"You Are Facing East"

Oh lovely lovely day. Today I went to Target and got a compass that goes on my rearview mirror. Hopefully this will prevent flipping 6 u-turns/day. I am very happy.

Four Star Misting System ****

Today my misters are working! I had put them together, but a few faced the wrong way when tight and I didn't have the proper tools. As luck would have it, my dad was in town for the day for work and happened to have 2 sets of crazy plier-wrenches and could adjust them. With just a few turns and a little more Teflon tape, we were done. Whoo-hoo!! (The back ones are still in limbo because apparently I need a tube of PVC glue from ACE to fix that one.) :o)

Cupcakes Part 2

This is Lulu's cupcakes. The little chocolate sample cupcake, the mango cupcake, and the super cute green polka-dotted store. I still think Boise's cupcakes are a teensy bit better, but I say the score is even for now. :o)

Not-so-pleasant surprise

So, I've been a little stressed out this week, what with new job, state boards in 8 days, my phone being utterly frenetic (i.e. stupid and dysfunctional), no gym membership still, my dishwasher not working right, and misc.. random crap. So I come home yesterday to this lovely present in my bathtub. Mind you, my house is clean, it is not gross in anyway, and these things are somewhat common in areas as freaking hot as this state is. But living in Idaho you tend to forget that. But to come home after 14 hours of working "on the night shift," and to find a 2 inch cockroach laying on its back is the creepiest, nastiest, ickiest, freakiest thing to come home to ever. Lysol here we come. No more cockroach.

Hey...it's all part of the adventure, right?

p.s. this is one of those pictures you can click on to see details.

Camera Found

I'm pretty sure no one has actually had a chance to even read the entry below this one, but just in case you were considering abandoning this blog for a week because I lost my camera, I found it. Now I'm doing laundry so that soon I can take cute pictures of all my new scrubs and try to link it together to make one picture. That might take a little time, but it will be fun if it works.
Keep ya posted!
cc
Best laundry detergent for darks: Woolite Dark :o)

Extension Cord City

Today I decided to vacuum my car. Mostly, because, in between moving and the cupcake store, it had become a mess. There are a few things here I really miss (besides my amazing friends and roommates) and one of those is Metro Express, the best carwash in the entire state of Idaho as far as I'm concerned. So yesterday I drove around looking for one as cool, and did not find one. I did drive through the "Buggy Bath" and left a message to them complaining that for $8 I would expect my car to be clean (and I still have bugs all over the front of it). So today I hooked my 50 foot orange extension cord, 3 6-foot long white extension cords, and my vacuum together just to barely reach my car and vacuumed it. Truth be told, my next door neighbors don't actually live there now I don't think but I knocked on their door to see if they were home and would mind if I used their electrical outlet (It's like 10 feet closer), and they weren't, so I tested it out to see if it worked and it did. So I used it for like 1 minute. Then I started wondering if maybe they just didn't live there for the summer and what if they got a $2 electrical bill, but weren't expecting one, and it was 2 months late, and they couldn't figure it out, and it would be all my fault for ruining their credit, so I went back to mine and stretched the cords to capacity. Ahhh...crazy times.
Best carpet cleaner spray: Woolite Oxy Deep....It took every single spot out of my upholstery in like 2 seconds.
Frozen slushy mango gatorade is freakin' good, too!
I would take a picture of this for you, but I think I left my camera in Bullhead City at my family's house. In that case, it might be a week before new fun pictures come up.

Guess Where I'm Going Today!

Just looked this up on the internet. http://www.luluscupcakes.com/. I called them to ask about flavors of the month. They have flavors of the week. And this week is Mango. How sweet :o)

Copper River Temperatures

So by now most people know that the best salmon in the world are Copper River Salmon (first run, high in healthy fats, etc..) The best cooking temp? One fillet alone in pan. Brush with olive oil, and cajun spice or salt & pepper. Bake at 500 degrees for 13 minutes. Perfection.

The Corn in Gilbert

Couple More Things

One- Josh gave me a beautiful plant named Guss and I killed it. I took pictures of the sad end, but really they are much to heart-breaking to post here. When he wasn't looking great one day, I walked to a greenhouse and they gave me some free potting soil and I think it had a fungus in it. Anyway, that's what he died of. Terrible.

Anyways, I planted some new flowers in his place and his memory (Guss's...not Josh's).

Coming soon...maybe tonight....a map of this crazy catastrophe of a humungous city where I live.

A Little Update on Life in General

So life is going pretty well down here in AZ. I'm staying up late tonight because my first night shift is tomorrow from 7p-7a, so I'm up until at least 3 tonight I figure to fully prepare. So crazy! I'm actually pretty excited. I just now realized I get to wear my new scrubs and that might be the most exciting of all.

