King Tut and the 6th Floor Museum

I met with a friend today, and we went on a Dallas tour. First, we went to lunch at Whataburger, then we went to the Dallas Museum of the Arts to see the King Tut exhibit. After touring the museum, we went to the famous 6th Floor Museum where Lee Harvey Oswald set up his sniper 'nest' and shot President Kennedy. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed in either the King Tut exhibit or the 6th floor museum, so sorry. We were able to go down to the grassy knoll (pictured above) and I also ran out on the road where Kennedy was first shot and took a picture shown above (yes, I was safe and waited until there was no traffic). In the picture, Oswald was shooting from the 6th floor window (there are 7 floors total) to the window to the right (it is beside a window with a rounded top). There were "X's" on both of the locations denoting where the car was when Kennedy was hit with each bullet. It was very interesting seeing both of these museums. Also, the weather has turned around, today was nearly 70 degrees out, yes!

Whataburger

I went to Whataburger for lunch today before going out to see some of the Dallas sights. It is a Texas tradition, originating in Corpus Christi in 1950.

Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs

Tomorrow, I will be going with a friend to the Dallas Museum of the Arts to see the exhibit "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs." It should be a lot of fun, so I am very excited. Unfortunately, I cannot take picture of that specific exhibit, but I will take pictures of whatever I am able to!

Huge Hospital

To put into perspective how large Medical City Dallas Hospital is, one of the students measured the distance from the PT Department to the set of elevators that I take to get up to my floor. The distance was measured at just under 2,000 feet! Keep in mind, that I walk this distance at least 4 times a day, in addition to walking around on the floor to and from various patient rooms. This means that if I walk the distance at least 5 times, I am walking a mile...crazy, huh? If you are looking at the map, the PT department is in building C and I see patients in building E. Therefore, I have to walk through buildings C -> B -> A -> D -> E to get to my floor to see my patients.

First Day

Sorry, I forgot to take my camera today and forgot to take a cell phone picture. My first day at the new job went well. I was able to successfully maneuver my car on a sheet of ice and drove past a nasty 3 car wreck that they were beginning to clear away. Thankfully, the traffic was not bad at all as most of the motorist were staying at home. I drove about 10-20 mph the whole way and my car did well. Once I got to work, I found the Rehab Department, and someone led me to the office of the woman I was supposed to meet, but she wasn't in her office. I waited there for about 10 minutes, and finally she came back to her office and apologized. As she was the only supervisor there, she had been canceling the outpatients and arranging the schedule for all of the hospital patients on the caseload. Several of the PTs were either not showing up or coming very late, so the schedule was crazy. I finally got about a 1 1/2 hour brief orientation, and she found out that another therapist was going up to the floor that I will mainly work on, so she sent me off with him. I came back down at lunch, and it turns out that they had scheduled me with patients, so that was good. The only problem is the hospital is HUGE and has 5 different buildings with all of these winding hallways. Thankfully, they have good signs, so I haven't gotten lost yet (as in I can get from one building to the other, but I couldn't even begin to tell you how I got there or do it without the signs). Overall, it was a great day at work, and it seems like I will have some very nice coworkers.

Dallas

I went to visit my recruiter, August, today at Platinum Select Staffing. The company is based out of Dallas, so I stopped by today to say hello and meet some of the staff there. Their building is the taller one on the left side of the picture. The Time Warner guy came today to turn on my cable and hook up my wireless internet, so I'm a happy camper now! Toby did not like the cable guy, he barked constantly at him until he left the apartment.

Tomorrow is my first day at work, I did a test drive today and it took about 20 minutes (with traffic) to get there and about 10-15 minutes to get back (little traffic). I'm very excited about my first day of work in the morning, but not excited about the ice storm tonight. Don't worry, I will drive slow and carefully to work in the morning, as they told me that they would understand if I was late getting to work in the morning (they seem like very nice people).

Rainy day

I took a trip to the Walmart grocery store today to get some groceries. I plugged "Walmart" into the GPS and picked the closest one. As I was driving up, I noticed the sign said "Walmart Neighborhood Market" and thought that odd. As I was parking, I noticed only signage for "Pharmacy" and "Groceries." Lesson learned today, there are Walmart stores that are only groceries stores and not the typical retail stores. I was able to rent a few DVDs from the Red Box kiosks (they are $1 a day rentals) to keep me entertained while I wait for the cable and internet to be hooked up. By the way, that is my green 2009 Toyota Corolla rental car in the picture. Not too bad, huh?

