The cost cutting monsters of the midway have finally got the best of me and I've changed jobs. It's a shame when I can make more money by traveling back and forth to a hospital 1,980 miles away from my door step rather than stay at the hospital 7 miles from my home, but that's the way it is.

After 3 years of listening to the BS at my local hospital, I've taken a travel nurse position in Seattle, Washington. Unfortunately, this little change is going to disrupt my vacation patterns I had cultivated over the last 9 years. Now, instead of taking every 13th week or so off, I'll have to take every 14th week off.

So what's the problem you might ask? Taking the 13th week allowed for 4 weeks every year of vacation, taking the 14th week only gets 3 weeks in before years end. needless to say my Vegas vacations are likely to suffer. At least for the year of 2003.

At this point it looks as though we'll only get one trip to Vegas in for the year 2003. With luck, maybe I can manage a couple of short 3 nighters in there somewhere? At any rate, it's going to take an entirely new way of thinking.

Oh yea, not only have I changed jobs, so has Shelley. Her situation is possibly a little bit worse as she gets to start from the bottom and work her way back up again. With travel nursing, there is no paid vacation. You just have to save your money and take a week off between assignments. Shelley has to rebuild her paid time off account so she can take time off again. Fortunately, her new employer has agreed to allow for the vacations already planned and paid for.

One other nasty little problem is I'll be going for a week at a time without Internet access. Since my job just became mobil, so did my phone. Sort of hard to hook into the Internet on a cell phone line. I know they have the Internet with cell phones now. I just don't care to pay that much.

So, not only will Vegas be seeing a little less of me, so will everyone else.

Don't feel to bad for me though. My income will go up $15,000/year and I'll be working 6 hours less per week. Plus the amount deposited into my retirement acount will increase by 50%. Let's not forget all the FF miles I'll now be racking up as well. The hospital I worked for used to give 2 movie tickets each quarter for perfect attendance. Now I'll be earning one FF seat award every 13 weeks or very close to it. Hmmmmm, free airline ticket or movie passes for two? I guess I'll take the airline ticket.

It sounds like a good move, Doug ...and I'm sure you will still have lots of options open to you with the nursing shortage. Will Shelly be doing the same travel route? After all, Seattle is a relatively quick and inexpensive weekend trip to Las Vegas via Southwest compared to what you're used to in the Midwest<g>. Good luck with your new job!

Doug,

Good luck with the new job. I'll bet you can find some nice internet cafe's in Seattle to keep up with your favorite sites.

Daisy,

Nope, Shelley isn't going with me. I'll fly out, work my shifts and fly back home. In speaking with the manager in Seattle, I should be able to work my schedule in such a way that I only have to fly home twice each month. To do this, I need to work either 6 nights in a row or 3 nights on, 1 night off, then 3 nights on. In this way I'll get two weeks worth of work completed in one weeks time.

Senator,

Since I'll be flying out to work 12 hour nights shifts, I don't think finding an Internet cafe is going to be on the high priority list for me. <g>
Most likely I'll be looking forward to a little shut eye before the next shift.

Doug,

Sounds as though you need to hire a scheduler.......that is........to be sure those LV trips aren't missed.

Congrats to both of you on the new jobs. Sounds good so hopefully it will work out best for both you and Shelley. Fred has a cousin who is a traveling nurse and she loves it. She sure is getting to see the country.

Please don't forget to stop by TalkVegas when you have the spare time. Let us know how things are going.

See you on one of those less frequent trips.