Give Me Five Monday Meme #20

The ‘Give Me Five’ Monday meme is designed to share fun information with each other in a simple, short list! Here’s how it works: Each week, I will put out a random topic from my list of topics and you share 5 answers of your choice on the given topic and link back here! You can add photos, links or stories or just a simple list of your own of 5 things that relate to the topic as it pertains to you and your life experiences. It doesn’t have to be in any order of importance unless otherwise specified. Sign up for weekly reminder emails at beccagirl@charter.net.


This week’s assignment from Becca at BeccA’s Buzz: Give Me Five future events you are currently looking forward to and/or planning or attending.

1. Alex's First Birthday

My son's first birthday is in two weeks and I'm super excited! We're having a rather large gathering in our backyard with a pig pickin' and fixin's! Family will be in town and our best of best friends will be there! I'm not looking forward to all the yard work, house work, and preparing that needs to be done! But it will be so worth it! We got Alex a sand and water table and I can't wait to put it together for his birthday! He LOVES water! The bath, the shower, rain puddles, and best of all, our dog's water bowl. I'm hoping this table will keep him from using Mia's dog bowl as his own personal water park!

2. Azalea Festival

The 61st Annual North Carolina Azalea Festival is the same weekend as Alex's birthday. Even though I loathe the number of tourons (tourist + moron= touron) that invade our city, I LOVE the festival. There's concerts (Sugarland/Little Big Town and Colbie Caillat/Michelle Branch), a parade, and my favorite, the street fair! With funnel cake of course! Last year I was laid up in the hospital after giving birth and was bummed that I wouldn't get my annual funnel cake! Lo' and behold, in walks one of my best friends Kelly with her husband and 4 day old baby girl and a funnel cake for ME! Thats true friendship in its truest form! Funnel cake!

3. Warmer Weather

I am so ready for warmer weather! Today it is cold and rainy and I am so over that. Yah yah yah, we're in a drought and we need the rain. I get it. But I want sunny, warm, beeeeauuuuutiful weather! I'm ready to plant lots of flowers and a few trees! I'm ready to let Alex run around outside butt naked! (In our backyard of course!) Or spend all afternoon outside at a park or at the beach with Alex and friends! I'm totally ready to shed the long sleeves. (Keeping the jeans though. It should be illegal for me to wear shorts.) I want to open up all the windows in the house and let the warm breeze bring in some fresh air! Or even sleep at night with the windows open! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

4. April 15th

This is the day that we change uniform shirts at work. Yes, I'm seriously looking forward to this! October 15th-April 15th we wear our "dress" work shirts. These are button down, polyester, uncomfortable, stain magnet, white, heat trapping, dress shirts. Just like a man's short sleeve dress shirt. But on April 15th we get to switch to our oh so comfortable, cotton, sweat wicking, stain resistant, white, polo shirts! No more scrambling to the dry cleaners! (I HATE ironing with a passion.) No more jaw dropping, crap ass job, dry cleaning bills for 6 months! Instead I can just pull it out of the dryer and throw it on! No collar brass to worry about putting on. No name badge, no pen in the front pocket... oh happpppy day!

5. Summer Vacation

Every year in June my side of my immediate family go on vacation to Hilton Head, SC. We didn't go last year because Alex was only a few weeks old. And at that time he was a constant crying mess thanks to undiagnosed reflux. No way was I going to travel away from home with a newborn! But this year is going to be all fun in the sun! I can't wait to have a whole week away from everyday monotonous life! I'm really excited that I will have my husband and whole family there to help out with Alex! I truely will have a vacation from my normal life! I even have my fingers crossed that I can hand Alex off to my parents for one night so I can sleep late! Ohhhhh the joy that would bring. Maybe I'll even consider putting the relation back into my relationship with my husband.... but I don't want to start thinking wild here... ha! I can't wait to play in the sand with Alex, take him swimming in the pool/ocean, and take him to the top of the lighthouse (his Dad will be carrying him of course). Maybe he'll even learn to putt-putt! Another tradition of my family is our entirely too competitive nightly games of putt-putt while at Hilton Head. Dang, I can't wait!

Situation Sunday

Situation Sunday #51
Rules: You have no cell no phone. Visit Helena-Skyblue and leave a link.

Situation # 1
You are walking down the street, And up ahead of you a large crowd has gathered. There are no laws or rules, or guild lines in this society. They are all stoning the person in the middle. What do you do when that person is a close friend of yours?
I would start beating the shit out of everyone I can until they beat the shit out of me. If I had any weapons, I'd use them too. I'd fight for anyone I cared about it.