So I just finished 4 days of orientation. Wow. Orientation takes forever. But today was good. We learned how to use chest tubes and IV pumps and all that fun stuff.

Then I went shopping at Target for some more stuff. Hand soap. Bleach. Organic cotton dish towels. A little hippo (I didn't find one..I still just have one little ceramic hippo in the wooden square in my living room.) Also, a Father's day card, a fun random card, and a multi-outlet thingy.

It was 110 today. Yesterday it was only 105 so I worked on my Misters. I got them all to work because I bought great nozzles at ACE hardware and used teflon tape so they would stop leaking, but one faces the wrong direction now--- straight up. I absolutely cannot take apart the section of pipe holding it together. I thought for a minute it must have been years since it was taken apart and then I realized that i myself took it apart four days ago. Even with pliers it refuses to move. I'm starting to think I'm getting weak.

Speaking of which, I just found out today that I can join ASU's gym because I am living with Brad (my brother, come Sept, who is conveniently a student there). Thank goodness, because I really am close to a lot of things, but one of them is not a good gym as far as I can tell.

Today I drove to GILBERT, AZ kind of by accident looking for Gold's Gym, which happened to be in the opposite direction. This is the highway route I took to head back home and get back to Gold's.

202 N- Exit 101 South-- Enter 101 North-- Exit 55B towards Phoenix Highway 60--Exit 10E towards Tucson-- Elliot Rd Exit. Drive home on Elliott, which is really not too far, but far too far to work out. And this Gold's is no where as cool as the one on Parkcenter in Boise.

Today Kaitlynn on the phone tells Candice, "Idaho...Pretty...I want to go SOON." She's so cute, and, really, who can blame her? No one.

Gilbert, AZ, by the way, is gorgeous. Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but it is really pretty. They grow CORN there. Like a crop. A real crop. In the desert. And it's kind of green and there are little hints of suburbia everywhere. Like kids riding bikes. And the best manicured lawn with like 5 huge fat palm trees was The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which I just happened to drive by as well. Wow. I really really like Gilbert. If I happen to stay here in this crazy state, I might end up there.

Okay, so after endless hours (3) that that experience took, I went to a church service project.

AND THEN I WENT AND GOT BLUE BELL ICE CREAM!!!

Blue Bell ice cream, for those who have not had the rich and sweet experience of tasting it, is from Brenham, TX. http://www.bluebell.com/. When I lived in Texas, they only sold it there. But now they are branching out a little bit, and I bought 3 pints tonight. I explained to the cashier, who had never had it, what an absolute treasure he was missing, and he assured me he would buy some. I also talked to some Texas people (I looked at their license plate) in the parking lot about it, and they were excited, too. (It was a girl and her grandpa headed back to Dallas tomorrow. So cute.)

Oh, and in case anyone wonders how this whole internal moving thing is going, some days I get the scared nervous feeling back and then the next day it goes away. I guess that's just called adjusting. It's kind of fun, though, to be the crazy one doing this...

A few bests:

1- Obviously, Blue Bell Ice Cream

2- The target website for ways to locate targets convenient to you. Much much better than mapquest.

3- Not Susie's Mexican Cafe & Lounge which looked, shall I say, authentic?, but really had terrible enchiladas

4- Best city in AZ to pretend you're in Idaho- Gilbert

5- Best place to buy hardware. ACE Hardware. Really, I have to give credit to Josh for the guilt trip on this one. But really, ACE has been around forever and they guys are really really helpful and nice and they even had all the right nozzles, and Home Depot didn't. And they were just in a little plastic hometown-feelin' toolbox at ACE. So, here's another shout out to the little guy. Who, in this case, was once the big guy.

I USED MY PLATTER

So a few months ago I bought a glass platter from Fred Meyer on clearance. It was a super-good deal, but my roommates were all like, "um, christin, you just bought a WHAT?" Like why on earth would you buy such a thing. But being 27 and mormon, you get to the point where you realize that at some point you are either going to host a party or at least be invited to one where you are expected to bring something. Hence, the first church activity I went to in AZ involved a potluck and I was in charge of a fruit platter for 15. Strawberries were 97 cents a pint at Fry's (June is an awesome month to buy strawberries), so I bought some. A lot of some. And this is how it turned out. How pretty!

