The show must go on!

Today on the ambulance was pretty boring. We only went on 4 calls during the entire 12 hour shift, which made for a very long day. The most interesting call came in the afternoon when we were called to a strip bar in an unsavory part of town to see about a man who had collapsed. Until today, I'd never been to a tiddy bar so I was a bit excited and intrigued. So we get there and are led inside by an employee who was waiting outside for us. When I first walked in, it was so dark I couldn't see anything but the cigarette smoke was so thick I just wanted to leave. After my eyes adjusted, I could see a stage in the middle of the small room with a fat lady wearing nothing but a thong dancing around shoving her enormous boobs in some guy's face. I also noticed that I was the only clothed female in the place.

About 5 feet away, there was a grey haired man, very well dressed, sitting unconscious in a chair. We got him onto the stretcher and tried to arouse him without any luck. None of us could get a pulse and the music was so loud we couldn't listen for breath sounds. The 3 of us truly thought he was dead. The paramedic quickly cut off his sweater and shirt, and I started doing a really hard sternal rub on him and after a few long seconds he started to open his eyes. He was quite drunk and his blood pressure was about 70/40. He perked up a bit more in the ambulance after an IV was started. He actually turned out to be a very nice, polite man who probably broke his hip when he fell. When I meet people like him, it makes me sad to wonder at what point his life took a wrong turn and how he ended up drunk in a seedy strip club in the middle of a Thursday afternoon. I really hope this day serves as an epiphany for him.

As for the fat lady in the thong? She never quit dancing. What a professional!

Today I got to spend all day with an ambulance crew. I was really dreading it, but it turned out to be so much fun, I'm going to go back tomorrow. What I was dreading was the length of the shift, 12 hours, but it went by so fast! We only went on about 6 calls, nothing too thrilling, really. Once guy was really drunk, another lady just needed a taxi service to take her kid to the hospital because she didn't want to drive her own car, one lady probably had a stroke, and one guy was in a car wreck during rush hour. I was really hoping for a little more excitement, but maybe that will come tomorrow. It's not like I want bad things to happen to people, but if they are going to happen, than I would like to be there to learn from it.

The only bad thing about the deal is I have to sit in the back where it's pretty chilly. I'm dressing warmer tomorrow and I'm also going to bring a book. We had so much down time today that the crew up front started snoring!

This was my first time ever in an ambulance and it's really pretty neat how organized everything is. I was particularly impressed with the paramedic who was able to start an IV while the truck was going 60 miles an hour on a bumpy (typical in my state) interstate.

More later....

Favorite 4's

I got tagged by http://www.imarriedthepastor.blogspot.com/ to answer these questions, so I guess I better get started!

4 jobs I've had in my life:
1. child welfare worker 1996-2002
2. waitress 1993-2002
3. secretary for an insurance agent 1992 I got fired from this one. : (
4. oboe teacher 1991-1993

4 movies I can watch over and over (does this date me, or what?) :
1. When Harry Met Sally
2. Better Off Dead
3. St. Elmo's Fire
4. Stripes (this one is for you, Ned!)

4 places I have lived (from most recent)
1. my current house 2002-present
2. an apartment downtown 1998-2002
3. a duplex 1996-1998
4. an apartment with one of my best friends 1995-1996

4 TV shows I love to watch
1. Desperate Housewives
2. CSI: Miami
3. Cold Case
4. What Not To Wear

4 places I have been on vacation
1. San Francisco -2004, with my boyfriend
2. Rociada, NM -2003, with my boyfriend
3. Los Angeles- many times to visit my mom, who used to live there
4. The Galleria in Dallas -2005, with my boyfriend. The Galleria is a city of it's own and we spent 3 days there!

4 of my favorite dishes
1. Indonesian Dynamite sushi rolls
2. spinach, tomato, and goat cheese pizza made on whole wheat crust (my own recipe)
3. any kind of pasta
4. grilled lobster tails soaked in butter

4 websites I visit daily
1. Fox news
2. sports illustrated
3. imarriedthepastor.blogspot.com (where has she been lately??)
4. Ultra Petroleum - to check on stock prices

4 places I would rather be right now
1. my boyfriend's house
2. on vacation...anywhere!
3. Turin, Italy...to watch the women's figure skating competition
4. visiting one of my best friends in Claremore, OK

4 bloggers I am tagging:
1. http://theunderweardrawer.blogspot.com/
2. http://tapscottscopydesk.blogspot.com/
3. http://stuckonthepalmetto.blogspot.com/
4. This spot is for Libby, whom I wish would start a blog

Surprise! I didn't win Powerball, but I did win the UK lottery!

I can't believe I bought a stupid ticket to the lottery in the first place. Personally, I think lotteries are evil but I'm certainly not going to stop anyone else from buying a ticket, which is why I voted in favor of the lottery 2 years ago. Was I planning on ever buying a ticket? No. You see, I view the lottery as just another way for the goverment to bilk money out of people, then carelessly spent it. It's not like anyone's taxes are getting lowered due to the increased revenue the lottery is bringing in. So, getting back to the subject, on Friday I was buying stuff to make pizza and I got wooed by the signs everwhere stating that Powerball was up to 300-something million, and I figured, well, what will it hurt to buy a couple of tickets? Big surprise. I didn't win. And I'll never see that $2 again, either. Ah well. I guess by not winning I saved myself the trouble of losing all my privacy. On one positive note, I do keep recieving e-mails stating I've won the UK lottery. All I have to do is e-mail my bank account info to some stranger in a foreign country. I'm still trying to figure out the mystery of how I won something I never entered..

So now onto something that bugs me. Semi-truck drivers. Here it's 20 degrees outside, it's sleeting, and there's over an inch of ice on the interstate. I'm driving 40 mph NOT in the fast lane, and some dumb truck driver comes up right behind me and tail gates me! How smart is that? What if I spin out and he has too much momentum to stop before he slams into me? I really don't understand why they do that. It's not just semi-truck drivers, either. I'm just picking on them right now because they are heavier and it's more difficult for them to stop. They are also sleep deprived and may have a decrease in concentration. It would be really nice if they would quit thinking about themselves and consider safety for once. It is really, really stupid to tailgate someone when there's ice on the road (or really, any other time). OK, I'm finished with that rant. I'm right though, aren't I?