Situation # 2
You have hit a animal with your car, that is on the endangered list. Clearly the animal is dead. There was only 6 of these animals left in the world, now there are 5. The fine you know is steep. {$5,000} With also 1 year in jail. No if and or butts. Just 2 week's ago you read in the paper of a Catholic Nun that hit one and received that fine. What do you do?
Start CPR....no, I'd get the hell out of there! I'd look all around and see if anyone saw me do it. If I'm going to get punished no matter what then I might as well make them find me first! Plus they got to have proof! Innocent until proven guilty damit!

Situation # 3
If you had the power to make this world more perfect or better by doing 3 things, what would they be and why those choices?

1- Find a cure cancer. Do I really have to tell you why?

2-Feed the hungry and somehow find a way continually provide them with food and shelter. No child (or anyone else) would ever go to bed hungry. Ever.

3-Eliminate global warming. So my children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc. have a safe planet to live on. Our overall health will be better because global climate change can lead to rapid spread of disease. There will be fewer cases of extreme weather. Although humans as a whole have survived the vagaries of drought, stretches of warmth and cold and more, entire societies have collapsed from dramatic climatic shifts. If the global warming trend stays the same, our economy will suffer. Vineyards will die, snow will melt, and coast lines will continue to erode.

Saturday Boredom Meme

Accent - Southern belle

Booze of choice - Liquor...Amaretto Sour, Blue Motorcycles, Sex on the Beach, Kamakazee... a bottle of Parrot Bay and a straw....

Chore I hate - Folding laundry...which I am putting off doing at this very moment.

Dog or Cat - Dogs (not ankle biters!) They're automatic baby food crumb catchers!

Essential electronics - Cell phone, computer, AC, fridge...everything electronic in my house!

Favorite perfume(s)/cologne(s) - Hugo's Deep Red in the fall/winter time, and Estee Lauder's Beyond Paradise in the spring/summer time.

Hometown - Wilmington, NC

Insomnia? - Not really. But I can't seem to go to bed earlier than midnight.

Job Title - Medicaid taxi driver... a.k.a Paramedic, and MOM

Kids? - One. Master Alex

Living Arrangement - 1800 sq foot one story house with my husband, son, and dog.

Most admired trait - Loyalty to my friends.

Number of Sexual Partners - 0. Oh wait, my husband. So 1. Sometimes.

Overnight Hospital Stays - Just when I gave birth to my son.

Phobia - None that I can think of.

Quote - I'm so happy I could poop a rainbow. (Said with sarcasm)

Religion - Southern Baptist

Siblings - One brother - 9 years older.

Time I wake up - Much earlier than I'd like. I have an 11 1/2 month old alarm clock.

Unusual talent/skill - I can curl my tongue three times. Great party skill.

Vegetable I refuse to eat - Brussel sprout.

Worst habit - Interrupting people while they're talking. My mouth starts going before my brain can catch up.

X-rays - Teeth,right hand, and spine.

Yummy foods I make - Baked goods. Anything sweet. My best is my almond pound cake.

Zodiac sign - Aries

Bittersweet

Sometimes the best feeling in the world can be bittersweet.


Last night after coming come home from work, I was pleased to find my baby boy stilk awake! After changing into some comfy clothes I went into the living room where my husband and son were playing. When Alex saw me he got a huge grin on his face and did his little drunken monkey walk towards me. (He's just started walking.) I got down on his level and he threw his little arms around me babbling all kinds of nonsense. I thought this has to be one of the best feelings in the world. Just writing it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy!


Later that night as I was lying in bed, still on my happy high of playing with Alex, I started to let my mind wonder. I should have known better. My pessimistic mind is usually up to no good! I was thinking about my warm fuzzy feeling, when the realization that it would not last forever started to creep over me. Alex will grow up. Hugs and kisses will be "gross" and "not cool", or even embarassing. Even worse, he will eventually leave the house and those rare hugs or kisses will be few and far between. So much for my happy high. Depression rolled in like an early morning fog.


What the hell is wrong with me? Alex is only 11 1/2 months old and here I was over a decade down the road! Then I started thinking about my parents. I was once their baby, the same drunken monkey walking bundle of joy, hugging their legs. How often do I hug and kiss them now? Not often. Never with the enthusiasm of a child. I wonder if they miss that. Or is it just something you grow out of as your relationship changes with your child? Do they still remember it, and the warm and fuzzy feeling? Do I even want to know the answer? No.


Even though I managed to depress myself before going to sleep I did learn an important lesson. Stay in the present. Don't look forward and don't look back. Before you know it, right now is the past and the future is the present. I'm going to get as many hugs and kisses from my little guy that I can. There is no feeling better then his big dimple smile directed towards me with his little arms wrapped around my heart. No matter how bittersweet it may be.

