Question?! Answer: Ask Tuffy Luv.

Dear Tuffy Luv,

I’m graduating with a degree in nursing. Where should I move?

Ready to start life

Dear Ready to start life,

Wow. Well, that depends. I found this nifty little site: fabulousnurse.com. According to fabulousnurse.com, the best city for a nurse is Austin, TX, followed by San Antonio, TX and Salt Lake City, UT. Seems to based on a number of factors, including basic number of job openings and salary. I also found nursinglink.monster.com, which claims based on cash per hour, California and Hawaii are the top two. Um, I think I’m going with that one.

You’re obviously looking for an adventure, since you’re willing to relocate any flooping place based on your question. So open up your options by eliminating some, yes? First you need to think about what you’re going to do with that nursing degree. Do you want to work in a hospital? Or do you want to be a psychiatric nurse? Or a nurse educator? Or a school nurse? You can search that way and find really interesting jobs in other cities that you would never have found if you just searched “nurse.”

You could also be a travel nurse or disaster nurse and help by traveling to the people who need you most. Aunt Tuffy will worry about you, because it’s dangerous and scary, but I’m sure it’s also incredibly exciting and rewarding. On the other hand, you also have to think about other things. Like?

(1) Your family. Do you want to be close to them? Far from them? Make sure you know and consider it!!

(2) Starting your own family. Do you want to do that eventually? Think about the general time-line you’d like to set and pick your location based on how steady or not steady you might want to be.

(3) Do you like cities? Rural areas? Suburbs?

Girl, you need to visit some places. Take a roadtrip and figure out what the floop you like in a place. And then find a job and move there.

Hearts & Skulls,

Tuffy Luv

[Lead image via Supri Suharjoto / Shutterstock]

Brace yourselves:  a new study has found that skinny jeans have the potential to cause you harm.  No, we’re not talking about the curse that is Muffin Top Disease, but something that has a more medical definition.

The study states that there are more and more cases each year of  girls with Tingling Leg Syndrome (or Meralgia Parasthetica, if you wanna get all Doogie Howser, M.D. up in here).  The study concludes that the most likely cause of this is continual pressure on your thighs (which tends to damage the nerves in them) coming from things like skinny jeans.

So…oops?

We’re written many stories about the benefits of skinny jeans (especially vs. fashion’s bastard child, the sweatpant) and recommended many outfits that included them.  While we of course don’t take any responsiblity if you lose feeling in your legs (and I would make sure it wasn’t those five mojitos you just had before you start freaking out), we wanted to throw a “my bad” out there for y’all.

Please note: just like the evil pain caused by sky-high heels, we think a little tingle in your legs is worth it for a cute outfit. Just sayin’….

Being a poor college student sucks…except when other people notice and begin to cater directly to us and our needs. Like the student rate at the movie theater, or Apple’s sweet discount for college students.

Now take the excitement you feel when you get your movie ticket for $10 instead of $12 (wooohoooo!) and multiply that by the thousands of discounts you can get by joining my new favorite discount site just for students, StudentRate.com.

Did you pee your pants yet? (I’m sure they can get you a deal on some new ones!)

This fab new site allows college students to take full advantage of their school ID – all from the coziness of their own dorm rooms.  Even better? The user-friendly layout lets us search deals by category, location, “What’s Hot,” and by browsing keywords to see what pops up.  Of course, the site is free to join (what’s the point in saving money if you have to pay to do so?), so there’s really no reason NOT to take advantage.

Here are some of the best money-savers that I came across in my latest visit to the site: Read More »

Health guidelines and facts are constantly changing as we learn more about the human body and what we need to stay strong. To maintain optimal health, you need to keep up to date with the newest in fitness, nutrition and medical research.

Check out the latest headlines about that unique body of yours:

- So you think you’ll impress your crush by taking on a beer bong like a champ? A new study published in the March issue of Psychology of Addictive Behaviors asked women how much they thought they needed to drink at a social event to interest a man. The women’s estimates were more than twice what the guys said they would prefer. At your next party, drink less and truly impress! Read More »

After suspecting for years that I have sleep apnea, I finally got around to going to a pulmonologist and discussing it with him. He agreed that my symptoms sounded apnea-ish and recommended that I do an overnight sleep study at my local hospital.

I wasn’t afraid to do the study or anything like that, but I did want to get the best sleep possible since I had three job interviews scheduled for the next day. Error in judgment? Perhaps, but there wasn’t much I could do about it because I’d have to wait at least a month if I wanted to reschedule the sleep study.

Generally, these studies take about 9 hours—an hour to put on and take off the equipment, 7-8 hours to sleep (or perhaps I should say “sleep”), and a little bit of extra time to fill out forms. If you’re not an early riser, you’re out of luck, because at my sleep clinic the wake-up time was between 5:30 at 6 a.m. Luckily, I had to get up early anyway, so it wasn’t a big deal.

When I arrived at the clinic, the sleep technician greeted me and explained what she was going to do—put about a zillion wires on almost every part of my body. She explained to me that the wires on my arms and legs would monitor my physical movements, the wires on my chest would monitor my breathing, and the wires on my head would monitor my brain activity and sleep levels. Read More »

Days as a Freshman: 106

Mood: Confused

“It’s cold outside, huh?”

Rebecca and I walked slowly down a carpeted corridor, our boots scratching softly on the grey rug. My cheeks stung from a wind that had moved completely into winter, stretching the skin too tight against my face.

“It’s freezing. Winter’s really here, I guess.” Rebecca kept talking, all the energy she had kept bottled up during our shopping trip pushing out and covering my silence.

I didn’t know what to say. I wasn’t sure I could say anything. By the time Rebecca stopped and knocked on a door covered in paper flowers, I was sure I had gone dumb with anxiety.

“Okay. Ready?” Rebecca cleared her throat, her mittened hands opening and closing.

Before I could answer, the door opened, almost as though the person on the other side had known we were coming, had been waiting. Sammy stood in front of us, small, thin, covered in a fuzzy blue blanket, the lamp on her desk throwing a lightness around her blond head. Even though it looked like she hadn’t slept in a while, there was no denying the cute, popular superstar she had once been.

Before it all. Read More »