Dancing Cop

So, I saw this cop dancing in the middle of the street the other day. By the other day, I mean yesterday, but honestly the days are a bit blurred together right now. I only slept for a few hours, and what sleep I got was about airplane quality sleep. Still, it was a good Christmas Eve, and a good Christmas.

So, about the cop. I don't know if she was just feeling the Christmas spirit, or if directing traffic around minor accidents is just that boring, or if she had a bomb strapped to her waist, and Santa, with the detonator switch, was playing her like a puppet. Whatever the case, I thought right then that I've got to tell someone about it.

I was up north of here, just south of where all the real houses stop and the farm type houses begin, heading home from church. It wasn't my home, or my church. I was spending Christmas Eve with the girl I did the movie/old chicago/stargazing thing with. We'll call her MJ. Her extended family was over, and I was let in on a couple of odd family traditions. They have a toy police car they keep re-gifting to anyone who has recently gotten a ticket or a licence, or an accident. They have a big pile of boxes, each containing a towel. Everyone picks one. The only surprise with these gifts is what color your towel will be. Mine was yellow. There was a big dinner, and I threw her cousin in the snow, with a bit of help from the other family members he had been throwing things at, and then we watched the RM. I don't recommend it. MJ fell asleep right away, I watched the entire thing. While some Mormon movies are really quite good when you consider the budgets they're working with, this one isn't. Oh well, good night anyway.

Apparently MJ got the third degree from all the old ladies at church when they saw us together. I didn't notice. I was talking with a guy up there who gets together with a bunch of people every Saturday, and plays with fake swords. They have banquets and dress in medieval gear. The best thing about this group though, is that it is not the SCA. I might have to check it out this weekend. If anyone in my area is interested, I'm sure he won't mind a couple more people. He's got a ton of fake swords and shields.

Well, I'm off to bed. I'm still pretty tired, and she'll be coming over for Christmas dinner with my family later today. I guess Berserk and Valkyrie can meet her. I hear they'll be coming over too.

Snowboarding

I've lived in Utah and Colorado all my life, or at least all my life that I actually remember, and I've never gone skiing or snowboarding. Until today. It's strange, but every part of me hurts. Also, I totally sucked. For the whole first third of the mountain I was basically sliding on my butt more than I was standing on the board. I thought I wasn't going to get the hang of it. Thankfully, I went with someone who has had a little experience teaching others to snowboard, and a little more experience snowboarding himself. He had a few pointers, and I was looking like I was snowboarding on purpose before I got too far down the mountain.

Still, it's amazing how much snowboarding hurts. It was mostly in the feet. There was a lot of leaning towards my toes, which they didn't mind at first, but it's kind of like the feeling when your climbing shoes are way too tight, and are cutting off the circulation, or the bizarrely strong muscle fatigue you feel in your feet when ice skating, or rollerblading. I think it's because I unconsciously clench my toes to try to hold on a bit better. It can't just be the shoes, because I once felt the same thing while riding a segway. It's a strange vehicle, one that I recommend trying out if you get a chance, and you stand on it wearing your regular shoes. My feet were killing me by the time I got off, not much more than ten minutes after I got on. Also, the rented boots were plenty comfortable when I was not attached to the snowboard.

Well, that's all that hurt then, but everything hurts now. Maybe it was all the falling and pushing myself up. Maybe it was some unconscious clenching. I don't know.

If anyone is thinking of trying this out, I recommend going with a friend who can tell you what you're doing wrong, grabbing a can of Lysol to kill the mildew stink in your rented boots, and wearing not just snow pants and goggles (and yes, regular clothes), but a coat, and some good gloves. I got snow in the rudest of places, sneaking in down the back of my pants, and you do not want to fall into a big deep bank of powder with nothing good between your long sleeve shirt and your crappy small gloves. The good part is, once your skin gets numb it doesn't hurt anymore.

All that aside, I really didn't get too cold, and it was a blast. I've got to go again some time when I have some more of that green paper stuff in my wallet.

I know a giraffe has to pee too, but...

I finished the last of my tests for the last of my classes for a while. The plan at this point (seeing as I'm an EMT-Basic, and I've got the IV and EKG down, and I've finished all of my paramedic prerequisites) is to actually get a job doing something that I've gone to school and trained to do. This is something I've never actually done. I've applied at one of the big hospitals in town. They're well known for getting a lot of the trauma cases around here. I'm hoping that goes well, but not hoping so hard that I'm not still looking for other places to apply.

Also, I went to the zoo with a bunch of people from church tonight. We went primarily to see the Christmas lights that have been set up, but I saw so much more than that. Until now, my best zoo story has been about the time I went to Anchorage, and saw an elephant poop. They were big, and they made a thud when they hit. And then the elephant peed, and it came out all at once in a torrent of urine. That was my best story. Now, it's the giraffes.

The big draw in the zoo this time of year, and this time of night is the lights they've got set up, but they still have some of the indoor attractions open. This year, the giraffes were included. Now, when a giraffe pees it's not like an elephant. It's more the way I, or any guy, pees. It's just a big stream. Bigger in this case, and certainly higher. People stop and take notice. The good part though, is a second giraffe bent down, and started drinking the pee midstream. It was like a big nasty drinking fountain. I know urine is fairly clean, having just been filtered out of the bloodstream and all, but still, I rarely ever (never) drink urine myself. The second giraffe drank a bit, stood up, drank a bit more. Of course the whole crowd seeing this was totally mature, and didn't erupt in disgust. Or, it did. Either way.

Christmas Parade

Okay, so I went downtown with this girl for a Christmas parade. She was just a bit difficult. For someone with absolutely no sense of direction, who doesn't have a driver's license or learners permit, and who certainly doesn't understand downtown traffic, she sure has a lot of advice on how to drive. I thought I was going to kill someone. I wasn't quite sure who, but there were only two of us to choose from.

Once we got down there it was better. I've noticed advice on driving from her before, but this was nuts. Anyway, it was better once we were out of the car. We had a couple of blocks to walk to get to the parade, and we met some people there. Not people I know, just people. They were pretty cool though, and the parade was not bad. We got there just before the people who fling torches and burning things went by. Anything with fire is obviously the highlight.

We all went out to dinner afterwards. I recommend Buffalo Wild Wings to anyone. I don't recommend the boneless wings, as the breading is to thick, but aside from that, good place. I wasn't sure what this girl was going to eat. She's a bit of a vegan. At least she has been in the past. I'm hoping that was an experiment that's at it's end. She looks like someone who could use a hamburger or two. The whole vegan thing seems to be waning for her though, unless hot wings are allowed. It was good to see her eating a couple though. I've been to enough pot luck dinners where I watched her eat plain salad with no dressing.

Overall, it was a good night. Met some new people who seem alright, hung out with a couple that I knew.

Also, I've decided I like Blogger beta. Getting the little bit of artwork up there helped turn me. I wasn't sure for a while that I could totally get behind this. It seemed a bit too cookie cutter. I love Photoshop and Leonardo da Vinci. Good combination.

Beta

I've done a bit of work on the site here as you may have noticed. I thought it was about time to rework things a bit. That was over three hours ago. I logged in to blogger to have a shot at updating the template, and was pleased to find that the whole Google/Blogger combination thing was coming together a bit more. I can now log in to blogger using my Google login. Also they've done some serious spiffing up of the template making thingey. I used to know bigger words, but they all seem to be escaping me just now.

Anyway, I thought I'd give it a shot. In case anyone else is using blogger and decides to go for the update, you should know that the new Google login bit seems to work just fine, but the template is still in beta. Fortunately, you can go back to the classic template at any time. You can't go back to the classic login, but I'm not so sure I'll miss that.

The new template thing seems okay as long as you intend to put out a generic run of the mill blog. You can edit colors, or put in a picture somewhere, but if you want to write your own HTML you better stick with classic. The new one uses XML, and gives no shortage of warnings when you try to put in a bit of html code. At least it gives me no shortage of warnings. I don't know much about XML. I'm pretty sure it's supposed to work harmoniously with HTML, but I don't know how to do that.

The most frustrating thing, the thing I spent most of my time trying to fix was the commenting. It set me up with Blogger commenting and I couldn't get Haloscan up and running. I managed to find someone who did though. If anyone wants to get Haloscan commenting running on their New and Improved Blogger, this *http://logicalphilosopher.blogspot.com/2006/09/getting-haloscan-to-work-in-beta.html* is the man to see about it. I assume it's a man. I really don't know. Whatever it is, it's a genius.

I didn't spend the whole three hours working that out of course. I spent the bulk of that chatting with a sister who is in town for the evening. I only spent a bit over an hour working on this site.

Anyway, all that said, I'm going to bed. It's freakin' late.

Choir Boy

So, I failed to show for the choir performance we've been practicing for at church for the past several weeks. Rather, I declined to show. I have nothing against singing in choir, and the songs we've been practicing were coming along quite well despite the best efforts of our choir director. Really, I hadn't been planning on going for a while now, but I went to the choir practices anyway just to support everyone else's efforts. There's this girl who I like who was in town this weekend, and we made plans. I wasn't about to blow off a first date with her to support the choir, I mean I love hymns as much if not more than the next guy, but I think I'd have to have stupid stamped across my forehead before I blew this girl off.

We've talked before, so I already knew we got along well enough. It was cool how we didn't seem to run out of things to talk about. Before heading out to the movie, I told her I needed to stop by my brother's house to let out his dogs, and asked her if she minded. She didn't. I asked her if she was okay with big dogs. She was. She came in with me, and helped me with the dogs. She was pretty good with them. They listened to me much better than they listened to her, but they know me better. Also, after I unlocked and opened her door for her she always tried to reach over and unlock my door. I say try because the lock stuck once, and she had trouble finding it the first time. I know it's a small thing, but it's nice to see someone helping you out where they can. Myex wouldn't unlock the door if I asked. Anyway, this post isn't about her. We headed off to the theater after that.

We saw Stranger than Fiction, which I highly recommend. It was deeper and more moving than anything Will Ferrell has ever been in. I know that's not exactly a big feat, but it was deeper and more moving than several things Will Ferrell has never been in, too. I didn't break down and cry at any of the more moving parts, but I had one picked out where I figured other sappier people might cry. I certainly wasn't choking back anything. I'm tough and all that.

Interesting note about this girl, she jumps/flinches/grabs/etc. at anything slightly gory/tense/frightening/whatever. If any of you have seen this movie, you know how little there is to really jump about. It's a bit weird, but in a date this works out to my advantage. My hand hurt a bit after one of the more tense parts, but all in all, not bad. We hit Old Chicago afterwards, and then headed up to her (her parent's) house, which is way out in nowhere. As it turns out, nowhere is the perfect place to check out the stars, and if it's a cold night that's even better. There were several shooting stars. It was a nice night. After that we watched cartoons and movies that she had on her DVR, and talked a lot. She laughs a lot, which of course goes to my head. I must be a comic genius or something. I think that's what drunk people feel like most of the time. Also, when she laughs she snorts. All the time. I always thought it was awesome. I'm not sure why, but it's just funny, and very her.

So, that was the night. Then I headed over to Berserk's house to let his dogs out to pee again, and reheated the leftover Italian nachos from Old Chicago. I'll likely be a bit late to church today, as I am writing this, but not too late. I'm also on caffeine now, more than I am on sleep. I'll have to take care of that tonight.

Cadaver Lab

Cadaver lab was interesting. Most of the things I saw were things I already knew, but it was cool to see them in three dimensions, and in more detail than any model. The lab itself was interesting. Not much more than a half hour away from my house there is a mall. Just next to the mall there is a smallish shopping center with a couple buildings divided into several suites between them. One suite, nestled between two normal open to the public stores has no front door. If you drive around to the alley in the back, there is a rear entrance. Inside are a few rows of desks, some chalkboards and anatomy charts covering the walls, and in the corner next to the restroom, a number of tables, some with metal covers and some with large zipped up bags. Once class begins the desks are stacked and the tables are spread out to fill the room. There were six cadavers, four male and two female, and each one about eighty some-odd years old. Each one was in a different state of disassembly. The longer they've had a cadaver at the lab, the deeper they cut into it. The chest is big and empty with all of the organs removed.

One of the cadavers, a female, had ovaries the size of small oranges. For any readers not too familiar with ovaries, they are supposed to be about a twentieth of that size. They were full of cysts. I got to hold a cyst. It was about the size and shape of a rather large marble, just a bit more irregular, and not clear, shiny, or sparkly. It was pretty hard and heavy.

Another one, this one male, had most of the digestive organs removed and on display on a separate table. Still in his cavity however, was his esophagus, and the end of his colon. We were looking at the colon, and noticed several small round hard objects embedded in the tissue. They looked like big peppercorns, or like the bullets from a shotgun. I thought maybe he had taken a shot from a shotgun to his abdomen, recovered, and lived with the shot unremoved. That may sound a bit far fetched, but Myex's grandmother went through just that, and she's still kicking around today. Still, I was wrong. Apparently that's what colon cancer looks like. Specifically, those were colon polyps. Remind me not to get that. I don't need peppercorns in my bum.

There was another guy, who had served in WWII. Well, either that or there was another guy who liked tattoos that said he served in WWII. I suspect not the latter. He was likely a smoker, not just because of the fact that he was a young man in the army many many years ago when smoking was seen as less of a hazard than we see it as today. Also, not just because of the hole in his trachea. Also, not just because of the black, although otherwise healthy size and shaped lungs. Mostly it was a combination of all these things.

His lungs/heart/esophagus/diaphragm/tongue were all removed but otherwise in one piece. You could look down the throat, behind the tongue and epiglottis, and see the vocal cords. Last time I had a view like that I was doing an endotracheal intubation on a plastic model. It was the same general thing, but better to see what the real thing looks like.

Last thing I thing I should mention here is the exposed bone. I've always liked the
skeleton, and there was no shortage of it here. On some, with the internal organs removed you could see the bodies of the vertebrae forming the vertebral column, and the inside of the ribcage and pelvis. One had the back of the spine exposed, and much of the vertebrae broken away exposing the spinal cord (from the front, this guy had a cut open heart with a pacemaker). The best bones though were the arm and leg with all skin and muscle cut away leaving nothing but bone and the connective tissue that holds everything in it's shape. It seemed a little odd holding a thigh bone, and sticking my finger in the hole it came out of, but at the same time, you get a better picture of how things fit together, and how things move than you do even with one of those classroom skeletons. Maybe I just need to go to a bigger better college with a bigger better budget, but I have yet to see a classroom skeleton where the bones are actually held right where they should be to articulate with the bone next to them. Things are always kind of wired, or hanging in the approximate place sometimes twisting around, but at the lab parts fit together and moved normally.

Anyway, all that said, I can say with confidence that I do not want this guy's job. Todd, the man who runs the lab, is an odd man, with some odd philosophy he can't help but share. Something about how people aren't sensitive enough to strangers, and how the body parts all know when something is wrong with their neighboring parts. Things like that. Nothing too odd, just odd that he had to share. He seems like a good kind of man though, to have this job. He spends all sorts of crazy hours with his dissections trying to expose nerves and organs without damaging anything. I could see myself running an autopsy where you open them up, solve a puzzle, and call it a day, but spending the kind of hours this guy does on a dissection is another thing entirely. Also, by the end of three hours there I had inhaled enough formaldehyde that I seemed to smell it everywhere. And it wasn't entirely in my head. Even through the latex, my hands had the smell of it, and it wouldn't wash out. Not the sort of life I would want, doing this day in and day out. I wouldn't mind running a dissection or two though, and as for a three hour lab, I'd recommend that to anyone interested in anatomy.

The Asylum

I went to my first haunted house tonight. It was great fun. I was smiling and laughing so hard that the back of my head and my temples were ridiculously sore. It took a good few minutes until that went down, and I can still feel the tension in those muscles now. This thing didn't look all that impressive from the outside. Just a few tents set up in the parking lot of this arcade, but it was a lot bigger on the inside. There were five of us all together in this thing. Most of the scares were due to people stepping out in front of you, or chasing you with chainsaws. I don't believe I heard the word "Boo" once though. The overall atmosphere was rather creepy though, and certainly helps put you in a jumpy mood. This is something I may have to do every year.

We played a few games at the arcade afterwards. I played some game where you're a cop, running through places shooting things, but this was one of those ones where you actually have to duck and dodge, and the thing can tell how you moved. It was pretty impressive. Made my quads freakishly sore though. I must be some kind of wuss. We all played a little Dance Dance Revolution too. It's a lot more fun going to an arcade when your not with a bunch of people who are afraid of making fools of themselves, like I have in the past. Everyone here tried and liked DDR, and a couple of us were not too bad at it.

In school today we had another test. Good fun. This one was on all the muscles and joints, and the bones of the lower limbs. Notice I referred to quads up above. That's just how much I'm learning here. The test went alright. I like showing up early on test days. There's a good crowd there studying a few things last minute. Seeing how I rarely study, I think it was a good thing. I think I did okay on the test too. I'm hoping for an A of course, but tests in these classes are not too easy. I haven't been able to break 91% in this class.

Anyway, that's about it for now. I've got a cadaver lab this weekend, so I'll have to let you all know how that goes. Also, I'm looking forward to heading out to Utah over Thanksgiving. I'm planning on playing some DDR with an old friend out there. Should be a hoot.

A&P

School's going pretty well. I like the tests that I've in my anatomy classes lately. They are a bit more hands on than most tests. They're lab based, or half written half lab. We get to walk around and look at bones or hearts or cats, identify parts with pins in them, and explain what they do. It's not that I mind the usual multiple choice, but these are a nice change.

I've got a potential job lead with the whole EMT thing. It seems I know a guy from church who works at Boulder County Fire. From what I understand, an EMT over there has more in common with a chauffeur than he has in common with a paramedic, but experience is experience, and I need some experience on paper to start paramedic classes. They work three twelve hour shifts a week. It may make my schedule a bit tight, but shouldn't be too much of a difficulty, especially if I can study between calls at work.

Well, I'd hate to speculate any further about this job. Something about counting chickens before they hatch.

Bad cars and dead cats

My car is pretty bad. It's had progressively worse trouble starting lately. I thought this was due to a failing starter, but after replacing the starter I'm still getting nothing. I've got a couple ideas to work on though. Hopefully something will work out with the monster.

I may have the worst car in the household, but if you include those in the family who have moved out, I only have the second worse vehicle. Berserk and Valkyrie's van had some trouble today, and by trouble, I mean it's mobile in the same way that a mobile home is mobile. I've pushed cars that didn't work before, but this thing is a beast. It seems to be something electrical, and my car fixing skills being what they are, I just drove Valkyrie and the kids where they were going. We did manage to push the car a bit, so it isn't sticking out into the street anymore, but that's all we managed.

In other news, school went well today. I cut up more cat. That's always a hoot. We found all of the blood vessels we were looking for without too much difficulty. When they do all of the preserving of these laboratory raised cats they inject the veins with blue latex, and the arteries with red. It's supposed to make them easy to find, but when they injected ours they seem to have had some major spilling out of the right carotid, so most of the arteries were just kind of fleshy colored, and not so easy to find. Still not too bad, but we had to get the instructor to let us know if we had a few of them correctly.

On and interesting side note regarding the cat, one of my lab partners keeps on trying to name the thing, but she always gives it dog's names. If anyone has any good names for a dead cat, let me know.

EMT Job Hunt

I completed the IV clinical last friday. I started ten IVs successfully that day for a lifetime total of twelve, and I failed four of them. I'm not too down about the ones that I missed though, the tech who I was following around tried them too, and also missed them. As soon as I got the eighth for the day (to meet the required total of ten) the tech I was following had to switch jobs with someone else so he could sit at the front desk for a while. He had some pretty intense lower back pain going on.

Things were boring for a little while, until I got sent around with a new tech. The new guy seemed much more into his job, and less angry at life altogether. It could have something to do with a lack of back pain. I started a couple more IVs under the new guy, he had some good pointers, and said that I was the best IV student he's seen. Very smooth and confident.

Anyway, as of two days ago I am officialy IV certified. Now I get to start on the whole get a job thing. Assuming the job hunt goes well enough I should be able to start paramedic school next fall semester.

Threats?

Okay, I don't want to keep anyone on the edge of their seat any longer. By the way, everyone's advice helped me sort out my own thoughts. Anyway, I had a bit of a talk with Myex last night, and I told her that I don't want to give things another try now. I told her that I didn't think she was lying to me, but that I didn't think she really knows what she wants.

She took that about as well as I thought she would. She got a bit angry/sad, and didn't want to talk much more. Then she sent text-messages to the demon tree girl. Not polite ones. Impressively, DT girl was not at all shaken or disturbed. She says she's had people hate her before and has learned not to take it personally.

I hope Myex cools down a bit. I suspect she will when this doesn't really have any effect. She has always been a bit big on the drama. Right now, I'm just enjoying the freedom of being unattached. I know I've been sans-girlfriend for a while now, but it hasn't really felt like it until now.

Old Things and New Things

I opened the envelope containing my Colorado EMT certification last weekend. It was good news. I was worried that it would be a notice saying that I forgot to sign or include some part of the application. That wouldn't be so great. I've got to get my IV clinicals set up soon or it will be too late, and I'll have to retake the class in order to get the IV add on to my certification. I tried to contact my teacher about that yesterday. I went down to the school, but he wasn't there. I left a voicemail, but I don't want to leave this all up to him for too long here. I'm on a deadline.

Things with the girl I was dating haven't been going so well. I think it's a little funny that I never could come up with a suitable alias for her here. I'll say one thing for her though, she's not boring. When things were going well with her they went really well. But, when things were going poorly they were painful. They're going poorly now.

She hasn't been my girlfriend for over a month, but we've still been hanging out with each other, more lately that when we first broke up. We've gone on a couple of dates, out to a movie, or lunch. For a long time I've been coming to terms with the fact that she didn't love me. I had even gotten used to it. Now though, she tells me that she really did. She was afraid to say it before.

I know it sounds like that would be a good thing, but what prompted all of this is that I started seeing someone else. I've only been on the one date with this new girl. My ex even told me I should. It made sense to me, since that was what we had decided when we broke up, but now she's not taking it so well.

I don't know what to think about this all. I loved her, I guess I still do in a different way, but I had gotten used to the fact that I needed to find someone else. I like this new girl to. She's a good nine years older than Myex, and about nine years more mature. She's got her problems and issues that she's working through of course, but to be honest I like that she's not perfect. I like that she's nice, and that she seems like a more normal person, less maintenance. I don't want to just drop things with her and try to fix things up with Myex. I'm not saying we've got a whole big relationship going here, seeing how we only ever really went out the once, but there's certainly a strong interest.

Anyway, that's about enough of that. Too much drama all at once probably causes ulcers in your stomach and upper intestine. So, on a happier note, I know were a weird tree is that looks like a demon. I used to just say troll, or goblin, but was really freakin' scary last night. It's always back-lit by the city lights over the horizon, and there was the weirdest lightings storm ever. Lots of really bright flashes, with no sound. Anyway, this new girl thought the tree was as awesome as I did. I didn't drive past it later that night when I was going home though. It freaked me out too much. I've seen it once before but never during the day. I kind of want to, but I think that might ruin it for me. If any of you are interested, let me know I can show you where it is.

NREMT

For anyone who I have forgotten to tell, I am nationally registered as an EMT-B. State certification is pending. I'm hoping that that comes through a bit quicker than the first one did.

After that, I need to talk with my teachers and get set up for my IV clinicals to get that EMT-B changed to an EMT-B-IV. That is, assuming I get word back from the state before the deadline lapses for the IV class. I can also start looking for jobs once I've got the state certification.

Things fall apart

It's not like things don't ever happen, it's just that I don't write much. I'm still waiting to hear back on that last EMT test. I got a letter from them, but it was just a notice that I missed a line I was supposed to sign. I've taken care of that now.

The big thing going on now is with this girl I've been seeing. I say big, not good, although I think it's probably going to be good. She's been out of town for the last three weeks. She was visiting some friends. When I say friends, I mean her ex-fiance's family. He's off in Korea with the army. He cut things off with her a couple of months before we started seeing each other, and they had been apart for about half a year before that. She didn't take it very well.

I thought that she was pretty well over him. She told me that she was at one point. But, she's not as over him as she or I thought. I've known this for a while. I just didn't know what to do.

I told her the week before last Monday, while she was gone, that she had to figure out what she wanted. I was okay with giving it a shot if she would decide that she was done with him, but otherwise, I seem to be wasting my time. I'm not going to wait around until he comes back so she can see for herself if there is still anything there.

I was planning on giving her until she got back in town at the end of that week. I figure she should have a decision then, and if she didn't, then I had her decision. She got back to me on Thursday, and said she would be staying another week. I wasn't thrilled, I wanted resolution, but she said she had done some thinking.

What I got out of the conversation is that we're not really dating anymore. At least not in a boyfriend/girlfriend way. She wants to still see each other somewhat, but she's not ready to give up on her ex yet. She also said that she wants me to go for it if there is an opportunity with anyone else. She doesn't want me to miss anything because of her.

The week is over, she got home the night before last, and I still haven't seen her much. I ran into her at church, but we didn't say much. We still talk almost every night on the phone, but not for long, and not really about anything. I still want to make sure I've got all of this straight, and we're in agreement on it all, but I'm pretty sure I've got it.

So, that's it. Maybe we'll try this again some time later, but I honestly don't believe that we will. I know relationships take work, but it just seemed to take too much work, and it usually seemed like I was the only one who cared about it.

So, I guess here's to moving on, and I'll keep you all updated on whatever comes up next.

Utah

I did well on that test. Totally killed it. I took the second one though, and am a bit worried about it. Not too much, but still. I think I only need a 70% to pass it, and I didn't score less than 91% on any of the tests in the EMT class. There were a lot of questions though where it seemed there was plenty of room to argue between answers. I just hope I picked the ones they like best. The thing that really bothers me is that we don't get results back for 3-4 weeks. It seems that a test graded by computer should be graded a bit quicker than that. But, I guess there's really nothing I can do about that.

Other news, I'm going to Utah in a few hours. Always fun. Good people, good food. It's a short trip, I should be back Sunday about noon, but it's going to be good to see some friends there. Maybe do something to keep my mind off of the test results for a while too.

One Week

So, my girlfriend is out of town for the next week. It's not like she's too far away or anything, just up north where she goes to school, but she's staying up there at nights. There's an all day for a week summer class she's taking. By wednesday she will be taking her midterm, and her final is on saturday. Good fun. I'm not sure what the class is exactly, some forensic science thing. I wouldn't mind taking something like that, but it would be a bit outside of my current professional goals.

Speaking of which, my class is over and I am awaiting the first of two tests I need to take in order to get certified to work. I guess this is a pretty good week for her to be out of town. It gives me more opportunity to focus on my studying for the test. To be honest, I rarely study much for anything. It's not just laziness, it just seems irrelevant most of the time. I didn't study for my final, and got a 92.5. I could have put a lot of effort into it and gotten maybe a 97, but other things came up and I didn't really make it a priority. This test is a bit different though. It's all hands on, rotating through six stations. If you miss a key step on any station you fail the station. Also, if you miss too many normal steps at a station you fail the station. You can retake up to three stations one time, but if you miss any of those, or miss more than three stations the first time around, you have to retake the whole test at a different test location. Also, it costs about a hundred bucks each time you take it.

So, while I'm not usually too worried about tests, I think I should study up for this one. maybe just a bit.

That's about all I've got going on for now. That and a pain stabbing through the left side of my head from the temple back. I think I need to take some pills and get some sleep or something.

EMT part Deux

Okay, I missed a couple of things from that last post. Forgive me. I have since had almost two hours of sleep, and four hours of school.

First, don't eat too much meat and drink too little water. Gout is a bitch.

Second, if you remember that time when you were on your bike, and hit something smallish and racked yourself, remember also that you don't want to do this on a motorcycle. You will rupture a testicle. Good news is they try to repair it before they try to remove it, so you won't have to worry about running out of there half cocked.

Also, being old sucks. Bedsores suck. Stinking wounds suck. Sagging flesh sucks. Unexplained protrusions of flesh from one's abdomen suck.

And finally, being homeless sucks. Going to detox sucks. And, trying to kill a child, being arrested, strapped face down naked by the arms and legs to a gurney, and being rotated over onto your back while yelling obscene things at me and the nurses about sucking something or other really sucks. But then you probably deserve that last one and I don't feel sorry for you nearly as much as I feel sorry for the police officer who has to sit around outside your boring room while you sleep whatever it is off. Also, you pissed yourself.

EMT

So, I went on my second clinical today. For anyone who doesn't know, a clinical is like a one man field trip. We are scheduled at least two of them, one on an ambulance and one in an ER. The purpose is to get five patient contacts, with vitals and a narrative. My first clinical was on an ambulance, and I got four contacts. None of the calls were very urgent. The most impressive one was a guy who swallowed the tab off of a pop can. Not inhaled, just swallowed. Also, there was a kid with one of those bad croup coughs. The other two were sick with nothing in particular.

This clinical was in an ER, and I got one patient contact. One documented patient contact anyway. To start off with we were quite busy. Once things calmed down a bit it seems almost everyone was either discharged or sent upstairs. There were a few people left, all of which were sleeping (it was about 03:00). With two of them, I knew what they were in for and had helped treat them. One of them I got documented before they left. I should have started with the other one, but I didn't know she was about to be discharged, while the one I was documenting was still there when I left. It doesn't really matter too much though I guess. I got my five necessary patient contacts so I'm pretty much good.

I saw a lot of things tonight. I put EKG pads on few people, two of which were old women. I helped turn a combative patient over, along with two EMTs, a couple of police officers, and some hospital security. I helped with bloodwork and patient transport. I helped a nurse put a tube up a womans nose and into her stomach so we could force feed her some activated charcoal to absorb some of the vallium she had swallowed. Her arms were in restraints, but she didn't really resist anymore after she was restrained. I helped put a catheter into a woman who was unconcious. I'm not sure why she was there. The common opinion among the nurses seemed to be that she was a drama queen, but that seems a bit cold and illogical to me.

The first I saw of her she was hyperventilating. Her roommate had found her not well and brought her in. I'm not sure at what point she started hyperventilating, but she looked panicked. After she was done with that she became apneic (not breathing). Then she went to breathing normally. A sternum scrub did not wake her. Smelling salts did not wake her. Pushing a catheter into her urethra did not wake her. If that's just drama, I'm impressed by her determination to stick with it. Eventually she woke up and wanted to go to the bathroom so we took the catheter out and walked her down the hall. She was able to walk back by herself, and then she crashed on the bed again. I found that one to be a bit disturbing, especially since while she was hyperventilating all I saw was her eyes, and with the makeup she had on her eyes looked just like my girlfriends. It startled me until I noticed that her ears were pierced differently.

The valium OD was a bit disturbing too, but I saw her the next morning and she seemed pretty much better. She was still waiting a psych checkup, but her husband was there waiting with her. She got married last night, and her father didn't approve of her marrying a mexican. I think that she will be fine though.

Anyway, that was my day. It has now been about twenty one hours since I slept, and four hours until I have to be to school. I am thinking I will not sleep between now and then, but I'm not sure. I might get ready and have a bit of a nap just before I head out.

Two Months to the Day...

Two months to the day since my last post. I've got to work on that. It's really not that nothing is going on in my life. On the contrary, my life has been ridiculously complicated lately. I haven't made time to write anything here. I've barely even made time to do my laundry and brush my teeth.

I'm halfway through the semester, give or take a week, and school is going great. I'm loving the classes, and I'm doing quite well in them. I have a slight ever present fear of failing once I get into the field, but that's probably a good healthy thing, given the fact that I will be working with human lives.

Aside from school, life is going well. Well enough. I've got a girlfriend. Things are more serious with her than they have ever been with anyone before. We've been seeing each other since January 28th. We went out on our one month, we went rock climbing and she took me out for dinner on my birthday, and I took her out for a nice dinner on valentines day. Valentines day was a first for both of us. That's one holiday that really is a lot better with someone to spend it with it turns out.

Problem is, she's possessed.

A friend of hers gave her a super-poseable Gollum action figure because of this. She's got a totally sweet side, but then she's got the whole evil thing going for her too. I'm never really sure who I'm going to get. It makes her a little tough to deal with sometimes although overall I'd say she's worth the trouble.

She's got her reasons I'm sure. I know her last relationship ended badly. Really badly, as in a fiance joined the army and told her he met someone else. All this after dating for over a year, off and on a bit from what I understand. I guess I'd have a bit of trouble getting close to people after that, but that bastard really hurt her, and he sure left things complicated for me. I halfway hope he gets himself killed out there, but I think that even after all this time she would take that pretty hard.

Well, that's the last couple of months summed up. We'll see how things go from here.

No Work Today...

I called in to work this morning, like they have me doing lately, to see if they needed me. Turns out they didn't. That makes exactly one week with no work. That's always a nice thing when you asked for it, but when it just happens it's not really so great. At least I don’t need to go in Monday to turn in one of those pesky sheets with my hours written down so I can get paid. I mean it's such a drag to get paychecks. Not that a paycheck would be overwhelmingly huge these days. My last week I had eighteen hours to put down, and the one before that I had twelve. I never did plan on staying here as long as I have, but this kind of drives home how much I don't want to be in this business.

I think I'm adding computers to the list of businesses I don't want to be in. I don't have any great dislike for them, but when I started working on that career path I thought that it would be easy, easy to get into and lucrative. It seems that while they are relatively easy to work with the business is not easy to get into, and once in, it's not lucrative. I could probably get in okay if I took a load of classes on other computer things, try to broaden a bit. I've got the CISCO networking stuff, and the A+ hardware stuff down alright, but that's not enough given the job market.

Thing is, I'm not so sure I ever really cared about this job field that much, I just thought it would be the next logical step. So, the current job selection is EMT. That's right, an ambulance guy. Beats being a fire alarm guy. The initials for ambulance guy are much less offensive. Besides, I understand this is a good career for deciding if you could hack it in the medical field. One semester of college is a lot less than four years plus med school, so the initial investment is reasonable too. Besides, I think I might actually like this job for what it is and there are other things that this can lead to. I've been reading up on it, and a lot of paramedics go on to other jobs in the medical field, like physical therapy, or nursing. And it seems that these things pay more than I would have guessed. I'd like to say that that isn't really important to me, that I'm doing it just to help people, but when you don't have money and you have to live with your parents, money gets a bit more important. Well, that ought to be enough post for one month. Course, I'm a month behind, but maybe I'll get another one up here while it's still January.