It's hot here!

We made it safely to the glittering city, albeit am hour delayed. But
the shuttle ride and checkin went smoothly. Our room is beautiful, I
promptly checked the bathroom and see it to be appropriately
sumptuous. I love nice hotel bathrooms. We have a view from the 24th
floor of the strip, including the pirate show below. Were just going
to stay in tonight, it's 2 am Colorado time. It looks luke were in
for a fabulous weekend!

Friday May 1 I had my pinning ceremony for nursing school graduation. I was thrilled that all my grandparents and most of my close family flew into Denver to visit, despite rain and plane breakdowns. These are photos from the the ceremony and party following, taken by my personal photographer, Ben Mason, who is quite excellent. You can see more of the photos on his photostream here. But these are some of my favorites. I'd love to see the photos that others took, Miranda and Mom and Dad! Send them my way when you get a chance.

Driving back from the airport Saturday Amanda found out that the Alpaca Festival was going on Right Now! My humoring parents let us spend a couple hours admiring the fuzzy creatures and getting some fleece for spinning.

More pictures are on my flickr stream.

If you know me, you can confirm that I am a huge Chipotle enthusiast. This week they changed their menu *gasp!* It was my duty to investigate. It seems the only item change is a new pozole soup. Bleh. What is wonderful though, is that they offer more items at lower prices now. I usually get three tacos or a salad. Both are HUGE and leave me happy but bloated and heavy. Oh happy day, they now have a single taco and salad combo - behold!

It's so beautiful.

Perfect taste, not too much food, and it's a tad cheaper. They also added a kids menu, which is genius since I can't imagine what kids would eat there before, their portions are so huge. My love for Chipotle has only deepened.

My first day off was spent cleaning my house top to bottom. I scrubbed baseboards, people. My cleaning day was slightly dampened by the 2 inches of snow we received this morning. So I couldn't open the windows and let a gentle spring breeze freshen the air. Oh well. I also started a new knitting pattern. I might not have enough yarn for it. We shall see.

I'm pretty stressed out about not having a job lined up. I know it's early and I haven't even sent applications in (I will this week, I promise!). But try telling your brain that. I'm out of school and out of work. I'm starting to study for NCLEX, that will keep me pretty busy while I look. Nevertheless, my emotions are up and down lately.

Miranda is inspiring me to throw a nice party on Friday for graduation. In my mind I was just going to spread the taco bar out on a table with some 2 liters of soda. Now I have visions of garlands and fancy cupcakes and fresh fruit juices. Darn that girl! Making me be cool and stuff *pout*.

Ben just turned off his xbox and announced "time for bed." Since I'm still trying to get on a normal sleep schedule I should obey.

Waiting for the elevator to take me downstairs for the last time. The next time I put on scrubs to go to a hospital, I'll be an RN. Hoo, boy.

It was a good last day. I like lists, so here:

• I had two pleasant, friendly men with cardiac problems
• I totally heard a murmur. Not just sort of - a REAL murmur. Finally.
• The lemon pound cake that I made for the nurses was devoured by midnight. (see shot-a-day blog)
• It was only an 8 hour shift
• I didn't get mugged in the middle of the night for the whole month. Yay!
• My nurse gave me tons of compliments, boosting my confidence
• And what made it a GREAT shift? NO POOP! Seriously. I can deal with it when I have to, but I HATE having patients poop in the ICU where there aren't bathrooms.
  

It went by so fast. I'm so excited to get back to a normal life, but I don't think that will happen for at least another 3 months.