least, I try to make it one. Life has been busy!), I actually went running yesterday and today! I found a state park to run through, so I tried to find it yesterday, but I ran past the road I was supposed to turn on to get into it, and then there was a narrow bridge where I almost got hit by three cars. Then I found the park and paranoia kicked in and I was convinced I was going to end up dead on the side of the road because there was NO ONE around. I'm from suburbia and that's how 24 year old women end up missing. So I turned around and subsequently got lost trying to retrace one of my runs from last week. Annnnd I forgot to hit start on my garmin at some point.

Monday, May 18
A little more than 4 miles, in a little more than 32:55, avg pace of somewhere around 8:08

I asked my roommate where she runs (she just started running and is doing a half in September!) and she recommended a trail in the opposite direction. A guy on RWOL online went to college around here and recommended the same trail, so I went to check it out. I *definitely* needed a run today after the stress that was everything listed above. The trail is AWESOME. It runs for 19 miles, and it is close to a road/houses, which is great for paranoid people such as myself. It's pretty flat, too! You can see the road changing in elevation, but the trail remains rather flat...so exciting because there are some crazy hills around here! Running is looking up here, and it's a good thing because nothing seems to be falling into place recently.

Tuesday, May 19
6.04 miles in 47:00, avg pace of 7:47

Oh, and I totally smoked a guy on the trail. Always makes you feel good. Thanks for all the supportive comments about my last post! I know that one of the greatest things about running is that your biggest competition is yourself, but it's hard to not compare yourself to other runners, especially those you know in person. (Although I am quite jealous of some of you bloggers out there!) It just gives me something to work towards so I can be super speedy one day.

Now time to rest up before my first day as a nurse tomorrow! If I don't spend all night freaking out...