So I recently ventured with two friends down to the exotic lush island of St Lucia in the West Indies. This was a trip for my friends, Cameron and Ruby, to do some scuba diving for which they had just been certified. For me, I have indubitably been bitten by the foreign travel bug. Someone could offer me the chance to go to Egypt or Libya right now, and I would probably still consider it. Having just returned less than 2 months prior from the UK (which I'll blog shortly about later, just cuz its so cool), and having spent about 3 weeks a year and a half earlier in the Dominican Republic on a medical volunteer trip, my abroad adventures have been limited, but I have made a decisive decision to change that promptly.

I have always loved traveling domestically and have been very fortunate to have done it often while growing up. Since starting to work as a nurse, my income has significantly grown from being a cash-strapped college student, and my schedule couldn't be more conducive. Despite some of my friends questioning whether I actually work full-time...I, in fact, do. However, my full time is 36 hours a week, or three 12 hour shifts. I can schedule myself for the first 3 days of a work week and then the last 3 days of the next work week, giving me the option to have 8 days off in a row without even having touched my PTO or vacation. Awe-some.

Let me recount some of my adventures in my first year and a half as a nurse: moving road trip with my mother in my Taurus and the U-Haul from Iowa through the Black Hills of South Dakota, multiple national parks and mountains of northern Wyoming, down through Yellowstone and Jackson Hole, Wy, and crossing the Wasatch front into my new home of Salt Lake City; my virginal trip to Las Vegas on my 23rd birthday; another virginal trip to California to see my dear friend Kara who is studying film archiving at UCLA; family road trip in my favorite vehicle of all time (the 'burban) to Carmel-by-the-Sea, Ca; a second trip to Cali to see Kara; a short weekend to Denver for my little Rachie's birthday; a work-related trip to Atlanta, GA and swung by Chicago for 5 days to see my loves Lisa and Alex; my first transcontinental voyage to the UK for 2 weeks; another memorable weekend in Vegas; and finally my most recent excursion to St Lucia...plus mini trips and hikes to places that surround my habitat in Utah...which is absolutely incredible and largely underrated.

This blog is mainly existent to share my experiences of traveling and adventures, as well as my love for photography. The next couple of posts will highlight some of my best of those topics, and I only expect to continue to travel and share...still haven't decided on my next big trip...

Death and Taxes

As the saying goes...only 2 things in life are guaranteed...death and taxes. Well, I have recently experienced one of those...2 guesses...its taxes. In my younger years, my mom would have my taxes done when she had hers, and without much effort on my half, I would always end up with a few hundred dollars in the end. I thought this was the most awesome thing, and didn't know what other people had to complain about. Last year, I had to do my taxes on my own. For the year of 2009, I spent half the year in school, working part time at Urban Outfitters and as a CNA. Once graduated, I took my time finding my dream job and only worked about 3 months of the fiscal year. So, the tax year was good to me. With the government instilled HOPE tax credit and minimal income for the year, when my H&R Block accountant told me my refund would be $3100, I could've kissed her. More amazingly, the day I got my refund, I was in the dressing room of an H&M in Los Angeles. It was perfection.

This year...different story. Apparently, a single girl with no children or dependents shouldn't claim "2" on her W-4...I know, I know! But no one told me these things! It was my first full year of working as a nurse, and that official tax jargon was about as foreign to me as Swahili. So, as I did my taxes on-line, my face began to flush and I started to get my anxiety hives...looks like I was owing the government just slightly under $1200. What!?!? I was blindsided. How did this happen? Again, I maybe should've taken to account that I have nothing more to claim than myself in the government's eyes...which equates to about zero. How comforting.