A first for everything

Nothing of major importance until today. Well, I did do good on my physical assessment Tuesday...ran 1.5 miles in 14:04. My overall was not great, but I knew that would happen, you can't do sit-ups with a pulled ab muscle. Today was fun overall. I'm still on light PT so I ran for almost 2 hours nonstop this morning. I hope to be back with my platoon Monday. We had our first exam and everyone passed...a first for our instructor. I spent the rest of the day learning about airway management, how much the different O2 tanks hold, fun stuff. Next week, we'll learn CPR so this will make even more sense. Finally, we rounded off the day with a pleasant suprise, tomorrow was supposed to be payday- we got paid today instead. Woo Hoo! The only bad thing is we have to wait 90 days before we can go to direct deposit, so I'm still broke until Saturday.

Mondays...

Just another average Monday, traffic stinks, class was long, drawn-out, and boring. I was allowed to run/walk and climb the tower at PT this morning...But tomorrow I'll start back at full PT. We received our TB shots, 3 days and they'll be checked. Another one of the "big bugles" came to visit (assistant chief/fire marshal= 4 bugles). We took our test over infectious diseases...I passed. Then another Instructor came to help teach us about scene safety. One of the classes last year made a video of their attempts to control a scene. As we watched, we pointed out what they did wrong, or what they just plain old didn't do. The scenario's were so funny, even the guys on the tape were laughing...until they got "shot" by the patient.

Tomorrow should be...well...interesting. Instead of going to the academy, I'll meet with 5 classmates at another building to do a workout. This is the one I was talking about a few days ago, run 1.5 miles, situps, pushups, stretching... fun stuff... feel my overwhelming excitement? (*insert sarcasm here*) I think I'm supposed to take an exam tomorrow also...better study.

Stay safe....but have fun....

Need to vent

I don't think I'll ever understand my parents, wait, scratch that...just Mom. All the years of school, all the years of being yelled at for never studying, all the non-existant offers to help... Now I'm getting the opposite. When I get home from the academy, my routine is go to the bathroom, check email/update journal, eat something, then hit the books. Half the time, she starts bugging me about studying as I exit the bathroom! Right now, my pet peeve is that she wants to know if I'm studying, but she is constantly interrupting me to send me downstairs for another 12-pack of cokes or something stupid like that. A few minutes ago, she tried to start an argument with me because I need to study and was going to take my books with me to the dinner at my aunt/uncle's house...the problem? If I'm going to study I might as well stay home- and yet, I need to go visit with my family (leave the books at home). Either way, I'm up the proverbial creek. My aunt's a lawyer and my uncle went to UGA, they have BOTH offered to help me study A.K.A. they'd understand! What I don't understand is that if she knew this was going to happen, why did she force me to go work the fish-fry yesterday, I could've studied then, and been able to visit family today. I need to get out of this house, the longer this journal gets, you'll see how big of a pain she can be and how much pain she causes me.

'nother day, 'nother headache

For those of you who enjoy it, Happy Mother's Day. I've spent the day (and weekend) trying to study as much as possible. I'm taking a break right now because I've got a headache...and it's not from studying. There was a lot of chaos this year about where mother's day was going to be held, who would be there, and all kinds of drama. I ought to be used to it, we go through this every year. We (me, mom, dad, my brother, his wife, and my grandpa) ended up taking a new flower arrangement to my grandmother's grave, then going to the Varsity for lunch. Now Mom's mad because she said I never told her happy mother's day this morning...I swear I did. Also, it's too hot out for her new bulbs to be planted, that's been put off until next weekend.

I'm debating on what to do tomorrow at PT, my ab muscle is still sore, but I want to be with my class and not draw attention from the PT instructors. The only excercise I can do without any problems or pain is running. 6-inches is out of the question- that's where you lay on your back, hands under your butt, lift your feet 6 inches off the ground and pick your head up. (BTW, 6-inches is one of the favorite excercises at the academy...pushups are the other) Should I suck it up and tell them I'm fine, or sit it out one more day and continue healing? Right now, something as simple as rolling over in bed hurts like hell. At least I'm not the only person on the injury list, I know of 2 more with a muscle injury, and one who couldn't stop vomiting Friday.

