Happy Turkey day and all that crap

So Yeah...Fa la la la fucking la. The holidays are now upon us. The family get togethers, the tree trimming, the over indulgence of chocolate and other sweet stuff, the maxed-out credit cards and in my family the copious amounts of alcohol. We know how to celebrate in my family. Thanksgiving at my house is a wild time consiting of lots of food, drink and very animated game playing. I don't think there are many familys that can turn CSI: the board game into a free for all except for mine. A calm game of Taboo, turns into "give the baby to my father and then tell him about my tattoos" But this is why I love to spend time with these crazy people. Nobody in my family is quiet. I was awakened at 0730 to my 5 year old cousin jumping on the couch I was sleeping on screaming "WAKE UP, WAKE UP, WAKE UP!" I did however miss the karaoke festival because I was on an ambulance chasing down an imaginary stabbing victim. We did have a shooting though...who the hell shoots people on the day before thanksgiving. Thats one hell of "happy hoildays." But fortuanatly there is video of my father butching "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay" so I didnt miss much.

I spent today with my cyclist who was struck by a car last year. He is doing well. His surgeries are making him look more normal everytime I see him. His scars are getting btter, he begining to have a more normal jawline. It is wonderful to see him and how well he is progressing.

Also today I got a speeding ticket. 48 in a 35. On a very small barrier island population 657 where appernetly the police have nothing better to do than give tickets out the day after thanksgiving. Now I understand that I was speeding, I am not arguing that. Give me the ticket, thats fine. But there is no reason the be a complete ass. I get pulled, I get my licence, registration and insurance card out, and roll down the window. I greet the officer with a Hello. I get a gruff "Licence, registration and proof of insurance...I pulled you for going 48 in a 35 why are you going so fast?" Before I could get two words out he says "Tell it to the judge" and trudges to the crusier. So I sit and I wait for my ticket, I know I'm getting one by this point. He comes back to my car given me my ticket and tells me my court date, which is on my shift day. Now I have excepted my ticket I am not going to try and get out of it. However I need to know who to call to change my court date. As anyone in EMS would know it would be easier to try to change that than it would be to try to find coverage for my shift. It's not like a I work in a cubicle in which I can call my boss and tell them I will be several hours late. So I ask the officer who I can call to change my court date. I explain that I am a Medic and work 24 hour shifts. I get a rude responce on how "even I have a life" and that he was having surgery in January and that the date had to be in December blah blah blah. Then he tells me that "the ticket is already written so I should stop trying to get out of it." I tried to explain I was not trying to get out of it, I just want to change the court date, and who do I contact to get the date changed. But he would have none of that...I finally got frustrated and every responce he gave my I just gave a "Yes officer" and silently begged him to go to his vehicle and leave me the hell alone. And he still never gave me a number to call. What a douchbag. I made it home without further incident. So pissed I was crying at this point. I go up stairs explain to my family what had just happened and they tell me to call the Muni court they will help me. Now How hard would it have been for the police to tell me that?

3am and awake

Back to posting in the middle of the night. Can't sleep again, This sucks. I spent the evening with the new graduating class of Charleston paramedics. If I can say anything paramedics know how to throw a party. I also was the DD. After last weekend I decided that I would abstain from ETOH for a while. Since I was not able to keep anything down until 1900 the night after my big birthday bash. I surprised my house wasn't set on fire after the guests started a huge fire in my fire bowl. Lets just say the woods behind my house was cleared of a few tree branches. Work has been slow nothing of note really, except the police department has been calling on us for really retarded stuff recently. I think there must have been an incident in the jail again. CYA type of stuff like a small laceration that needs no stitches on an assault victim's forehead. Comes out to us as a "head injury" or "bleeding, possible dangerous body area"

I got an email from on old patient. I don't really condone having contact with patients after we leave them at the Trauma Center, but this particular one holds a special place in my heart. Anyone who has read this blog before has read the post "The artist in the ambulance" It was June 27th 2004 at 0712 in the am, I had had about three hours of sleep in 48 hours ( I was still in paramedic school at the time) I had my first real trauma in which us as paramedics in the streets are the reason he is still alive. It was a hard call, he was pretty messed up. Awake with a gag, yet he had no face below the eyes. His jaw was completely gone and had no airway control. His arm was amputated and had a large alvusion to his upper chest. This call almost made me quit EMS altogether. However I worked through it. I still keep in touch with him. He is back to being a triathlete, just finished an Ironman race. My first save really. A save that has caught the attention of Zoll Medical. Zoll is the company who provides us with out AEDs, cardiac monitors and AutoPulse ( a CPR machine). Apparently Zoll has been tracking our Saves and wants to use my patient at a national shareholders meeting. So thats kinda cool. I really could care less about the Zoll thing. yeah getting recongnition is nice, but it's not why I do my job.

