Just like home

What the hell is that white stuff all over the ground? Snow?! No, it couldn't be, its....oh wait, it is March, so snow isn't totally out of the question then.

The time I spent this winter in Wisconsin was awfully mild and my time in New England has been a reflection of that as well. Although, ever since I got to this area and people have learned my home state, they constantly try to convince me that they too have rough winters. It was a hard sell, let me tell you. In general, the weather here has been in the 40-50 degree range with little precipitation.

That all changed last night.

Forecasters were predicting 6-10 inches of heavy snow for my particular area. Everyone was very nervous leading up to the storm. Last night, it began snowing, not even covering the roads, a dusting really. But people were driving about 20 miles an hour in a 45 zone. Yeah. This morning I awoke to more snow. Lots more snow. But, by Wisconsin standards, nothing to panic over. I didn't even need to dig out my car with an ice scraper this morning (and yes, I have done that before). What I will say, the plow system here bites the big one. You couldn't even seen the lines dividing lanes of traffic. The road to the ER at the hospital was so slushy this morning, I was fishtailing as I pulled in.

All day long, since most of the patients now know I'm from Wisconsin, I heard, "Jeez, you must feel right at home," "Guess you get stuff like this in Wisconsin all the time," and "This must not bother you, you're one of those 'hearty' Wisconsin people." Not sure what that last one meant, but I'm not going to read too much into it. At the end of the day, snow totals varied from a few inches to over a foot across the New England states, with my area getting about 5-6 inches of snow.

The storm was the talk of the day in my department today (aside from my curls seen on the right and how I did it without a curling iron. Women and hair, right?). The inclement weather spurred another conversation: why did I decide to come to New Hampshire for my first assignment? Any why would I pick such a small town/small hospital? I was told by some friends, some that are actually travel nurses, that I'm crazy to go to a place that has similar crappy weather to Wisconsin this time of year. To be honest, the weather had no influence on my decision to travel to Exeter. I know this is the driving force for many travel nurses, to go to more sunny locales to escape the frigid winters they are accustomed to. The winter weather doesn't bother me really, so I didn't feel like I needed to escape that, there were enough other things I was trying to escape. I took this job at this particular hospital because I knew the area to a certain degree having traveled there for vacation a few months earlier. I knew there were plenty of things that would interest me to keep my weekends fully booked throughout my assignment. I knew the people in the area were very similar to people in the Midwest: very welcoming, kind, and easy going. I know this is how I will guide my decisions on future assignments as well. I think there is a delicate balance between being able to do the work and being able to enjoy your days off of work.