Hello to All!

I thought it was time for another email!  I am finished with my orientation at work and today and tomorrow are the classroom part.  I am happy to say that everyone I've met at Desert is good to work with, has a positive attitude, and is my age (mostly anyway!).  The doctors there are just as nice as they were at JFK.  All the rooms are private so there's less room for error (in other words, don't stay in a semi-private room if you can help it).  They even have faux hard wood floors!  The hospital is about 300 beds, which is small compared to EJGH, but they are more high-tech than other facilities in the valley.  I can actually use a computer to do my job, which makes things easier in many ways.  Y'all that worked at EJ with me know this, but my supervisor there was basically pushed out of her position.  What a relief to know that administration finally saw how terrible she was.  I can't believe I put up with her as long as I did.  I just knew that I was moving and that helped (apparently!).


In other news... Eric and I went to San Diego for four days last week.  It was so much fun.  We went to the Zoo and saw the pandas (they have three).  It was around feeding time when we saw the cats, and the leopard actually growled at a guy next to me and tried to swipe him through the cage!  I've never seen a zoo animal be aggressive toward someone.  It was weird.  I've never heard them make noise!  Their zoo is as nice as Audubon, but the exhibits are smaller and the animals seem cramped.  They do a lot of breeding of endangered species, and apparently are having problems finding room for them all.  They had seven giraffes!  They also have an albino koala, wallabies, and meerkats (like Timon in the Lion King).  Later that day we went to Mission Beach and La Jolla to see the ocean.  It was beautiful!  We went to find Molly Quinn's house in La Jolla but we couldn't find the address (she went to ASH until 6th grade and we wrote letters back and forth for a long time).  All the houses were beautiful anyway.

We went to an Italian place called Bella Luna for dinner, which was very tasty.  It was in the Gaslamp District, kind of like the French Quarter but clean.  Plus you feel safe b/c there are people everywhere.  Actually it reminded us of downtown Fort Worth.  Thursday we went to Tijuana and got loaded in the middle of the afternoon.  It must be something about Mexico that does that to you.  Either that or the two tequila shots they poured down my throat!  We bought some Cuban cigars and an ashtray and basically walked around the rest of the time.  We had bought a round trip bus ticket over the border, but the bus got stuck at Customs on the way back, so we walked.  It is very weird coming back over the border... the feeling is hard to describe.  I wonder if they'll ever open the border like it is with Canada.

We went to Rock Bottom brewery for dinner in the Gaslamp District (again).  It was so good to be back around young people and be near nightlife!  We live around a bunch of old fogies who bitch about everything, plus nobody I know yet likes to get wild and crazy!  Well, I take that back... the people I work with who live in Palm Springs seem a little more interesting.  The desert is just so tame compared to New Orleans, but I guess any place is!  Ah yes.  We also went to Seaport Village on the wharf at San Diego.  It was so cool!  It is a little shopping village with restaurants on the water and a park that juts out into the Bay.  There were these bicycle carriages that you could ride around in, and we just walked from the hotel.  I do have to say, it is nice to feel safe for a change.  Can you imagine the Warehouse District being like that?  Wouldn't that be nice.  I miss New Orleans so much!

Other than that, I'm thinking about a new car.  I have to get the front axle worked on, and my struts are going out, plus they freak out here if your radiator hoses are more than five years old (something to do with the desert sand).  Anyone know what the blue book is on a '94 Corolla?  I'd really like to get 100,000 miles out if it if I can.  Well now that I am boring you, I will go.  We are BBQing steaks tonight!  And our plants are still alive!!  We might actually use the herbs!  I am sending along a pic of the wedding too for you.  It is taken at Tuscany's.

Love to all, will write more soon!
P.S.  Pray for my friend Lauren who is getting married Saturday in NOLA!  Love ya!