ER's & Bars

It has been a week. I managed to finish my last exam free and clear on the first try. I am now officially done the classroom portion of my paramedical training. At least for now. I am sure that in the future there will be some sort of classroom-ing involved, but that is a ways away. For now, I am anxiously awaiting my first of 12 shifts on the ambulance, to put in to practice all that I have learned. I spent last night at the emergency room of Royal Columbian hospital, practicing some of my skills there, but there will be something different about practicing on an ambulance as opposed to in the hospital, where there is all sorts of help ready on a moments notice.

There were some cool things we (3 classmates were there with me) saw last night, and it was interesting to see some actual presentations of conditions that we had learned about in our textbooks for 3 months. On the other hand, it was very sad to see one patient in particular, who got brought in by the flight paramedic team after being struck by a vehicle while walking.

It's a strange balance, between the strange excitement of seeing the trauma team do their job, and learning how we will be a part of it, and knowing that this person is very sick and will likely not ever have the same life again (if any at all).

I also officially have a job. I have a feeling that I will be battling with EI to get them to cover me for the whole 4 weeks that I was job free though. They have issue with the fact that I was in school M-F during the day, and "not available" for full time work. I kindly explained that for two and a half months I was in fact in school, and not only available for full time work, but actually working full time. It's a restaurant business that I am in, and they often deal in evenings and weekends. We'll soon see if EI understands that or not. You would think that after 17 years of full time employment, it wouldn't be a big deal to cover a couple weeks that I wasn't working.

Time for a bike ride with the kids before suiting up for an evening behind the bar of the finest Tuscan Grill in Langley...Coza!

2 down, 1 to go.

Or, 66% done, 33%to go, depending on how you view my last post. So far "final's week" is going well. One more final (the final final? finally the final final to end the final's?) tomorrow, and that is pretty much the end of it. A housekeeping day Friday, and probably monday (for those with remedials) and that's it.

Time to find a job...

3 or 1

3 Final exams coming up this week. I guess technically there is only really one 'final' exam, the other two are precursors to it. Whatever. 3 finals this week, no time to think. Back to the books...

Lamentations 3:22-24

²²It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

²³They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

²⁴The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.

Every day we are blessed by the Lord's mercies. As we awake every morning, we should remember to thank Him for his saving grace. Our hope lies in Him alone, and in Him alone we have enough.

I'm Back!

Paramedic training started way back in May. Balancing that and a full time job, not to mention a family has made it nearly impossible for me to think about blogging. Why am I blogging now you ask?
It isn't because school has finished, I still have two more weeks of that before I am done. I still have a family too, which is the best part of all. To the thinking man (or lady), there seems to be only one conclusion left as to what has changed that has allowed me the time to begin blogging again.
Yes, it's true, I am officially finished at the Original Joe's. The restaurant that I spent so much time and effort trying to get with and I have officially broken up. We are no longer seeing each other. Why you ask? Well it seems that OJ's wasn't happy with the amount of time that I was spending with it. Actually, more accurately, it wasn't happy with the potential lack of amount of time I would be spending with it. According to OJ's, it was anticipating that I wouldn't be able to meet it's needs after I start working part time as a paramedic, and wanted someone more committed to it.
I was kind of shocked and surprised, because I thought we had a pretty decent relationship going, but these things happen. There is a new love in OJ's life, and I guess they have more time and energy to put in to it.
The good news for me is that the relationships that I still have in my life (my family, my friends, my God) are all more important to me than what I had going with OJ's. Not to say I didn't care about Oj's, but if I had to choose one of the above to give up it would have been Oj's. Which I guess is part of the reason that I don't work there anymore.
So I have two weeks of school left, and then it will be time to get out there and find some work. Until then, I will be spending my extra time catching up on the relationships that matter the most to me now that I don't have the high maintenance Oj's relationship draining on me.