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| Monterey Bay |
It has been a BUSY month! I've moved twice and started my new contract doing home health in Salinas. I'm currently living in Monterey, sharing an apartment with a girl whose boyfriend is going to be working out of the state/country for about a year. She's got an adorable kitty too, which so far hasn't given me too many sniffles… The hardest part is not picking her up and playing with her because she's so cute!! So far, I've just been orienting with other therapists (mostly other travelers) and just getting used to the computer system and the hours of documentation that come with doing home health. It's nice to spend the day outside and moving from place to place, but I'm mostly just excited about exploring Monterey and San Francisco (only a 1h/30-40m drive!) :-) I will get my own patients on Thursday.
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| Kevin, our instructor for the day! |
Before I left the (hot, dry, smoggy) Inland Empire, I got to spend some great times with friends and boyfriend. I finally squeezed in a surf lesson! Jeff and I both made it up onto our boards a few times! The water was chilly but bearable once I was focused more on standing up than being cold!
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| Pre-sub ball picture on the balcony... downtown San Diego behind us! |
Kevin took me to his Navy Sub Ball (so fun!) and we spent the weekend in San Diego. There was a science and engineering expo downtown that we found while we were walking around, which was pretty cool too. Lots of demo's and vendors and interesting stuff to get people into science.
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| Soaked after riding Journey to Atlantis... Yep, it was chilly and that's why we were wearing jeans! (Even chillier now!) |
The next weekend, I decided I to enjoy my time off before starting my job in Monterey hanging out in SoCal, cramming in some more time with everyone I know down there! Thanks again to Beth and Mike for their overwhelmingly generous welcome in their guest room!! Kevin and I met up with Jeff, Hillary, and Nardos on Friday night in Malibu for some dinner and drinks. Wish it had been a little warmer and a little more light out to check out the sights of that beautiful area, but it was still great to see everyone! We hit SeaWorld on Saturday morning then met up with Beth and Mike, who grilled out for us before we played Trivial Pursuit for the night. Sunday was mostly spent in the car, driving back to the IE from San Diego then me driving up to Monterey to move into my first rental for the week.. I spent about 4 days in temporary vacation rental before I could move into my room in Monterey - a short 3 minute bike ride to Starbucks and only another 3 minutes from there to the beach! Where I am living now is a little further to the beach (7-8 minutes by bike), but we're in the "sunbelt" part of Monterey, which apparently gets less fog than other parts!
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| Lifelong best friends |
All in all, SoCal was an amazing time!! I had a great three months there and anticipate returning to Southern California before too long. (besides as a pit stop on the way to a Utah wedding for the weekend, which is what I did the weekend after I left!! Another fun time with my man!)
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| Sun setting over Key West... |
And last, but not at ALL least... this past weekend, I spent a wonderful, relaxing 5 day GFW with my very best friends in Key West, FL. We ran, we swam, we stand-up-paddleboarded, we parasailed, we ate, we laughed, we mini-vanned, we sang, we danced, and unfortunately, many of us burned... (thankfully I am a sunscreen master and am minimally red ;-) I definitely needed the time with people I love so much, and I'm so thankful I got to see them all! I'm already looking forward to my trip home to Maryland in July!
