scrubs

So, I have to wear "kid-friendly" scrubs at my new job. Kill me now. Agh, I can't bring myself to wear Spongebob or Dora (and Lord knows I won't be wearing Tinkerbell!). I hope I can find some happy medium...

...say, Barbie? Just kidding, but seriously. I really would much rather wear something less tacky.

This Weekend

Hello! Thought it was time for an update. On Friday Nate and I went up to Maryland for one of his cousin's wedding. It was a lot of fun! We got to Ocean City at like 1 or 1:30 I think, and went straight to the beach for a little bit and then showered and went to the wedding. It was at this Italian restaurant that they rented out. The wedding was outside and it was short and sweet, then everyone went inside and drank, danced, ate dinner, and just had a good time. We stayed there pretty late, and then slept at a hotel (for free.. yay!) that his uncle owns.
Yesterday we got up early and went to breakfast and then spent the day on the beach. It was a blast but drained all of my energy. At about 3:30 we left the beach and stopped by Nate's parents' house for a while and then drove home.
This morning we got up around 3:30 and I took Nate to the ship and we picked up 2 of his work buddies and I dropped them off at the airport. They went to Florida until Wednesday night for some Navy training thing. Then on Thursday we are going back to Ocean City for the weekend. What are you all doing for the 4th of July?
Tomorrow I am going to my new job at the hospital to fill out some paperwork and get a physical. I am really excited! I start work on July 14th. It's going to be nice to be a little more busy, but I am definitely enjoying my summer of freedom! Today I went to the mall and returned a few dresses and bought a few things. Then this afternoon I saw some movie called Priceless. It was great. The movie was in French and had subtitles. After the movie I met Katie for some dinner and then came home and have been watching tv. I am still pretty tired so I will probably get to bed by ten or 10:30 tonight. See you all in about a month and a half! I can't wait!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

I Think We Have Decided On A Date

So after much deliberation, I think Nate and I have set a date for the big day. The plan is that on July 11th we are going to tie the knot! Hooray! That is a Friday and we are trying to book some bed and breakfast near a beach so that we can get away for the weekend and have a little romantic getaway! I just wanted to fill you all in! I miss you guys and Arizona a lot! It's been hitting me a little harder these past few days. Love you!

Tamara Blum, RN

I passed my exam! Yay! I am sooo happy! I am now officially a nurse!

Better Homes and Gardens

My cousin, Eric, and his family are featured in the July edition of the magazine Better Homes and Gardens. If you want to check it out, you should! It's pages 132-137 and it's pretty awesome. Anyways, I just thought I would share that with all of you because I thought it was really cool.

On a side note, today I took my NCLEX. I think I will find out in the next couple of days if I passed or not, and I will definitely keep you posted. I would ask for your luck, but it's a little late for that now! Haha. The way the test is formatted, you answer questions on the computer, and if you do well, they get harder and more complex. If you are doing poorly, they remain more basic. After 75 questions (the minimum) if the computer thinks you are doing well enough to pass you, or so bad that there is no hope for you, it shuts off. If you are somewhere inbetween it keeps giving you questions until it decides you either know your stuff or you don't, and you can have up to 265 questions. For me, it shut off at 75... I'm hoping that means I passed, otherwise I may need phone calls every couple hours or so to make sure I'm not playing in traffic.

I love you all and I really miss you a lot! I can't wait to see you guys in August, although I wish I could sooner! Muah!

Dates

My Reception will be at my parents' house on Saturday, August 16th and start at 6pm. It's going to be a come and go type thing, so feel free to come later, because you guys better stay late so that we can all hang out once the crazies are gone! I am so looking forward to seeing you all!

I Suck at Spelling

I realize that I made a lot of spelling errors in my last post, but I don't know how to edit it, so try not to make fun of me. Thanks!
-Tamara

A Few Pictures

Hello! So this morning I went to the beach again. It was a very nice day! About 85 degrees.. not too hot. The water was a little chilly but I got used to it pretty quickly, and I spent about an hour in the water, and an hour out of it. While laying on the beach, I read the newspaper, did the sudoku, and worked on the crossword puzzle. I actually got about half of the crossword puzzle done... I was proud of myself. Haha, mabye one of these days I will be good at them.

