1. I am a mom of two great kids - The Girl is 14 (going on 20), and The Boy is almost 7. I spaced them out that way, thinking, "With seven years difference, they won't fight and argue, right?" WRONG!! They can actually coexist in the same room for short periods of time, but anything over an hour and someone's going to be bruised or bleeding...good thing I'm an EMT!
I also have two "almost" children - Cupcake, who is 11, and Little Man, who is 4. They might not be children of my body, but they are children of my heart. I've only had a relationship with them for a little over a year, but they are nonetheless mine. I wish I could spend more time with them...maybe, one day.
2. I'm in a committed relationship with the man of my dreams. Hose Jockey (henceforth known as HJ) is a firefighter for a neighboring county, and we constantly tease each other about who's cooler - EMS or fire. I call him HJ (or Stretcher Fetcher - my personal favorite), and he calls me Scissor Packer. It's not derogatory - it's just our thing.
He's actually the one who came up with the name of this blog - even taught Little Man when he was a baby to call out, "Look! There's a bandaid wagon!" any time he saw an ambulance. Then came The Boy saying, "My mommy is a bandaid wagon driver!" It's our household running joke - they say it, I act all mad and insulted. :)
He and I met years and years ago, and he became my best friend. We just clicked the first time we met, which was odd for him, because he's almost painfully shy. After years of friendship, we decided to try out a relationship - and we've never looked back. I believe it was Plato that said that at birth our souls are split in two, and we spend the rest of our lives looking for our other half. I have no doubt that I've met mine.
3. I've been an EMT since June of 2009. Immediately after graduating, I got a job for a BLS service that ran 911 calls for a large metro area. Our job was to run basic calls on our own, and respond to the local fire units onscene of a call to transport the patient to the hospital. Coming from a small town, this was a huge culture shock for me. I had no experience driving an ambulance (we actually had "vanbulances," but still!), especially not on 4-lane interstates with rude drivers. I had never dealt with people who lived in abject poverty such as this, with boarded-up windows, garbage in the corner...and the ever-present smells. We really got no respect from the local firefighters (had one tell me, "You all look alike to me."), we posted in the vans for 12+ hours at a time, and management was unreasonable - it was tough. Not what I was expecting when I got that National Registry card!
4. I now work for a private company that provides 911 service for a smaller county, which has a more family feel. We have three dedicated ALS trucks, one BLS truck, and ALS and BLS non-emergency transport trucks. I am on an ALS truck that's based out of a fire station with 4 firefighters. My regular partner, Super Medic, is amazing - we've been together for 8 months. He's on the disabled list at the moment - blew his knee out, and won't be back on the truck for probably another month or so. I miss him terribly - he and I had developed a rhythm that worked for us, both on calls and off. Now I'm playing Potluck Partner, so I get to learn another medic's strengths and weaknesses and weirdness every shift.
It gets old.
5. Speaking of firefighters - my guys are amazing. I've never been in a situation where I spent long periods of time with men to whom I'm not related. And it was pretty obvious on my first few shifts that they'd never had a "hen in their rooster house" before, either!! We managed to work through the awkwardness - they now close the door to the bathroom, and I look the other way when they run around the bunkroom in their boxers. You're sure to hear stories about them here, because the pranks they pull are legendary. They like to have fun and goof off, but when it comes time, I couldn't ask for a better group of guys to have my back on calls.
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