Caution: Crazy Week Ahead

I am dreading this week. Not only am I dreading it, I am also taking every opportunity to put off the millions of things I MUST do before Saturday. Things like, oh, move to a new house. Pack for 6 people to go to South Carolina for 2 weeks. Work. Clean my old apartment so as not to tick off the new renters. Refrain from losing my mind.

My 3 days off this past week consisted of rodeos, 5K runs, ambulance calls, BBQ's, and all other things Strawberry Days. My house is a wreck and there are piles of clean laundry chanting my name everytime I walk by them. I haven't packed a single box. The dishes haven't been done in a week. Heck if I can get my thoughts organized enough to even comprehend what needs to be done, let alone do it.


I'm sure "moving" will consist of a day and a half of throwing things to the truck, driving to the condo, quickly unloading everything into the front room.....and back and again. It will probably also consist of me coming home from vacation to a houseload of boxes and piles and just STUFF! Not sure how much I'm looking forward to it. Actually, I do know. I'm not looking forward to it at all.

So..here goes nothing. Wish me luck. If anyone has nothing to do this week....my house will sure be a party, come on by.

The Waiting Game

Still wading (and waiting) through all the paperwork for our mortgage. Stupid, stupid STA travel company....trying to say I owe them $250 from a trip to Germany when I was 14.....which was paid. They have nevertheless gone ahead and added a collections account to my credit, dropping my score significantly. I was 14, it was that many years ago and they added the collection account 3 weeks ago.

I guess buying your first house should never go smoothly, right?




CURRENT COUNTDOWNS:

Janet Evanovich, Lean Mean Thirteen: 0 days, wahoo! Going to buy it after work, actually.

Strawberry Days: Tomorrow through Saturday

South Carolina Trip: 11 Days (I'm excited, but after 6 hours of plane rides and 2 weeks with the kids I will probably need a vacation.)

Harry Potter: 32 days! Good thing I will be on graveyards

Moab Trip: 82 Days

One of These Things is not like the Other

At the fine institution that is the Orem Department of Public Safety, not only are the officers dressed in full uniform, the dispatchers are too. I dont know why. We rarely have contact with the public. However, it is what it is and the why is not really the purpose of this post. I used to think my dispatch uniform was kinda cool. When I first stared working here, I thought the police patches, shiny badge, and name bar were pretty dang sweet.

Yeah, not so much.

After about the first week, I realized it definitly was not cool. Whenever I go out in public in my uniform, I get a lot of looks, alot of comments about being an officer, and kids feel the need to yell out, "MOM! look! a GIRL policeman!"

So needless to say, I try to not go out in public in uniform too much without some sort of sweater or jacket covering my shirt. I didn't have one yesterday. Enter...my life...

[The scene: The baking aisle at walmart. Long day at work, I was tired and a little ornery.]

[The characters: Me. and some other lady.]

...and action...

ME: Walking around the corner. Not paying too much attention to anything but finding vanilla pudding.

HER: um, can you tell me how much this is?

ME: still looking for the pudding. Oblivious.

HER: excuse me. Can you please do a price check?

ME: wha..? oh..me?

HER: umm...yes. I need to know how much this is.

ME: oh. umm. I don't work here.

Her: [looking very confused and irritated] You don't. oh. well....okaaaaaayyyy....

At this point she wandered out of the aisle, looking very much like she did not believe a word that had just come out of my mouth.

...and cut.

Are you freaking kidding me? Have you EVER seen a Wal-Mart employee wearing a police department uniform!? No, I answer for you, NO you have not. Their security don't even look like police officers! I didn't even know what to say to her--my mind went completely blank with bewilderment. I just kinda stood there - eyes wide and confused, mouth halfway open. And then off she goes, shuffling away like the fact that I'm in police uniform and cannot price check her item is everything that is wrong with the world today.

Man, oh man. Some people.

Changes on the Horizon, or Why I'm sometimes an idiot

Jason always makes comments that the random times we pass each other while driving around town, he always waves to me and I am always oblivious to the world around and never notice him.