Okay, so the pictures aren't great, and there are none of me and Nate, but there are some from the beach, and pictures of my house. Enjoy!


Colley Cantina- the closest thing to Arizona! I love this place... good drinks, great chips and salsa, and yummy food! Also it is like 2 blocks from my house.


My new hospital. I start work July 14 and I am really excited!


This is a place called The Winehouse. I went there the other day and had a delicious glass of Spanish wine. The food is a little pricey and fancy (i.e. made with ingredients I don't like), but I am sure we will try it sometime.


Another bar on Colley Ave. They have an amazing happy hour... 1/2 of all drinks (and I think appetizers). I don't like the service or atmosphere as much as Colley Cantina, but you can't beat the prices.


The grassy median on my street.


View from my front yard.


Our house... we are on the top floor. It's a little different, and it took me a little while to get used to the color, but I love it now!


Front porch, yard, and fire escape.


THe door to my basement where the washer and drier are. I will probably never be doing laundry at night but at least it is free!


Fire escape.


A pretty tree in front of my house.


Beach day! I like the ship you can see in the background!


More beach.


Me at the beach. I can't stand this picture because I want to push my glasses down, but oh well.


Beautiful beach day. Also, the reason I never have any idea where I am, globally. I swear none of the roads are one direction... it's always like SW, or NE. The other day I was driving on a "straight" road and my compass went from SE to NE. WTF!

Beach Day!

As some of you already know, Nate left Friday for about a week and a half. It has been kinda nice so far, just having time to relax and get situated. I have spent a lot of time watching tv, unpacking my stuff, getting familiar with the walking-distance-area, doing a little studying for the NCLEX, spending way too much time online, and just generally enjoying my time off. But today I decided it is time to venture out... I decided to go to the beach!

Being the total badass that I am, I threw caution to the wind, and just jumped into my car without looking at a map. After a few minor wrong turns, I got on the freeway and was on my way! I found a parking lot with no problem and plopped down on the sand. I brought a newspaper and some studying material and just chilled out. Actually, there was nothing chilly about it. The temperature was in the mid 90's and it was humid, but oh so delightful. I eventually got into the water (freaking out the whole time that some creature was going to bite/sting me especially since I was alone) and it was really nice. Not too cold at all! I stayed at the beach for about an hour and a half and headed home without making one wrong turn! It was great!

So now I am home, and showered, and having a bowl of honey bunches of oats for lunch. I put on sunscreen before I went and I don't think I burned at all... yay! Now I plan on watching terrible tv (i.e. Denise Richards: It's Complicated), wasting a lot of time online, and doing a little bit of studying. Tonight I may venture out for dinner somewhere. I definitely think I will head back to the beach another time this week, and maybe I will bring my camera next time. I was worried to bring it today because last time I went to Virginia Beach it was shady, but this time it was a much better crowd!

One last thing... this whole time difference thing blows my mind! I kept wanting to call or text people while I was laying on the beach, but realized no one would appreciate it since most people were still asleep. I have gotten used to it being 2-3 hours later for Nate, but to have it be 2-3 hours earlier is just wrong.

Love!

Cross Country Adventure

Okay, I am still trying to figure out how all of this works, so bear with me.

Last Wednesday Nate flew in to Phoenix, where I picked him up at the airport, and we went to my parents' house for the night. We hung out with the family, and some people that stopped by for a quick last visit. We had some delicious Mexican food for dinner, and played a little frisbee with the family, and just hung out. We got to bed pretty early because we were going to wake up around 5 on Thursday to embark on our journey.

