Nurse Q & A

So my beautifully talented friend Jarah is doing a cool Nurse Q & A on her blog http://brightredcords.blogspot.com/ and I was the first one!! I feel so special. I am also incredibly proud to call her my friend as she is going to be a big time Oncology nurse at Duke!!!! Definitely going to have to visit her there because I will really miss her cute face!

I like getting what I need and love getting what I want.

Soooo, I got the job!!! I still think I have a smile plastered on my face from the sheer excitement. It is such a small change in how I introduce myself-- Hi, my name is Emily and I'm an ICU nurse :) but wow, does it bring such a huge amount of changes to my life. This job to me means complete independence. It means that I won't have to live paycheck to paycheck. That is epic! It means I will be able to help my son as he transitions into young adulthood. That means so much to me. Mostly, this job means that all my years of sacrificing, hard work, and turmoil have finally paid off. I have tried to live those years with optimism and hopefulness. There were so many times that I had no idea of how things would work out, but I always told myself that somehow they would. With the help and support of my friends and family and the universe, they did. This is also a reaffirmation to myself that nothing is impossible and that I am truly capable of doing anything and everything that I set my mind to do.
On a lighter and less self congratulatory note, SLC has finally ushered in summer. The weather the last week has been sublime. I attended the Pride Festival for the first time and had so much fun.  My friend Jen, who makes me exercise and I love her for it, have walked City Creek twice. So far, we've done 6 miles round trip, but we have the goal of making it to the top, which would be about 12 miles round trip. On tap for this weekend, Gallery Stroll and Father's Day in the park. But what I'm really getting excited for is the Utah Arts Festival next weekend. That has to be, hands down, my most favorite festival of the summer. I love looking at the art, listening to the music, eating the food--OOOHHhhhhhh, I'm getting all giddy just thinking about it. More fun soon :)

I want this job!!

Today I interviewed for probably the best job in my entire life. It was for the Critical Care Internship at University Hospital. I would learn all the critical care areas over 20 weeks and then get hired into one of those units. Starting my nursing career as an ICU nurse would be amazing!! To continue to work for the U would fit just perfectly into my master plan. I can only hope that the interview panel saw how prepared and professional I was. I won't lie, my heart was pounding going in. But I have so many angels on my shoulders cheering me on, how could they not hire me ;) Stay tuned....

Twilight Concert Series 2011

So, super excited today to hear the lineup for this year's Twilight Concert Series. This series has long been a huge reason that I love SLC in the summertime. I was a little bummed to hear that it was going to be held at Pioneer Park again; can we hope and wish for a return to Gallivan next summer??!!? But I think last summer was a perfect storm of a bigger venue and BIGGER names opening the series (Modest Mouse was a complete s**tshow). So I think while this year's lineup is not as mainstream, it will hopefully encourage the people who like to hear good music outnumber the small children who are there to be seen. Ehh, I can only hope. See you at the shows!!

July 14th * Explosions in the Sky

July 21st * The Decemberists

July 28th * Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

August 4th * Thurston Moore

August 11th * Bright Eyes

August 18th * Ghostland Observatory

August 25th * Lupe Fiasco

Fierro's Rock

I really don't know what I do without my family. My cutie pie sister, Alysha, was in town this weekend visiting and we all went to dinner tonight.  I love that the simple act of eating together, laughing together and telling stories can be like getting a blood transfusion. A recharge and refresh if you will.

I also love that whenever we go to dinner, we are easily the loudest table in the joint.

It also doesn't hurt that my family is quite adorable. Pretty much, Fierros Rock.



Great Strides SL & Living Traditions

What a fantastic day!! Great Strides Salt Lake was this morning at the Gallivan. This is a new venue for this year's walk and I really liked it. Christine did such an awesome job as our team captain for the Mucous Busters!

Love the shirts. I also got to see my very good friend Majda.

So then, after a little nap, I headed down to the 26th Annual Living Traditions Festival at Washington Square. This is of the many reasons that I L-O-V-E being in downtown SLC. This festivals kicks off the summer season and celebrates all the different ethnic and cultural groups in Salt Lake and Utah. I think it's nice for people to remember Utah is not as homogeneous as people think. My friend Ivonne and her daughter dance in a Latin American group that does a variety of different dances from different countries.

 They were balancing glasses on their heads while they were dancing!

 Jackie is a great dancer!

Ivonne's smile is definitely contagious.

Now here is another reason why I love downtown SLC. After the performance, walked around a bit, looked at some crafts and was about to leave, when I run into some of my Jepsen cousins, Megan and Lizzie!! Salt Lake is such a small town that just about every time I go somewhere, I run into someone I know. We watched the Brazilian Capoeira dancers and drank some wine; a perfectly lovely way to end the day.

Megan made a very astute observation about me as we talked. She said it sounded like there were so many great things happening for me recently and finally! I told her I think it is because I made room in my life for good karma to reach me. I had so much negativity blocking it all, that despite all the good I was trying to put out into the world, it just wasn't able to return to me. It makes me feel excited for my life, this summer and everything that is going to come that I don't know about yet :)

This just says so much.