Update, later I decided to go to Target and purchase an antenna since getting cable hooked up today is not an option. When I got home to hook up the antenna, I noticed that there are many digital local channels, and these channels come in crystal clear like they do on cable channels. So, if you are not really a big tv fan and do not want to spend the money on cable television, but like clarity, the new digital local channels picked up by a cheap $9.99 antenna may be the way you want to go.

Welcome to Dallas

Since my internet is not hooked up yet, here is a cell phone picture of the new apartment. Here is the dining room at the living room. If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you can see Toby is already at home propped on the pillow on the couch. The flight went well and getting my rental car was a smooth process. Thankfully, I brought my GPS with me, as I know that it will help me to navigate while I am in Texas.

Dallas Bound

Toby is sitting in his carry case on the ride to the Charlotte airport. Our flight leaves at 11:50 and arrives in Dallas at 2:50 CST.

Packing

As I'm packing things for my assignment in Dallas, I was looking at arranging things in my carry on. I placed Toby's bed in the suitcase and he proceeded to jump in and sniff around. My mom tried to pick him up, and he pulled back as hard as he could. I guess that's Toby's way of saying that he doesn't want me to forget him! Oh, and I believe I have been able to limit myself to the 2 carry-on pieces (including the bag that I carry Toby in) and one checked bag, I am very excited that I was able to condense my packing list.

Last few days in NC

Get ready everyone, my blog is about to start picking up again with new posts. My plane leaves on Sunday, so I am very excited, but as always, a little nervous. In preparations for the move, I got my hair trimmed yesterday and took Toby to get his nails trimmed. I have also had Toby's "house" (the bag that he travels in) as I call it laying out in the floor so that he could get reacquainted with it. Now, to the least exciting part, packing. I'm trying to really slim down on my packing this time, as I have been taking too much stuff in the past. Plus, I wear scrubs to work, so that cuts out on some of my clothes there. The only bad thing is that I have no idea what to pack as weather seems to be crazy in Dallas, IE it was 80 degrees there yesterday and supposed to be in the low 50s or so on Saturday. Wish me luck!

New President

After enjoying the snow for a bit, I took the time to watch the Inauguration of the new President of the United States. Whether or not you voted for him, this was a great event to witness. Good luck to President Obama and God Bless America!

Toby in the snow

I let Toby go out to play in the snow (at this point, there is just under two inches). He was so excited! He first a little hesitant, but then he went all out exploring in the snow. Very cute!

The morning snow

Here are some pictures that I took of the snow that we had this morning. The snow is still falling, and we already have about an inch. They are predicting snow until around noon, so I'll take Toby out later in the day. Note in the one picture, you can see the falling snow flakes reflecting the camera flash.

Snow

As I write this, snow has been gradually falling since about 9:30 pm. I hope that it continues and there will be actual accumulation on the ground tomorrow morning. Rest assured, if there is any real snow (not slushy icy mess), I will let Toby go out and play in it and of course take pictures to post! FYI, interesting posts should be starting again soon as I fly to Dallas for my next assignment on Sunday.

Two Weeks Off!

As my last day of work was on Friday, I am now enjoying two weeks of vacation. While I am not doing anything exciting, it will be nice to be able to tie up some loose ends and pack before heading off to Dallas on January 25th.

Bridesmaid's Dress

Here is a picture of the bridesmaid's dress for my friend's wedding. This dress was about 6 sizes too big, so it is kind of hanging on me. Also, the dress will be in Cornflower Blue, so it should be very pretty.

"The" Dress

Good news! After going around to many different stores yesterday, we returned to the first store and bought the dress that we all loved. It is quite beautiful, and on the off chance that her fiance might actually read my blog, I am not going to reveal any details on here. We were also able to find the Bridesmaid's dresses, and I was able to get fitted and order my dress yesterday. I will post a picture of my dress later today, after I have gotten home. This has been a great weekend, and we had a blast!

Girl's Weekend

I am in Camden, SC this weekend visiting my best friend and helping her look at wedding dresses! I took this picture as I was driving into the town yesterday afternoon. It should be so much fun helping her look at dresses, our first stop is at 10 am.

Happy New Year!

I hope that everyone has a very Happy New Year for 2009! I hope that this is a great year for everyone.