Lose the Midwest Eye Contact

So I have only been in Baltimore for three days now, but I have decided it is best to lose my Midwest urge to make eye contact with everyone and smile. I am pretty sure people here are not comfortable with that and I am only encouraging more freaks in these here parts. I consciously focused on that today as I walked around the hospital grounds. This will not be an easy task for me.

This all takes me back to my days roaming NKU's campus. I can vividly remember passing a fellow student on my way to class every monday, wednesday, and friday that wore a black straight jacket, spiked his jet black hair quite impressively high, and had a hand grenade swinging from his belt buckle loop on his right hip. This gentleman never looked anywhere but down. This disturbed me quite a bit. As I mentioned above, I really like to make eye contact and smile or at least do the head nod. I do think it is a Midwest thing. So I passed this gentleman for a whole semester wondering what he thought about on his walks to class when he could only see the ground and 1 foot in front of me. He was obviously missing all the other good people watching and vividly enigmatic students such as myself! So after accidently, supposedly, bumping into him failed at getting him to look up, falling over in the grass, and dropping my backpack and decided to get a little bit more aggressive. So I walked by him one week and all three days I put my hand down at my side and formed an "L" or "J" with my hand and waved at him upside down. I figured at the worst, he would pull the pin and throw a grenade at me. Let it be known the following monday, he made eye contact with me and said "Hello, now please quit pestering me!" To which I responded, " This could have ended long ago, you were playing stale mate." I walked away with a personal victory!

I don't think I need to prove anything quite like that with the homeless here. I have always been interested in working with the homeless. Poverty is sad and senseless in my mind. It is just so frustrating because I know they only want money to buy beer. I have seen the cycle too many times. I do hope to work with the homeless again. I really enjoyed it in nursing school. I don't think Baltimore is my place to start though.

Day 2 orientation down. I have a test tomorrow and then four days of clinical orientation, meaning I will finally be on the floor. I am still in a bit of shock that I am working at such an amazing institution. What an amazing opportunity!

Sorry to make this brief but I don't have internet in my apartment yet and I am up at the leasing office using their internet and they are closing shortly. I am hoping to get some Maine and apartment pictures posted this weekend.

So Heather confirmed, I believe you need a google email account to reply on my blog. The things I have learned. Anyone may reply to me on facebook or text me though. I love to hear feedback. Or my email is travelinroddy@gmail or roddy3232@yahoo.com.

Toodles,

Shannon