So I was driving home from work yesterday and happened to glance in my rearview mirror to see a big brown guy driving a silver civic. So I start waving like a clown on crack to get his attention. (I noticed him, dangit and I was bound and determined to prove him wrong about never noticing.) So here I am, waving my poor little heart out when FINALLY he notices. I got a short and feeble hand waggle from him in return. Well I took offense to that and immediately STOPPED waving, beacuse you better believe if I am going to put my heart and soul into waving especially since I get crap about it all the time and I probably almost crashed my car trying to get his attention and he doesn't even have the decency to give his wife a hearty wave back then heck if I am going to waste any more of my joyful waving on him, thankyouverymuch.

Then the civic passed me. 'Lo and behold it was indeed a big brown guy driving a silver civic...but not MY big brown guy driving a silver civic. Who knew.

In other news....we are buying a condo!! YAY!!!

Well okay, we are in the process of buying a condo. We need to buy this year for taxes, but the homes in PG are absolutely outrageously priced right now and we would probably end up living in a one bedroom no bathroom roach-infested shack. Sooo...I give you our cute little 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom condo...

It will be so nice to stop throwing our money away on rent. Not to mention the pool, workout room and theater room!! We are so excited, and hoping to be in by the end of the month.

in other news, we went to the Summerfest parade last night. Kinda disappointing, as far as parades go. I took a bunch of pics but I forgot my camer cord today, thus having no way to upload them. So maybe tomorrow.

It's all worth it

So last night, me and Jas decided to go get dinner at this chinese restaurant I have been wanting to try. We had nothing going on (other than the fact the we were on call) so we decided to do a half date night and go to bed early since I work early this morning.
So there we are in the restaurant, and since we had never been there there were a few things we wanted to try. We decided to throw caution to the wind and order whatever sounded good. We ended up with an appetizer, 2 big entrees, soup, a big bowl of fried rice, a big plate of chow mein....lots of food for two people. The bill was going to be significantly more than what we wold normally spend on a casual night out, but as I said, caution to the wind.
As our meal ended and the waiter brough our fortune cookies, he told us someone had taken care of our bill.
What?? Who?
We were so surprised. The only thing we could figure is since we were both in uniform for the Fire Dept, maybe it was someone we had helped? Maybe it was a mother whose baby went into a seizure for the first time. Or an elderly man who woke up with crushing chest pain at 3 am. Or the young mother whose dryer caught on fire and she had to stand and watch as firefighters brought out flaming piles of her clothing and belongings.
Or, maybe it was someone who has never had any personal interaction with us, but simply appreciated what is done everyday.
It really made me feel appreciated. Which is something I don't think a lot of people let themselves feel. It seems to have become almost a faux pas to let yourself feel good about something you have done to help someone else. While I agree it is important to do "small acts of anonymous kindness", I also think it is good to know that someone appreciates YOU...YOU have made a difference in someone's life. And for me, it was a small reminder that sometimes, doing just a little more than saying "thank you" goes a long way.
It was such a simple thing, and we will probably never know who it was....but it was just an "upper." It made both of us smile. It was a reason to continue happily going on the seemingly insignificant calls as well as the important, life-saving ones.

Then again, maybe it had nothing to do with the fire department. But since I will never know otherwise, I am going to continue to let myself think it did.

Happy Dispatch Week!

okay, not really. National Dispatch Week was like a month and a half ago (thanks for all the flowers and cards--you're too much!) but I just came across this and it's cracking me up.

Though it may be that Sam is the one other person out there that finds these funny, that is okay with me. Nothing could be more correct.

You know you have been a 911 dispatcher too long when...

--You have forgotten what a warm meal is like

--You spend more money on fast food than on utilities

--You have been known to answer your home/cell phone "911, what is your emergency?"

--You consider patience a weakness, not a virtue

--Your idea of a good night involves someone getting shot, chased or dismembered

--Holidays are when everyone gets drunk and beats up their family members

--You can carry on more than 4 conversations simultaneously

--You get impatient listening to family and friends tell a story, you just want the facts

--When using a computer outside of work with less than 5 screens, you feel cramped and confined.

--You can't help but laugh a little when a "regular client" kills himself while breaking into a business.

--You can only tell time on a 24 hour clock

--When at the drive through worker asks "Will that be everything?" You respond "10-4"

--Your response to, "I'll have your job!!" is, "You better hurry, you have 6 hours left of your shift!!"

--You can resume a conversation with co-workers 4 hours later, in mid-sentence, and everyone knows what you are talking about

--You truely believe stupidity should be painful


One of these days Sam and I should collaborate a "911 Ettiquette" post. You would not BELIEVE the things people call 911 for.