Give Me Five Monday Meme #19

The ‘Give Me Five’ Monday meme is designed to share fun information with each other in a simple, short list! Here’s how it works: Each week, I will put out a random topic from my list of topics and you share 5 answers of your choice on the given topic and link back here! You can add photos, links or stories or just a simple list of your own of 5 things that relate to the topic as it pertains to you and your life experiences. It doesn’t have to be in any order of importance unless otherwise specified. Sign up for weekly reminder emails at beccagirl@charter.net.

This week’s assignment from Becca at BeccA’s Buzz: Give Me Five favorite memories from your Easter day 2008: (edit: I did Easter weekend instead...)

1. I shared my birthday with the Easter Bunny and Jesus.

Yep, my birthday was yesterday, same day as Easter. And I turned 29! Aaack! Still holding onto my 20's... barely! But because of it, I got to see more family on my birthday than I would have had it not been Easter! And I had a yummy Easter/Birthday lunch with all the fixin's plus birthday cake! Mmmm mmmm mmmm! I don't think I could have gotten away with wearing bunny ears on my head either....

2. It was my son's first ever Easter!

Alex was born just after Easter last year so this was his first ever Easter! It was fun to play Easter Bunny and have his basket all done for him when he woke up in the morning. It was so much fun watching him pull all of his new stuff out of the basket! He loved a bunny book that we bought him. Kept him quiet through part of church too! Whew!

3. Easter Egg Hunt 2008!

Along with his first Easter, it was also Alex's first time Easter egg hunting! We went to a local church that had a huge event. We chose that one were a couple of eggs on the ground and we were able to form a protective circle around him and let him pick up some eggs. Of course as soon as he picked one up he wanted to throw it! Maybe I should have called it the Easter Throw 2008!/

4. Popcorn, seriously?

I learned Alex LOVES popcorn! At the same church event, we got tickets for snacks! It was $2/person for a hotdog, drink, bag of fresh popcorn, and some cotton candy! (You can't beat that deal!) We were sitting on the ground picnic style with some friends and their little ones when I felt my popcorn bag rustling in my hand. Alex was watching me eat popcorn, stuck his little arm in my bag, pulled out a handful and shoved it in his mouth! At first I panicked, I thought he might choke! But he downed the first handfull successfully and was going back for more! He ended up eating most of my bag. *sigh* Guess I better get use to that!

5. Money, money, money!!!

I got money from my family for my birthday! Yipeee! Not only did I get money, but I got enough to buy a new laptop (along with a generous donation from my own bank account of course)!!! Now comes the fun of researching and reading and trying to figure out what's best for the money! Any ideas and suggestions are welcome!!

Realizations

Over the past few weeks I've had many realizations about me and life. They usually come when I'm lying in bed, tossing and turning, trying to fall asleep. Or when I have any resemblance of quiet time to myself without any distractions. Like my 5 minute commute to work. None the less, here they are!


1. I am a fat ass. A lazy fat ass.
This isn't anything shocking or new to me. I've been "big boned" since high school. Not fat, but not skinny. I put the weight on in college and my early 20's. I've gotten some off before, but never enough. I've done Weight Watchers 3 times. It works. I just get bored. I weigh more now than I ever have before. I weigh more today than I did on the day that I gave birth to my son. I've got to do something about it. You would think that this would be my rock bottom and I'd be completely motivated to change my lifestyle. I'm not. But I'm trying to get there.


2. I don't love my job.
I am a paramedic and I have been in EMS for 8 years. I like my job, but I do not love it. I hate waking up and remembering, I work today. I use to love my job, back when I was a new paramedic. That wore off quicker than I expected. It's not all because of the job itself. A large part is because I'd rather be at home with my baby boy, than at work. I thought I wanted to be a nurse when I grow up. Now I'm not so sure.

I like my job because:

• I'm not stuck in an office.
• I meet someone new several times a day.
• I actually make a difference in some peoples lives.
• I enjoy learning and growing in the medical field. I learn something new almost every day.
• The pay is okay for not having a college degree.
• I get to exercise my brain with problem solving skills.
• My partner is fun to be around and I'm stationed with some awesome firemen.

I hate my job because:

• I get verbally abused by strangers on a daily basis.
• My willingness to help is twisted for someone else's self service.
• A majority of the general public does not respect me and my profession as a whole.
• I'm at work for 12.5+ hours. And usually too busy to pee.
• You have to eat what you can, when you can. Fresh, healthy, or hot food is hard to come by.
• The pay doesn't justify what I do. (All paramedics in general)
• The job induces road rage, stress, anger, and emotional numbness.
• My service treats its employees as a warm body on a truck. Not like a person with feelings and needs. EMS can't be run like a business of a political machine, but they try.
• I'm don't see my baby boy for more than an hour on days that I work.
• When I get home, I'm too tired to spend quality time with my husband.

