Saturday, November 25, 2006

What a week

Yes, I know this week was Thanksgiving and all the family stuff that goes along with it, but more importantly, this week was EMS Conference. The time of year when flashy lights and sirens and all the accompanying toys are celebrated en force. The Texas per capita consumption of beer and other intoxicating beverages increases ten-fold, and sleepless nights are accompanied by hazey memories. This year it was in Dallas, allowing me the opportunity to work as necessary, and still attend most of the conference. It was not as great as it is in Austin, but at least I didn't have to rent a hotel room. I hung out mostly with all my MedStar peoples, but I also got to see old Ags, new Ags, and others from EMS days gone by. I bought my new stethoscope, which strangely enough, makes me want to take blood pressures on my pts myself.

While hanging out with the MedStar people, I had a conversation with Jon, the education guy at Medstar. He hadn't realized that they had fired me for that stupid tardy policy that changed two months later. He thought I had just moved on to greener pastures. He said it was stupid to have fired me for that, and that I should go to HR to appeal my termination and be reinstated, considering that the policy that got me fired was so short-lived. The HR lady told me to send her an email detailing what had happened and she would see what she could do to get me my job back, so I think I will. I won't leave CareFlite; they are too good to me. But I would like to be part-time at MedStar. Get my 911 fix and all of that. And I miss my friends there. I feel like and outsider because I don't know what's going on over there anymore.

I also decided that I will be taking the Critical Care class next semester, assuming I can get the money saved up for the tuition. It's only on Fridays, and they said they would work with my shift and not count off for being gone every third day. That will get me back into the habit of studying and learning on someone else's schedule, which should prepare me for my plans to do the RN completer online with Excelsior. I would never make it at a self-pace without practice first. I am excited about my prospective return to education, and the furthering of my career. That's the good thing about EMS conference, it is full of motivators and motivation to learn more and do more.

Now I am off to work my shift.

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Oh what a season

So Blogger decides that it is going to change its stuff. I finally had a chance to sit down at the comptuer last night, and I couldn't log onto Blogger because it had to transfer everything over to the Google beta version. So that leaves me posting at work, which I never usually have a chance to do. On my last post, I had just gotten my new shift after the shift bids. Well, a couple weeks later I had to opportunity to move onto a 24 hr shift out of Garland. So I am only required to work 2 days a week now, but I work much more than that for the benefit of the OT. I love OT pay. And I also love not working OT and having all that time at home. I am working today, and I had the last two days off, and I truly enjoyed sitting at home, watching TV and getting my apartment cleaned up. The cleanliness of my apartment had been declining gradually since I was never home, and I am fighting an uphill battle trying to keep it clean.

I am still engaged to Jeremy, which may seem obvious, but we have had a couple of fights lately, and considering how I feel after those fights, it is still a testament to our commitment that we are still together. We went away together last weekend to Fredricksburg, Tx. It was a trip for his Texas history class, but it was also a nice opportunity to leave our families and all their drama behind, get away from our lives, and just to be together having fun. It was great fun. We went to the Admiral Nimitz museum (National museum for the War in the Pacific), the Pioneer Museum, and the Living history museum (nearer to Johnson City). Of course, we couldn't skip Enchanted Rock. It wasn't a difficult climb, but it sure does wind you if you aren't used to walking up a 30-45 degree incline. We also had time to just be with each other and talk; time which seems to be rare.

I feel like I should apologize for being an absentee blogger. My life has been hectic and emotionally unstable for the last couple of months. I have been working lots and lots of overtime, and on top of that, Jeremy's mom just lost her job, and my parents are getting divorced. In the divorce, I can't help but side with Jerry (obvious to anyone who knows my relationship with my mother) but my mother has been trying to manipulate me in the meantime, and I have just decided to discontinue my relationship with her and cut off all contact (actually that was HER idea) until such a time as she can fix her problems and apoligize for what she has most recently done to me. I find myself playing more of a mother role to Rachael and Joey since they too have decided they want nothing to do with my mom. So yeah, things are crazy and tumultuous. But I am persevering.

With Thanksgiving coming up, I am being forced to face my mother again. We decided not to let her host dinner this time. The last time we trusted her to host a family meal was Rosh Hashanah, and she decided to ruin it. We were all going to be about 15 minutes late (me because i was getting out of work late) so she threw a fit and said we were ruining dinner so she cancelled it. We decided this time it would be better for Jerry's mother to host it. I was under the impression that she would not be coming, considering the court injunction about her not being allowed to see Rachael and Joey, but Jerry invited her anyways. So now I have spend the day with her. Against my will. I have decided that since she told me that she did not ever want to see or speak to me again, I would honor her wishes and ignore her until such a time as she decided to apologize and decide she wanted to have contact with me. Jerry says she is doing better now that she is taking anti-depressants, but I don't expect much of a sincere change. I suppose we will have to see how it will go.