Well, I guess it's time to get back to the books...

TGIF

Thank goodness it's Friday!!! This has been a long week. The past 3 days were spent on the EVOC range, running over cones and doing push-ups. Yesterday I drove the larger ambulance  (F450 Custom) and only killed 2 cones. Today, I took the driving test and passed in the smaller E350 Custom...They are both Type I for you EMS folks. Of course, my happy butt gets out of the ambulance, after passing the test, and trips over a cone-I owe the Instructors 15 pushups for being a klutz. I have been driving my grandfather's truck the past couple days also, the class has been enjoying the shade of my 10x20 carport (the boxes won't fit in my car). Wednesday during PT, I managed to pull/strain an abdomenal muscle so I had to sit out during PT this morning, it made me a little mad because I wanted to run with my class...If we're injured at all, we have to sit out the entire PT session. I may have 24 more weeks of PT, but those instructors are stomping us, every day counts. I have roughly 50 pages of study guides/worksheets and 5 chapters in 2 different books to study for next week. Not to mention, I have to be tested for TB, and will start my Hepatitus B shots on Monday. Starting Tuesday, a handful from the class will be going to another location in the morning to do a physical assessment (1.5 mile run, situps, pushups, ect...). I hope this weekend is nice and long.....

Lost one...

Before I start, this computer sucks!!! OK, I'm better now.

This morning as we lined up for PT, we noticed we were missing a guy from my squad. As we stood there, we saw him go turn his uniforms in. For whatever reason, he left...even though we knew him for a week, he will be missed. The instructors won't tell us why, we just wish he would have said something to those of us in his squad or in the platoon (class). The weird thing is, his dad is a Batallion Chief at one of the stations in the county so you would think he would be more motivated. Like I said, he will be missed...As a rule, his name tag will remain where he sat for the rest of the class. After doing extended PT, my arms still feel like they could fall off, we had 10 minutes to change and be back in class. Most of the day was spent learning about infectious diseases and how easily they're spread. Our instructor played a prank on us to teach that lesson. While we were changing, she put a luminescent powder on her hands and walked around, opening/closing doors, picking up keys that were on the desk, shaking hands with people, ect... Class starts and she pulls out a blacklight to see who and what has the powder on them. About half the class had some powder somewhere. It definately drove that lesson home, but now half the class is a little paranoid.

Tomorrow and the rest of the week will be fun, we're going to EVOC (learning to drive the ambulances). Our instructor was nice and cleared it for us to wear our PT gear (shorts and t-shirt) as well as to take grills and cookout each day.

Mmmm....dinner's ready, gotta run.

Stay safe.

Weekends are too short

Saturday was fun, spent the whole day doing a bunch of training with State Troopers and other groups. Then went to Savannah to sleep and catch up with my Mom. Here's the fun part...Get to the hotel about 1am, and Mom left a room key at the front desk with my name on it. I walk in and the guy can't find the key anywhere. So I give him my mom's name, he looks it up on the computer and makes me a key to room 232. I park the car, grab my junk, and head for the room. Long story short, the key fits, and the 2 strangers start screaming like banshees when they see me. I blurt out a quick apology and slam the door. Obviously, I'm pissed by the time I get back to the front desk. I walk in and drop my camo-bag and camelback on the floor and toss the key across the counter, Oh, I was in full BDU's (camoflage for you non-military folks). The guy has the rocks to tell me not to throw the key across his counter like that. I reply to get the room right next time(edited version...I didn't curse at him, but I wasn't very nice either). He looks it up on the computer again and reads the name of the folks I scared, same last name, but I gave him a female name, the room was under some guy. I ended up calling mom from the cell phone and she came down and took me to our room. Next morning, she went down to the lobby (I was sleeping) and lo-and-behold there's the key, in plain view on the counter's only shelf. I think we got a voucher for a free stay at that hotel. Sunday was dull, studied for about an hour, then drove for 4 to get home and study some more. Bought some new boots today, old one's would've been more $$ to resole. That's about it...besides, dinner's ready and I'm hungry..........