Best Salad Dressing

Is Safeway's Orange Poppyseed. Really really good. And I'm pretty picky about my dressings. For lunch today I had a spinach and baby greens salad with shrimp and cucumber and orange poppyseed dressing. And a pomegranate IZZE. Since I've been here I've mostly lived on M&M's leftover from the trip, so it was a good thing. :o)

HANDYWOMAN GOES TO TOWN

So today I realized I have MISTERS in front of my house. And in back. Not hot guys. Not that kind of misters. Water misters. However, they didn't work. But how can you live in AZ and have cool water misters that gently rain down upon you and not get them to work. So... I hauled out my pink tool kit and my bar stool and went to town. First I took down all the little nozzles that were all gunked up with who knows what. Then I turned on the water to see if the pipes were clear. They weren't. One of the holes had orange and green and red stuff growing in it and a LARVAE. gross. So I took the system all apart and took the poles into my bathroom and washed them all out. And put it back together. A litttle later I'm off to the Home Depot to get some new nozzles. Hopefully by tomorrow I will have a 4 star misting system all my own :o) If you click on the picture you can see the gross stuff up close.

Quick "Bests"

The best thing about today was being able to mapquest my life. How, really, did people ever survive on their own in big cities without mapquest? Maps need little "Target," "Barnes & Noble," "Post Office," and "Gym" stickers. That is my invention of the day. Anyway, I found out today I live near several targets, and that is lovely.

Another best: a good place to eat for decent healthy food (not heavenly, just decent).
www.zoeskitchen.com

AND a super fun house store. http://hausmodernliving.com Kind of crazy, but fun. Lisa B. from Murphy's(the restaurant where I worked) probably would love this place.


Oh, and Postage rates went up everybody. I sent out some fun packages today to a couple people. It was kind of a blast. I have an odd obsession with the post office and mail in that I love it all.

KNOCK KNOCK!! IT"S YOUR....

STOVE.. at 8:30 in the morning. But it doesn't fit. Because the granite countertops overlap the old ones 1/8"

HANDYMAN..at 12:15 in the afternoon coming to saw off the granite

CABLE GUY...at 2:10 in the afternoon coming to fix the problem with the living room cable box and talk to you for about an hour about his pre-med plans. Doctors are cocky. This little 24 year old will probably be a doctor. He wants to be a pediatrician. We'll see. He shaves his legs. Okay, he was kind of cute. But a bad flirt.

MY HOUSE IS CLEAN!! I have like one thing to put up and some vacuuming to do and I can take some pictures and put them on the internet for all to see because, dang it, my house is looking cuter every day.

I HAVE FOOD!! I finally went grocery shopping. That first shopping trip is a kicker. I saved $42 with my Safeway card, though, or my cherries would have been $15 instead of $4. It still looks like my fridge is empty.

One good thing about living alone: Your fridge (Especially if all the drawers are see-through) looks kind of pretty, and if you think "who's crap is this?" you can throw it away, because it's YOURS!!

I DO NOT HAVE TUBERCULOSIS thursday 6/7

On Monday, I had a TB skin test and filled out paperwork. On Thursday I had it read and it said, "wow. you do not have a disgusting disease which eats out your lungs via little gross pustules." I also opened a credit union account (I'm a little iffy on my work's credit union, so I just opened a savings account. On Wednesday I got a checking account. Sorry. That's the boring stuff. Moving on.)
I did not fit into any TB gas masks. That means I cannot take care of anybody on respiratory precautions; i.e. anyone with creepy airborne bugs. crap. hahahaha.
Today I got cable to work in one room, but not in the other. So I laid on the floor and watched TLC and MASH, and really, it started to feel like home (ironically--I never had cable in my Boise home). I talked on the phone to the cable girl for a while. SHockER.
Oh, I looked very Arizona today in my green shirt and my khaki shorts and my docs. AND, it was 89 degrees instead of 108 which made such a huge difference. And I opened the doors and listened to all the little kiddies play in the pool. I need to learn Spanish to live here, though, let me tell ya.

I wore a $3000 dress today, wednesday 6/6

Life is better when you find a good mall. It actually took me until thursday to realize that I work two blocks from this place, but wow. Crate & Barrel, J.Crew, Urban, Pottery Barn...really I could go on and on, oh, and Betsey Johnson (not that I need a hot pink $200 dress, but if I did, I would know where to get one). This is Fashion square at 76th and Camelback.

About 50 blocks (yes, 50)-- oh, by the way, when you ask for directions here, and someone says "just drive down that street a little ways, they mean AT LEAST 50 blocks."-- north of this mall (24th and Camelback) is a bunch of stores people really can't afford, at least if they are cool. Like SAKS 5th Avenue.
But you can go there and try on clothes and act like you can afford them. So I did. I wore a $3000 Armani dress for about 5 minutes. I found out my Italian size is 42 and had a woman offer me a bottle of water while I tried on my dress and then took her card in case I decided to get it.

Best way to get over being alone: try on a $3000 dress. Then call a couple people and tell them about it and be grateful you have friends to call.

