awkward & awesome thursday.

On Thursdays, Sydney at The Daybook {one of my favourite fashion blogs that I read... which just got even more exciting when she announced she was expecting a baby boy and now all her outfits include her bump} writes a post about awkward & awesome things that happen in her everyday life and because there has been so many crazy awesome and crazy crazy things that have happened in my life recently, I decided to link up with her today! 

I have included these awkward {because I am petrified of heights and was so scared to be hanging off the edge of a cliff!!} and awesome {would ya look at that view?} pictures of me attempting to get a cool photog at a dangerous angle in Bryce Canyon over the weekend! You can't really tell but I had to walk off the path, over the edge and hold on to a tree that had fallen and was suspended on the side of the canyon about ten feet down. I kept trying to relax enough to smile but a panic attack would kick in and I would run back up before I could even convince myself to smile. AWWKward. But equally AWEsome.=) 


Awkward:

• Getting a pedicure and the aesthetician asking me if I went to the high school nearby. Me: BAHHAhhaaa.... awkward silence... Oh, you're serious. No, I graduated high school seven years ago..." 
• Giving the cashier $50.05 for a bill of $49.04 and getting $0.91 back. A little confused but not overly concerned about the 10 cent difference in the change I should have received, I clarified: "How much did I give you?" $50.05. "And what was the total?" $49.04. "And my change is... $0.91?" Yes! That's what I gave you! ... That's what I thought. Buy a calculator. 
• Trying very hard to be an adult and suppressing how scared I was to get an intramuscular vaccine around my new colleagues today yesterday. Hyperventilating and shaking, I finally broke down, proclaimed "I'm a wimp!" and begged the girl sitting next to me who I had just met to hold my clammy hands while it was being administered. The nurse's response, "Did you know a wimp actually means a young lady? So yes, you are a wimp! How young are you exactly?" My response: Old enough for it to no longer be socially acceptable to cry while getting shots... like it was back in high school. {See bullet #1} 
• Feeling frantic on my first day of work yesterday, I was running around in the dark rummaging through suitcases and boxes for something that smelled clean to wear. I remembered I packed a black sweater in my Canada suitcase so I dumped it's contents on to the floor and picked up the first cotton wad of black fabric I saw and shoved it in my tote. Fast forward 2 hours later to the cold hospital orientation conference room: I am discretely trying to slip on my sweater without looking behind me to not lose eye contact with the lecturer who was demonstrating how to revive a patient. When I couldn't find the sleeves, I finally turned around out of frustration and gasped when I realized I had grabbed my CHEMISE and NOT a sweater. I'm pretty sure I will be remembered at my new job as the chick who tried to put on negligee during orientation...  
• Coming face-to-beak with a pigeon in the towel aisle of Target. A real live pigeon... just waddling down the home goods section, looking for an escape. It completely threw me off shopping amongst the wildlife... which is why when a really unsmart lady ignored the escalator-for-carts signs and brought her cart on the escalator-for-humans, it inevitable tipped over... and then pinned her underneath... and I naturally kept shopping. I had the best view of the fiasco in the store as I escalated to the third floor and watched this drama unfold on the floor below me. I would have ran back down but as I exited the escalator, the pigeon flew past me nearly clipping my head with a wing and landed on a flat screen TV on display. Winged birds indoors trump nursing skills any day. 
• Getting the keys to my new apartment yesterday and really having to pee after a long road trip. {T.M.I.? It gets better.} Glancing over midstream at the t.p. holder, I realized new apartments don't come stocked with rolls and I had not purchased any yet. After I shamefully shook my lettuce, I walked 12 blocks {uphill} to Trader Joe's to buy a few groceries, returned home and did not realize I had completely forgotten to purchase toilet paper until I sat down... again. {Sigh}.
• Spending many hours neglecting everything else I was supposed to be doing to write this post yesterday because I thought it was Thursday.
• My double-jointed arm in the photograph below. Lovely.

Awesome:

• Living the Seattleite dream... in a cute, little apartment on Capitol Hill... two floors above a Starbucks. AND its free! Because that is how I roll as a traveler nurse. You know what else is free? Their WIFI that I'm currently stealing borrowing from the comforts of my couch. Overcharge me for a cup of coffee now, suckas.
• I am in love. I am so very in love with the University of Washington. I walked across the gorgeous campus to the UW library after work today and it felt so fabulous to swipe my student ID and print off a shit ton of double-sided notes for the class I am taking. There's something incredible about being a student that I can't quite put my finger on well enough to translate in to words... yet.    I'll get there.
• Getting to see my sister, BIL, and the entire Duffley clan to cheer on Mister Christopher as he sings the National Anthem at a Red Sox game in a week from today! =) 
• My discovery of piloxing, a combination of kickboxing and Pilates. The hardest workout I have done in a super long time. 
• Being back on the West Coast and being able to continuously breathe in the ocean breeze. Even though I can't always see it, just knowing it is there in the distance {twelve bustling city blocks away} puts my mind at ease.
• New friends. It's a Small World started playing in my head when a staff nurse I worked with at Tampa General sat down next to me in hospital orientation on the first day. Small world, indeed. Not to mention, my new best friend that I haven't met yet who lives two hours away in Vancouver. Cannot wait to meet you soon, Sammi! =)