continuing on

The thing is that I don't necessarily consider myself lonely.  I mean, I was talking to someone this week and he said that we seemed similar living a rather lonely life and I laughed... I am surrounded by people who love me who I love. I have had phone calls and skyped and tango'd and texted just as many people this week as I would have if I still lived in Kansas. I am missing some of the personal connections though.  Tuesday night dinner with the parents.  Dropping in on grandpa.  Kidnapping Bella for an afternoon.  It is a change but that was the point of the experiment, yes?  I have had dinner with people and talked to new people at work and right now I am sitting in a hotel room in Indiana waiting for Chelsie to finish a meeting so we can hang out tonight so that tomorrow she can go to a meeting... lots of driving but we are having fun so it works.  I do know this isn't something I anticipate wanting to do full time. I think maybe a year?  4 assignments and then I will come home to my house and my family and it will be a good thing.  But then again another point of this was to learn to live without a set plan (I have no idea where I am going to be living in 3 months.  Very unusual for me!) so maybe by a year I will love travel nursing.  I doubt it, but it is a possibility. 
Arizona
Alaska
Boston.
Home
 If I was planning that would be the next year of my life. 
(but the point is to not plan, right?)
(but it is a really good plan, fyi)

And in the meantime I am reading books and walking in new parks and wishing I could snuggle me some Brecklyn.

Exploring

Yesterday I explored some of the parks near my new hospital.  I am loving the Mississippi river... sometimes it is slow and sometimes it is fast and always it is so different than anything in Kansas. Now I just need to find people to insert into my photos :)
 

Comfort zone

My comfort zone is home. My stuff surrounding me, the ability to grab a book I have read a dozen times before and read it again on a bad day.

Tuesday night dinners with the parents (making sure I pay once a month so dad doesn't grumble about how often he feeds his grown children) and grocery shopping with mom and weekly visits with grandpa and walking into my brother's house and seeing bells get excited "Aunt Corrie is here!". 

Weekend trips to kc to see the group and Topeka to see the grands and Arkansas to see the babies. And the sister, but really the babies.  Especially now that there are two babies.

Not having a ton of local friends but getting to see the ones I do have occasionally, and having free time to go visit the far away ones.

Knowing where my ice cream is in the local grocery store and knowing what store I like to begin with and knowing where to get gas from and what parts of town to avoid and what roads to avoid in rain/snow.

Today I am not in my comfort zone. I branched out.  I moved 10 hours away from all of the things that made me feel safe.  I did it to make a change. To challenge myself to change, to prove I can do it.  To explore new places and make more money and have the experience I have always wanted to have.

It sucks.  (Pardon the language mom).  There wasn't anyone to watch the season opener game with.  (Packers lost.  I am sad.).  Tuesday I will eat dinner alone before going to work.  I have no idea if my roof was fixed at home because the person living in my house hasn't messaged me the details.  I really like the job (which is so nice, actually, because I hated the last one) but don't know really how to make friends (never been my strong suit.   I have awesome friends, but they pretty much made me.).  I am scared I will fail at this and I am only a week in.

In other news. Minnesota is beautiful.   The river is beautiful.  I am enjoying exploring.  I figured out that ave-east and st-south so maybe I won't get as lost with both a 6th st and 6th ave.

I can do this.  Not sure tonight in my very tired and not sure what I am doing state that I want to do this, but I am definitely not going to give up on the experience 5 days in. 

Leaving the comfort zone behind is scary, isn't it? 

View from my new breakroom. Every morning