Kate goes to work

I have now been in Albuquerque for 20 days! Wow, time flies! I am adjusting pretty well, there are lots of new things to get used to including the heat, the constant sunshine, the lack of owning a car, new varieties of bugs including cockaroaches in my backyard and occasionally in my house, brown recluse spiders in my house, and of coarse the centipedes, scorpions, and snakes (HAVE NOT SEEN AND NEVER WANT TO). I was going to include pictures but after Google Image searching I have the most awful creepy crawlys and anxiety that I will protect my faithful blog readers from experiencing. If you feel masochistic Google any of the above bugs.

Interesting weather phenomenon - New Mexico is experiencing an early MONSOON season. Yup. There are two major weather seasons: the windy season and the monsoon season. Weird. Apparently, during monsoon season it is a typical summer day but then in the late afternoon high winds and thunderstorms develop which last about 2 hours. Weird huh! I look forward to a good thunderstorm. I love thunderstorms. I just request that they dont occur while I am biking anywhere. Please?

Tonight is my first shift as a GN in the UNMH NBI.
Translations
Shift: The 12.5 hour time period of work required 3x per week. This includes two 15 minute breaks and a 30 minute lunch break. Wow. So really its only an 11.5 hour shift. I think I may be exhausted! I have the night shift so I will work from 7pm to 730am.
GN: Grad Nurse. I am not a RN until I pass the NCLEX (nursing boards) on July 9th. As a grad nurse I am required to have an RN supervising my patient care. This is a comfort because I dont know what Im doing yet!
UNMH: University of New Mexico Hospital
NBICN: Newborn Intermediate Care Nursery. This unit contail 28 beds and cares for babies with less acute care needs than the NBICU provides. I will spend my first 2-3 weeks here learning the basics before starting in the NBICU.
NBICU: Newborn Intensive Care Unit. This unit contains 32 beds and cares for babies born prematurely or with birth injuries. This is the unit I was hired into.

I am trying out my sleep strategy to transition into working at night today for the first time. I woke up at 530am this morning...no problem because I conked out at like 900pm last night :) My plan is to be up and active until I go to bed at noon and sleep till 500pm. I will probably be exhausted by 730am but I will work the following night too which should work out well because I will be sleeping all day! Weird huh! Its kinda blowing my mind.

One thing I am interested to find out: What on earth am I going to want to eat in the middle of the night?? Will my body know when to eat? What is I start craving weird foods like fried candy bars or brussel sprouts...or maybe I will just always want popcorn because that is my typical late night snack. hmm. yum.