Lance and I spent the weekend of the Sept 22nd-23rd together with Scout. We bought her a lioness costume.
We took her to a dog park that is attached to a bar called Boneyard Drinkery
She spent a lot of time by the water hose laying in the water. I knew she would rather be swimming. haha.
She did start to make friends.
We got her to do some tricks on a ramp.
I erased last months calendar and updated it for October. It is going to be a busy month!
On the 24th, I left Houston at 6 am and headed North. The morning steam and fog was beautiful.
I saw two wrecks once I got 10 minutes from home.
I got to Arlington around 10 am and had some time before my health screening.
I ate lunch and snagged a map online to help me find where to go.
My Dad joined me for the ride to Dallas.
I answered some basic health questions, got fitted for a TB mask, and got a TB test injection.
Getting fitted for the mask took the most time because the equipment to test the air seal was faulty. I got hot, red, and a little claustrophobic. I hate face masks.
I had to have the TB test read 2 days later and my Mom joined me this time.
We grabbed lunch at a close by Mexican restaurant that was recommended by a family friend.
The service was EXCELLENT. They treated us like royalty.
We gave the food a 6/10.
That afternoon, I headed South back to Houston to see my hunny!
Since I have and will be driving a lot, I started buying audiobooks on my iphone. I am a third of the way through the Girl Who Played With Fire. It is the second book of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo trilogy. I'm loving it so far.
The Rangers' games don't always air in Houston so Lance misses some games. Now that I got an iPad*, my parents facetimed the game from one of their TVs so he could watch it while studying.
*My parents bought me an iPad as a congratulations present on getting a job! (THANK YOU GUYS!)
We enjoyed the last weekend together before I headed to Arlington to start working. We ended up breaking out the Wii. We played a baseball game (that made my arm pretty sore the next day) and super mario.
I had to hit the sheets early that night and we both got really sad. It's so hard to be separated the majority of the time, again.
Time really does fly these days, though. We will be together full time again next year.
Patience, the one thing I keep getting tested on.
I have none.
Sunday, I hit the road at 6 am (deja vu).
I arrived to a cold and misty Arlington.
The reason I left so early?
I had an 11:30 am appointment for a haircut. I would have blown it off, but I didn't know the next time I would be able to get it done in the near future. I'll be busy most weekends in October.
After the cut, I relaxed on my last day as a non-employed nurse!
The pups rested.
YESTERDAY, I awoke for my first day of orientation at 6:30 am.
I figured I would leave at 7:15 to get to Baylor in Irving around 8 am (start time).
I was wrong. My GPS wasn't updated and it routed me to the wrong spot. Traffic was bad too.
I ended up getting there at 8:20 and then walked around lost. I finally spotted a sign for new employee orientation. I signed in, grabbed my name tag, snagged some breakfast, and sat down.
The women at my table were really nice and one had my sense of humor.
They began at 8:30.
We learned a lot about Baylor's vision.
We did an activity to see how we worked as a team. They gave us paper, tape, scissors, and 5 minutes to cut out little people and put them into a circle.
We made 12.
This helped us work by a team by deciding who would cut (we had one pair of scissors), who would do the tape (there was no dispenser), and who would draw the faces etc.
After we were done, we were asked why we never asked for more scissors and that we could have thought outside of the box.
We got a chance to go a second time.
This time: we made 36
We won that round!
All day we had little things we had to get done. I had to set up my email, my baylor account, get my I-9 form turned in, and have my ID badge made.
We were given a little info on our benefits so we could look over it before the next day when a representative would be there to answer our questions.
Today, I left 15 minutes earlier thinking that would be PLENTY of time. I was wrong.
I drove 25 minutes and ended up 4 miles away from my exit in a standstill. It took me 40 minutes to drive those last 4 miles. I arrived later today than I did yesterday. I hope my drive to Dallas will be a better experience.
We were put into different groups sorted by our facility (Baylor has several locations and over 20,000 employees). A girl at the table next to me is going to be working in the same office as me! She will be working in billing. It is nice to know that there is someone else new.
The team building exercise today was a little more challenging. We were given some supplies and 15 minutes to build a tower. The tallest would win. The trick is that it has to withstand wind and be free standing. You could not tape it to the table.
Ours wasn't the tallest, but it was one of the few that withstood the wind.
You can make out the blue one in the back there, it won!
I received my ID badge today and I'm glad to say that the picture turned out well.
Orientation reminded me of the first days of nursing school or just school in general. It was scary at first, but ended up being fun.
I got out a bit early and relaxed with the family and the pets.
I'll be up bright and early tomorrow for my first day at the office.
I will normally work 9-5:30, but while I'm training, I will be starting at 8 am. I only hope this means I leave earlier. That would be awesome.
I plan on leaving at 6:15. I would assume that this would be enough time. I've never commuted to Dallas during rush hour. I'm a little scared.
I have to find the parking lot I'm assigned to with my temporary permit.
I have a whole list of things to get done and it is overwhelming. I must get my second TB test done tomorrow. I need to get my parking tag too.
Ah, it feels good to be getting paid!
