To Tour The World

So I have cabin fever... it is official. Just one taste of the outdoors for the early spring and I am itching to get out of this house! School has finally gotten to me and I am just sick and tired of studying. I played hookie the other night and stayed home with my kids to help them with their homework and spent some quality time with them. My weekend clinical was also re-scheduled, for other purposes, but still a welcome break. Now I am finding it hard to get back into it all.

Lately, I have been day dreaming of outfitting my rover for a long road trip to Mexico. I did some research and it sounds like it is very feasible to drive from Nogales or Tijuana to Mazatlan. The trip is around 1000 miles one-way. Just the thought of being gone and on the road in a foreign country brings my interest to a peak and frenzy. I found a website online that is written by a family who has been driving through Mexico for over 20 years and have a guide on how to plan, pack and travel across the country. It is safe as long as you stay on the toll roads and travel by day. At night, apparently, the roads are frequented by banditos and others who are out to rob and pillage. Here is their site: On The Road In.

After looking at the cost of gas in Mexico (average of $3.80/gal) I figured it would be less to fly and stay in a 5 star hotel for a couple of days. So other options? Canada. How about a road trip across The great north? I am researching that now.

Reading about how to do all this keeps me busy and quells my boredom. In the meantime, until I can actually do these things, I can read of other's and their trips.

One that I like a lot: Around the World in 1999.

The food shortage...

Ever stop and wonder how this Earth will ever support the demands that we put on her? At risk of sounding green or granola I am going to tub-thump a little on the food shortage we are all hearing about these days. What is driving a food shortage? Why do we care now when there has been an increased demand for food since before the Korean War? Is it the new hype about alternative fuels derived from corn or soy? Is it the rising fuel costs increasing the cost of food or the decrease in agriculture and farming? Or is it just another mass media ploy driven by a shadow politics that seems to be the undertow of this country we live in? Could it be all of these?

Personally, I am a fatalist; always have been. I believe there will be a time when there won't be enough resources to go around; that Mother Earth will just finally dry up. What little we have done may be too late. I hear and read about the Green Towns going up across America. One in particular in Wisconsin mandated that all citizens turn in their gas guzzlers for alternative fuel or flex fuel vehicles and for the power company to utilize the local pig and dairy farm waste products to fuel the city. It was an expensive feat and today still is not fully there yet with their goal. Another town in Louisiana that was destroyed by Katrina is being built from the ground up by only green means. Each building is being constructed with eco-friendly materials and the town is looking to alternate means of power and transportation.

Change takes time, effort and lots and lots of money. Lewin's theory about change incorporates three steps: Unfreezing, Changing, Refreezing. In order to unfreeze though there must be a need to change. That, I believe, is the hardest part. We must recognize the need for change. Sometimes it has to be pointed out to us, even forced upon us for that realization to occur.

This week my Mother sent me an email that was a push in that direction. In that email was this link: What is eaten in one week around the world.
I encourage you all to read or even just look and ponder... how can I make a change that would help?

That is all... I am off the tub. Thanks for your time.

Insomnia Attack

Although I know that I need sleep as I have two graveyard clinicals this weekend, I sit here at almost 2 am unable to sleep. Perhaps it is because my body is on this time clock now and my Circadian Rhythms are not what others might say is normal. Or maybe it is just the fact that my mind is racing a million miles a minute and I can't seem to quell the storm that rages there.

This is not out of the ordinary of course. For the past two years now I have worked and gone to night school. I have, essentially, become a Vampire! I live at night and rue the daytime. Work has become just a past-time now as I look forward to class. Yes, it does hit me where the pocketbook sits, but I cannot help it. I love learning.

44 days from now I will be done with school, at least for now. I will have completed my nursing degree and will start to study for the NCLEX exam. The state requires that all nursing graduates take this licensure exam in order to work as an RN. I can't wait until it is over. Then all I need to worry about is where I want to work.

During the past few months I have had a few job offers and some of them are very enticing. The shortage of nurses drives recruiters to find as many as possible. The world will be my oyster. But I am leaning toward home health or even mental health. There are several programs that deal with troubled youth and they take these teens into the wilderness for weeks at a time. I think I would enjoy that, however, I would miss my kids.

Ah well... there is an example of my mind ranting. I have typed in a few minutes what my mind went through in mere seconds. If only we could perform so well. Not without sleep that is for sure!

OK... I'm off to try again.

So it seems that winter is still trying to nip at our bums as we try to embrace the warmth of the soon-to-be summertime. For those of you who planted and then saw all those babies freeze, I am sorry. I wonder sometimes how those who grow fruit or veggies for a living here in Utah make a living with such a short growing season.

I sit outside and huddle around my barbecue as slow glowing coals give off as much heat as they can whilst a freezing wind whips around my body. That chicken will never cook. There are so many things I want to do this summer, and with the last weekend's trip still fresh on my mind I ponder all the many different outings that I could embark on. Backpacking in the Uintas, fly-fishing the Weber and Provo rivers, motoring around Soapstone basin and exploring caves, swimming at Lake Powell off the back of the boat, or wake boarding across Pineview Reservoir. Then I think of all that is holding me back.

School will be finally finished with for me in 8 weeks! July 18, 2008 I will walk across a stage and receive my degree in nursing. This is a huge accomplishment for me as I really do have a full house of unfinished projects. I seem to start so many things and then never follow through with. I have artwork from the 9th grade that still is just a sketch aspiring to be in color. I have books with bookmarks mid-way through cluttering my dusty shelves. Everyone has these in their life... the "if only I had more time so I could do that" projects.

All in all though.. I think I accomplished quite a bit this winter. I trained for the Salt Lake City half marathon and ran it a few weeks ago. I made candles with my kids like I promised, we went snowshoeing, snowboarding and skiing, organized the garage (great shelving at IKEA), and all the while I kept at school and worked full-time! When I look back, I suppose I did alright. Still, nagging me in the back of my mind is that small voice.... "we should do this... or that...". It seems the best intentions always driving me and others I know, to constantly go go go and do better or best.

I suppose we all have to be somewhat dissatisfied with ourselves in order for there to be a drive. I read an article recently that simply put said, that we are satisfied with good because we are comfortable, therefore we never want to do great. Being comfortable can be a problem, especially for me right now. So, in order to do great, I have to simplify and not do so many things.

Still that voice chimes.... do more, do more!