Sleep is Better than Packing

Surprisingly, I haven't completely gone insane having quit my job. I'm catching up on my long over due sleep. On some level, I didn't really realize how much a 12-13 hour shift exhausts my body, especially if I'm functioning on only 2-3 hours of sleep. It feels GREAT to have no time boundaries, to go to bed in the early hours of the morning and wake up in the afternoon. I can't remember the last time I had that privilege, maybe it was when I was 6 or 7 years old and I asked my dad if I could stay up to see the sunrise. I remember he gave in to my request because he knew that I would never make it...he was right...I somehow made it to my rainbow bright bed.

One would think that having all this time would make me pack for Argentina. Truthfully, the three book boxes remain alone. I haven't done anymore packing. I ask myself why. Is it because it's stressful to see everything that needs to be packed? Is there too much crap that I don't know where to begin? Do I need some of the stuff now and that's why I haven't packed them in a box? Or, am I delaying the inevitable? By not packing, I'm telling myself that it's not time to leave family and friends. And by packing, my date of departure is around the corner and official. I'd like to think that I'm just being lazy because I'm enjoying not doing anything for the first time in a long time. Not working and not packing has allowed me to enjoy Chicago. Jackson and I go into the city a lot. We hang around cafes and walk through the various neighborhoods, recording every smell, alley, pooch, tree, fence, house, apartment, yard, street sign, store on every corner because we know that soon all that will be a memory. We are not allowing ourselves to take Chicago for granted. We have both created lists of what we want to do before leaving Chicago. Here's a few things on our list:

1) Go to the Taste of Chicago
2) Go to the museums
3) Go to Lincoln Park Zoo
4) Go to Navy Pier
5) Eat at the Chicago Diner
6) Eat at Ethiopian Diamond
7) Eat at Alice and Friends
8) Eat at Joy yees
9) Go to a Cubs game(I don't think this will happen)
10) Meet with all our friends......

These are just a few things Jackson and I have talked about, whether we will accomplish everything who knows. We will try to become tourists in our own city.

And the Count Down Starts

What have I done except for quit my job? Well, all I've done is pack a couple of books which is hardly anything. Unlike moving to a new apartment in a different part of the city, moving to another country is even more stressful. I have to decide what I want to keep to put in storage, what I want to give away, and what I want to take with me. These are "the three piles" as Jackson calls it. Thank God for Jackson!!! He keeps me sane during my worry and stressful episodes. He also perks me up (usually by biting my cheeks) when I'm sad about leaving my family and friends.

Jackson was a great boyfriend yet again. Of course he's the best boyfriend EVER in this whole world, but we already know that. On Saturday when I started balling after having worked my last shift at the University of Chicago Children's Hospital. When I got home that Saturday night, it finally sunk in that I would never work with my girls at Comer again, that I wouldn't see my patients, that I wouldn't be a nurse for who knows how long. Yes, I've bitched and complained about work a gazillion times but the truth is I will miss work. Clarification, I will miss my co-workers and being a nurse. But, I WILL NOT miss the politics and management involved in UCCH.