Best tinted moisturizer: okay, really, people at SAKS are nice. especially at the laura mercier counter. I had read that this moisturizer was amazing, so I stopped by and said hi and told them I just moved here from Idaho to be an RN and could I possibly have a sample. And they totally obliged and were so sweet and were like, "Come back and visit us!" "Okay!!" :o)

And I got the internet!! And a REALLY CUTE green t-shirt from J.Crew :o)

I bought Lamps, Tuesday, June 5th

i am not a lamp person. Really I'm not. I just like to turn on the freakin' light already. But that is not an option in this new place, and I just bought some amazing lamps. 1 for my bedroom. 2 for the living room. And they will be in the pictures and they look great.
On Tuesday I went to a bunch of Targets and drove through Glendale.
Tempe is big and looks small.
Glendale is big and looks big and is GREEN. And driving though Glendale at 9:30 pm made me the happiest I've been since I got here.
I talked to the mail lady today. I talk to EVERYONE i see since I got here. I am a very nice person since I've been here.

Best deal ever on a lamp(shade): I got a lamp on clearance at Pier 1. It was originally $150 and i got it for $28.15, I hate the lamp, but the shade is awesome, and it goes great with my target floor lamp. I will try to post a picture tomorrow.

Walter the Vacuum Man (monday 6/4)

Things began to look up. I painted the edges of my canvasses to cover up the paint. Josh and I had gotten most everything else out.

Best way to get paint out: use OOPS!! and some rags and some paint scrapers. For clothes use a butter knife and KRUD KUTTER and soak it in OOPS!! and wash it. ACE hardware has OOPS! in the paint aisle.

Then the air conditioning guy stopped by and fixed my AC which actually made me feel much better about life in general. I went to Borders and got 3 maps, one of Scottsdale, one of Mesa/Tempe, and one of Phoenix. I still don't think I've actually seen Phoenix.

Oh, and I bought a vacuum. This is by far the best thing to happen today. I walked into the store "Complete Vacuum Service"-- I like to support the little guy and this 70-ish year old man in the back asked how he could help me.
"I'd like a vacuum," I said
"How 'bout that one over there. It's a nice orange one."
"Okay."
Walter then kind of waddles to a chair. He's quite a big guy.
"Bring it to me."
"Okay."
"Now plug it it and try 'er out and see how you like 'er."
I plug it in. It seems pretty good. It's a Panasonic and about midline in price.
Walter then explains all the attachments to me with his pretty sky blue eyes and asks me about school and what I'm doing in AZ and if a nurse like me could take care of an old diabetic like him. He then tells me that since I write so good since I'm a nurse I should fill out the receipt on my own. So I do.
He seems thrilled that I'm there so we talk about my cell phone and anything else he can think of. I get a free vacuum check-up and belt replacement in 3 months. So I'll see Walter again in September.

Adventures in Moving aka Forsaken in the Desert

I arrived on Saturday, June 2nd. My landlord was waiting with the wrong keys and some cleaning supplies to clean up a little. (He had known I was moving for a month and a half). So Jess, me, Nate, and Josh took off to IKEA to look around at that big adventure store while landlord got things put together. I think I was pretty out of it because nothing really seemed to sink in about the store. It looked cool, but I may have been a little burnt from 18 hours of driving. (Although the driving was fun...Josh and I scared Nate & Jess a little 'cause they thought we were going to wreck the moving truck from kissing so much. Silly them...)

We did spill red paint, though. Or should it say it spilled itself...on the moving truck floor. And on my bookshelf, the leg of my couch, and my canvasses that I so lovingly painted for our Boise dining room. It was a rough night.

Everyone left me alone on Sunday. Why on earth anybody lives on their own I have no idea. I kind of cried. Until Josh left. Then I had to buck up. So I did. But this is how I felt inside...

LIKE A DESERT

Why on earth was I left alone in the desert? Why do people live in a desert? My AC does not work in my house and I am sweating and lonely and holy crap I don't know a soul in this town and do you know how many people live here?? 3 million. Do I know where I am? Nope. Don't have a map. Don't have the internet.
All I see is brown walls everywhere. Tempe is mostly brown walls. It's like no one wants to see each other and nobody zoned the town, so it's like store, brown-walled subdivision, store, brown-walled subdivision. Crazy. Sad. Lonely.

Best Moving Truck Company: Penske. Their little 12' truck was awesome and drove so good and they were cheap and had nice people working there.

Hola From Arizona!!

Hi everyone! (That means Jessica and Emily mostly). So I'm still keeping up my little flickr photo album (flickr.com/photos/christinlife), which is much more exciting, but for those who would like to share my thoughts and concerns about living in arizona, including those items for which no pictures are available, here you go: