Marvin and I Take Temperatures

January came and went without a post - probably because I started EMT school on January 6.  It's a four-hour class, twice a week, with two eight-hour clinical shifts at a local ER on top of that, to say nothing of the textbook (which Ted today thought was the old Las Vegas yellow pages), the workbook, and all the online videos, quizzes, tutorials, blah blah blah.

Class is in Bend, a town I love but which is about 23 miles away and the campus sits on top of Awbrey Butte (seriously, who spells Aubrey with a w?).  Not a big deal except when the weather looks like this:

This was a freezing fog day - I should have taken some pics this past week, because that was a one-feet-of-snow-on-the-ground-and-frozen-parking-lot day, but I was too afraid I'd slip and fall and break a hip or something.

I keep meaning to take some pics during class, but we're so busy strapping each other onto backboards or into KEDs or splinting each others limbs or inserting airways into dummies that I just haven't found the time….  Here's what the white board looks like most days, tho:

Thank goodness for phone cameras.

So, some fun things I missed blogging about:  On my birthday, my friends Jenny, Pat and I took a class at COCC on whole grain breads (shout out to Pat for finding and alerting us to it).  It was at the culinary institute there, and we had a lot of fun, as we always do together.

Check out the dude in the chef's hat on the left.

This was the instructor.  He didn't bother to introduce himself,
which I guess is what led one of the ladies in class to call him
"chef."  I don't call you "chef" unless you have your
own restaurant or a show on the FoodNetwork.

Getting ready for a braided bread

E Voila

Some delish rolls

Jenny brought homemade muffins to class for my birthday, and Pat gifted us (Jenny's birthday is only a few days after mine) with a wonderful book on compound butters - a perfect accompaniment to a day of break baking!  I celebrated by sharing with my friends The Joy of Pickling.  Hey, I LOVE pickles and there's a pickled shrimp recipe in there I'm going to try!

As an aside - the fire department wanted me to do ANOTHER fitness test that day (read about my first one, a mere four months ago, here) but I had plans that involved friends and making, baking and consuming vast quantities of carbs.  I told them I'd call them when I get my EMT certification in July.  As another aside, Ted and I had dinner out in Sisters on my birthday at a very highly-touted restaurant.  I'll just say this:  Someone can start calling ME chef any time.

Our beloved Megan came to visit over MLK weekend with her sweet friend Kelsey, and brought me this lovely addition to my Pandora bracelet:

Love this little Viking next to it, too.

And to seque into February, I had my first clinical shift at our local ER yesterday.

An official Polo shirt identifying me
as an EMT Basic student at COCC Emergency
Medical Services program

The outside temp and time I was driving to Redmond
for my shift.  With lots of blowing snow.  Good times.

I actually had to get up at Four.  Thirty.  In the morning.  First time I've been up before seven in about nine years.    Got cleaned up and to the hospital in plenty of time, and saw an ambulance in the emergency bay so I knew there would be at least one patient there.

I have to say, the nurses were helpful for the most part (with one notable exception being a rather cranky old charge nurse whose only function seemed to be to piss people off because she sure as shit didn't assess/treat/comfort anyone), and there was an EMT basic on staff who taught/let me do things in addition to vitals.  One of the male nurses taught me how to take an orthostatic blood pressure measurement, and frankly, the paramedic student was more helpful than them all - he taught me a lot.  The second shift charge nurse (a male) was also very helpful.  I'm actually looking forward to my shift next week, and dearly hope the same or another nice paramedic student is there; this one could have been a real ass to me, but he was very helpful and forthcoming.  If not, I'll look forward to surprising Marvin the Depressed Robot (my nickname for one of the RNs) with my improved temperature-taking skills.    Seriously, when a cardiac patient came in, he called for vitals and told the paramedic student to let me do them because "Carolyn's good at taking temperatures."

I must say this for Marvin:  Once he was comfortable with  my ability to take vitals(!), and once I pushed my way in to the examining room to listen to his assessments, he asked me questions to test my knowledge of what I heard and saw, and made sure I knew that this hospital's opinion of what constituted vital signs were what ruled here, not what I learned in class (In Celsius?  Where are we,  Canada?)  And what a sense of humor!  As I was leaving, he came over to shake my hand.  I assured him I'd be better next week, and he thanked me for the warning!  Ha!

Seriously, those people are working 12 hour shifts three and four days a week.  During my shift, the pace went from two people for the first hour to an additional ten in the next fifteen minutes, then on from there - and this is a puny town and I'm talking about a Thursday.  I have nothing but admiration for the professionals in that department.   And the food there ain't so hot, but they only get ONE FIFTEEN MINUTE BREAK per eight hour shift so they can't actually go anywhere else, puny town notwithstanding.

 I have nothing but admiration for the paramedic students, too -- after talking to my co-student this shift, I learned that they are logging ridiculously long hours in hospital shifts and ambulance ride-alongs, more than twice what I have to do as an EMT student.  These kids have families, regular jobs, and go to school -- all to HOPE for a job in a field that doesn't pay HALF of what I made as a paralegal in Las Vegas, and that doesn't have a third of the funded openings, whether that be with fire departments or hospitals or ambulance services.  And look at all the good they accomplish!  Kind of turned me off the whole paramedic thing, frankly.

Must be why I never considered this field when I was a kid.  That and the blood and dirt and open sores and….  But then, I didn't live in the middle of nowhere, a good 20 minutes away from the nearest ambulance.  We can die within ten minutes of our pulses stopping with no emergency care, because some poor sleep-deprived, underpaid paramedic can't show up at my door until fifteen minutes after I call 911 (in the summer when the roads are good).  So I wake up at o'dark thirty and drag myself through snow to my clinicals, and up Awbrey Butte to class.  Because that ain't gonna happen at my house.  No way.  No how.

Recent Travels

Well, not so recent now but in October I took a trip east and by my calculations I was in seven different airports in seven days - not counting four repeats!  In addition to seeing my lovely newest great-granddaughter in Virginia, I visited my Aunt in Escanaba and some cousins as well.  We had a great time even though I was only there two days thanks to Delta canceling my flight out of Oregon, the bastards.

Thanks to my cousin Mary Ann for (1) taking me to the gym with her
and (2) taking me for some blue moon ice cream

As usual when I visit Aunt Kathy, I make her let me go through her pictures, and I was able to score some pictures of family photos, such as:

My maternal grandmother's wedding portrait

My mom

My Aunt Kathy's wedding portrait

My mom wrestling with my Aunt Judy - can you tell
them apart?

Me, my Aunt Judy and my sister on a train
trip form Illinois to Michigan

And my beloved Aunt gave me one of my mother's paintings that had been a gift to her from my mom (sniff)

I also scored an evening with many of my cousins - well, actually my mom's cousins but I consider them mine too.  My thanks to each of them for making the time to visit with me, and to Tom and Chris for taking me out to lunch the next day!

My cousin Crash (if he has another name I've never heard it) brought a photo he had of my parents, grandmother and lots of other relatives sitting in a bar called the Denver back in the fifties.  I wish I had taken a photo of it, too, but alas, it was not to be.  A picture of my mother in a bar would be something unique (anyone else in the family, including myself, not so much).

I love my Aunt with all my heart, and will never forget how special she always made me feel as a little girl, even though I'm not the Catholic I'm sure she'd like me to be (she's my godmother, and says I'm a work in progress.  Seeing as how I'm atheist, it will continue to be a loooooong progress).

After two short days in Michigan, I was jetting off to Virginia Beach to visit my granddaughter, grandson-in-law and newest family member (read all about it here).  I went right from the airport to pick up my co-grandma, then to the hospital to see the baby for the first time.  What a doll!

Once everyone got a clean bill of health and was discharged, we headed over to their apartment.  By this time, it's dark and I'm a little tired, so co-grandma and I kissed everyone goodbye for the night and headed out to the parking lot, where….

…there was no rental car because the jerks at the apartment complex apparently require a visitors sticker despite the fact I had only been there two hours and had moved the car once already such jerks.

So poor Adam had to leave his wife and brand new baby to drive us to this lovely spot.

It was a chilly, long wait for the tow truck driver to show up and let me into the yard so I could fork over a lot of cash and get the rental car out of hock.  Not a good way to start the visit.

So I finally get to my hotel, wash my face and hit the hay, with dreams of Halloween candy dancing in my head.  Seriously, I dreamed someone kept yelling "Candy Corn!  Candy Corn!"  until I awoke, looked out my window and saw a race relief station just below my balcony where they were in fact handing out candy corn because "Your body needs the sugar!!"

If I had known about this race, I would have run it.  It turns out it was a 10K costume run, half of which ran right along the beach.  From my window at the breakfast joint I saw Ken and Barbie (in the boxes!), Shaggy, Scooby, Thelma, the other two AND the Mystery Machine, some trees, and some other really amazing costumes (amazing because some of those people were actually running in them).  I made a point of making a note in my phone of the fabulous costumes I saw, but now I'm damned if I can pull it up - grrr.

By the time I finished eating and got outside to take some pictures, I saw these:

This one was actually very clever - two people in a
roller coaster car - well done, crazy girls!

Awesome job on the baby strollers - and the dude
even managed to yell out "Yabba dabba doo!" as he trotted past.

Three blind mice

Again, the visit went by so quickly (unlike the time spent sitting around in airports).

Sunrise from my balcony

Big bag o'crochet

 All in all it was a great visit with all those I was able to see.

In other news, here's my new old lady car:

And my good old little green Prius, in which I had many fine adventures and which I sold the other day to a nice family from Portland.

It was a great car that never gave me a lick of trouble.  Let's hope the same will be true of the Avalon.

Finally, we had a great thanksgiving with turkey, pheasant, chukkar, lots of side dishes and wonderful family.  Unfortunately, I was so busy in the kitchen I didn't get to take any pictures.  Check out my Facebook page for pictures other people took, but here's one I already grabbed:

Schazi and Meg

In case I don't get back before Christmas, happy holidays, everyone!

Lullabies to Teddi Marie

Polka Dots and Moonbeams

A pug nose dream

…when you awake, we'll patty patty cake,
and ride the silver little pony.

Winkin, Blinkin and Nod one night
Sailed off in a wooden shoe….

…when I am old enough,
I'll be a clown.

Way down in Killarney, many years ago,
My mother sang a song to me….

Hush little Teddi, don't say a word,
Grandma's going to buy you a mockingbird….

Sleep in my arms while you still can,
Childhood is but a day….

There were many more, songs I grew up with, songs I remember hearing just before I drifted off to sleep as a little girl.  Because both of Teddi's parents are sailors, and because this was one of my favorite lullabies, here are all the words to this one:

Teddi's boat the silver moon,
Sailing in the sky.
Sailing o'er the sea of sleep
As the clouds roll by.

Sail, Teddi, sail
Out upon that sea.
Only don't forget to sail
Back again to me.

Welcome to the world, dear little one.

<3