So, 5:15 Thursday morning, my mom woke us up. We relucantly, yet excitedly, got up and ready. We were on the road by 6:15. We got through town with no problems and took the I-17 to Flagstaff-ish, where we got on the 40 (which we took for many many many many hours). We stopped at Meteor Crator near Winslow, which was pretty cool. Luckily there was not too much excitement on our drive, and we arrived in Amarillo, Texas for the night. Somehow, niether of us had taken into account the time difference (which was 2 hours later in Texas). I will admit, but the time we got there I was a bit of a grouch. I was all concerned because my mom had told me my tail light was out, and we had to drive for a little while in the dark and I was certain that I was going to get pulled over. Then, when we checked into out hotel, we were going to get dinner, and I really wanted to go somewhere we could walk, but there was nothing around, within walking distance, that served booze. So, we drove around to a few different gas stations until we found a bottle of wine, and then we got fast food for dinner. Not exactly the dinner we had been hoping for all day, but it definitely sufficed. (And we found out that my tail light was not out, which was very relieving).

So the next morning, Friday, we slept in a little bit. I don't remember exactly what time. We drove through some of Texas, and through Oklahoma. We decided to stop in Oklahoma City for lunch, and ended up taking like a detour, and we ended up in some super shady grocery store that reminded me of a Walmart and Food City mixed. Eww. We used the restrooms, and got the fuck out of there. After all of that we ended up getting Subway for lunch (one that was in a gas station, just off the 40). We were both kinda weireded out about the situation, and a little annoyed that we wasted so much time, but Nate was cute about it and kept saying "we visited some relatives", which sounds way better than "we drove around a shitty part of town aimlessly for the better part of an hour." And by "we", I have to admit, it was me driving. Then we made it through the rest of Oklahoma and Arkansas without a glitch. I even let Nate drive. We stayed the second night in Memphis, Tennessee where we stayed in a Double Tree. It was a wonderful hotel room! We walked across the parking lot (thank goodness) to a Fox and Hound where we had dinner and a couple drinks. Then we made our way back to the hotel room, where we slept in a very comfy, big, clean, soft bed!

Saturday we took our time getting up because we had already decided that we were not going to try to make it to Virginia in the three days we had planned. That was a very good decision on our part because we had no real need (Nate didn't have to be back to work until Thursday). Plus, this way we got to stay a night in Asheville, North Carolina. So we stopped at a Food Lion, and got some snacks and breakfast, and were on the road, the 40. Still. We made it to Asheville fairly early, I think 6 or 7. We had called a bunch of hotels on the way, and ended up liking the sound of one called Country Inns and Suites. We wanted to be able to take a dip that night, and this place had an indoor pool. Plus they had free breakfast in the morning. And it was a reasonable price. When we got there, the guy working at the desk, Gene (super sweet, and hospitable guy) offered us a free upgrade to a suite. Sweet. And, they had free Otis Spunkmyer cookies. Very yum. We asked if there was a good resturant that we could walk to, and he told us about this place called Cornerstone which was a bit down the street. So we went upstairs, got dressed and headed of to this yummy place. On the way back to the hotel we encountered this super creepy man, and was coming out of a motel parking lot walking straight towards us with his hand in the pocket of his trenchcoat. I was sure he was going to kill and/or rob me. But instead he just wanted to tell us about him being in the Mafia and talk about how Hitler almost did a really good job. Hmm. He also told us he would be our body guard. I was very happy when we got to the well-lit gas station and he picked up another few beers and headed back where he came from. So, we went back to the hotel, took a swim, showered, and then watched The Sweetest Thing and went to bed.

We slept in pretty late that morning, had some less-than-good free breakfast, and headed on our final journey! We took our time coming from North Carolina and finally getting on some different highways, and getting home. We made it around 4:30 or so (I think). At this point we unpacked all of my junk, and sweated our faces off (the humidity here is very high, but that's a whole different blog). Once we got all of my stuff upstairs, I swear it grew. Literally, it took up 1/3 of the living room. It looks like enough stuff to fill my car twice. I don't know how I managed to pack it all in there. So, Sunday night after we had showered and recouperated a bit, we walked down to Colley Cantina and had ourselves some dinner.

That is all for now, the cross country adventure summed up into just a few paragraphs. We took a ton of pictures but Nate's computer isn't working right now, so I will get some of them up as soon as that gets fixed. I love you all and miss you a ton! There will be many more blogs to come!