Miss you long time

Water



I know I promised paintings next...however I have to get the negitives of the portfolio pieces scanned so as soon as that gets done I will pos painting. Till then enjoy the photgraphy damnit.

Long time no write. Actually life has been pret-ty dull here in Chucktown. Other than the drunken debachery at my birthday party last weekend most of which I lost in the bottom of Tangeray. No lives to be snatched from the greedy jaws of death. No bloody messes to be cleaned up and swept off to the ER in a rush of lights and sound. Just a bunch of bullshit...and a crowd of violent hypoglycemics (or NGAH; translation: No Groceries At Home) that have to be restrained with several pairs of handcuffs generously donated for the transport by the City Police Department. It has been slow in life as well as work. I just felt I needed to write something...anything...

The underbelly

It amazing really how the same city came be portrayed in diffrent ways. One of my birthday gifts was CSI:NY on DVD. It shows NYC as dark, dirty, and seedy. It shows the underbelly of the city in stark reality. Now take they same city and tell it's stories through the eyes of the girls of Sex and the City. It's all that glitters, five star resteraunts, gallery openings, Manolo Blahniks. Diffrent shows, diffrent point of views. I was reminded of this as I walked the streets of my own city earlier armed with my Nikon. I live in a coastal southern city, known for it's history, food, beaches. Wandered through Waterfront Park, down East Bay Street until I hit The Battery. The homes on The Battery are multi-million dollar historic homes, some that have survived The Civil War, The Quake, and many years of hurricanes. Just a few blocks from there is the ghetto of downtown. In my line of work we see all parts of the city. I've been in the big historic homes with all the antique furniture and I've been in the Section 8 housing with the second hand sofa. I have found out that the rich can be just as filthy and nasty as the dirt poor. I have seen the wealty ignore thier children, just as the indigent pay no attention to thier own. Some of the poor are just as demanding, just as rude as some of the rich. But I can say with all certainty that I have seen the best and the worst of all humanity. I have been witness to acts of kindness that whould bring tears to even me, The Ice Prinecess. I have seen some of the most henious crime scenes in Charleston. Accidents, sickness, deaths, and births, thats my work. I can tell stories of the beautiful parts of my city, of the world outside of my work. Friends, drinks, good food, family. But I can also tell the stories of my life while wearing the uniform. Blood, guts, the sick and the stupid. Every person, every place has it's own unique story to tell.

Happy Birthday to me.

The Pineapple

It's been a calm couple of days, had several days off. No OT for me this week. Fisrt time in a month I haven't spent the week in a uniform. Celebrated my birthday on Thursday in style at a rooftop bar over looking The Market. Friends and cosmopolitons. Very Sex and the City you might say. I got everything I wanted, Nip/Tuck and CSI:NY on DVD, some new PJs and an old Kodak camera to add to my growing collection of antique cameras. Spent yesterday and today with my family. I should spend more time with them. My daddy is still getting over not having his girls around since both my sister and I aren't living at home anymore. I think it's harder on him than he likes to admit. Mama says he is having a bit of seperation anxity. He worries about us. Me because of my work. My sister because she's still young and living in the big bad city. I do get to see my mom more since she works in one of the busy local ERs. She just left the pediatric ER to work at County ER so intead of dealing with children, she treats more psych, drunks and homeless. She says some of those psychs are like the toodlers anyways. She likes it, except for the borderlines, she doesn't like them, which I can understand, they are an odd group people to deal with. I love encoding the hospital when she's working because she always ends the transmission with "See you when you get here, sweetie. Drive safely!" It was embarassing in the beginning because all the other medics could hear it and would give me a hard time, but now most of them relize who she is and they all refer to as "Mom". And she always tries to stand up for the medics when the ER staff gets bitchy with us.