3. Its a lot harder to make and keep friends as an adult.
That is one of life's lessons I've had to learn on my own. After college and since I've been out in the "real world", friends have come and gone. There are those that I'm saddened not to have in my life anymore. There are also ones that I realized, after the fact, didn't mean that much to me. I've realized that the friends you make in adulthood are usually over a single common interest. Your career, your children, your hobby, etc. If you take away that one common thing, would their still be a friendship? Sometimes I wonder. The older I get, the more I seem to distrust people. Life has made me that way. People have made me that way. That leads me to my next realization.



4. You will never escape high school. Ever.
What the hell people? In high school I had a blast! But I was ready to graduate and get the hell out of there! All I did was end up in the high school of life. People are still cliquish. There will always be a group where you just don't fit in. You will always (usually) be surrounded by "your people" and strangers are not welcome. Rumors and gossip... oh my God! It's worse now than when I was in high school! I work in a huge hospital. Full of medical and business professionals. And all they (and even me sometimes) do is gossip about EVERYTHING! You can't do anything without fear of it hitting the rumor mill or getting it turned and twisted into something it's not! I can't go anywhere without hearing something from the rumor mill! It's not just at work. Any organization I have been part of is the same way. Then you have the backstabbers and brown-noser's. As I said before, you can't trust anyone anymore. Why? Because there is always someone waiting around the corner to stab you in the back! A prime example is Wilmington Mommies, where I (please see my Mama Drama blog) was BANNED from the site because of one person's evil and conniving ways and because *whiiiiine* didn't like me or my friends. Grow up already. Maybe this pseudo high school stuff will get better when I get out of my 20's. But I'm dubious because I've seen how a lot of 30+ year olds act too.......it's everywhere!

I'm sure I've had more realizations than these simple 4. But that's all I could remember, and I don't have a whole lot of time to try and remember the others. I'll just have to settle for a part deux later.

Karma Got Me!

I almost died the other day. Okay, well maybe not really. But I could have been seriously hurt! I’ll tell you the story, but it’s going to be a little long winded because I need to paint the picture for you. So deal with it.

I am almost always running late in the morning on days that I work. Not because I hit the snooze one too many times, or because I spend too much time in front of the mirror. Please, I’m a paramedic. I don’t remember the last time I put on makeup for work. It’s because I have this stupid need to check my email and other web sites before work. Even if I’m running late, I still somehow convince myself that I have time to check my email. I usually get half dressed before I check my email. This includes my under shirt, EMS pants (with all my crap stuffed into the side pockets on the leg), my combat boots, and my belt with my radio clip on it. That way all I have to do is throw on my dress shirt, buckle my belt, and I’m out the door.

This one particular morning I didn’t feel like pulling my laptop out of my book bag where I left it overnight so I decided to run upstairs to the FROG where my ancient desktop computer resides. I figured I had about 5 minutes to spend checking my email, and MySpace, and Facebook…. No problem! A signed onto Google email and started scanning my emails when my friend Maria messaged me on Google chat. We were chatting along when I realized it had been 8 minutes already. CRAP! I had to go.

I had meant to send Maria an email the night before about a dog attack call that I went on that involved 2 pitt bulls. The patient had these dogs since they were puppies and has had them for years, one was 9 years old and the other was 3! The patient told me she heard her two dogs fighting in the backyard and went to break it up. Both dogs ended up turning on her and she had two nasty injuries, one requiring surgery. Anyway, Maria is an avid dog lover and is adamant about not discriminating against pitt bulls. Me, on the other hand, have been to many dog attacks in my 7 years in EMS and every one of them has involved a pitt bull. I just don’t care for them. I don’t trust them.

So before I signed out of GMAIL, I wanted to give her a little poke in the ribs about the dog attack. I sent her a quick synopsis, followed by, “I’m just saying…..” and exited out of the program. I laughed to myself and was thinking, Ha, so there you pitt bull empathizer, eat that! I headed down the stairs which are shaped like the letter L. I made it down the first flight turned the corner and then WHAM. Next thing I knew I was at the bottom of the stairs sprawled on the floor laughing my ass off. It hurt like hell, but it just too funny not to laugh at.

You see, what happened was…. As I turned the corner my belt buckle (my belt was unbuckled and my pants not buttoned or zipped) got caught on the banister. I turned my body to the side a bit to try and un-snag the buckle while still stepping down the step. That little turn to the side was just enough force to further pull on my pants and let them fall down around my lower legs. This ultimately caused me to go crashing down the rest of the stairs.

I got up and did a quick body scan. I was fine. Not even a red mark! But, there was a nice black scuff mark where my boot dragged down the wall. As I raced to finish getting dressed, grabbed my book bag and trotted out to the car I was thinking to myself, damn karma is a bitch!