Category: work

Random Kindness

A co-worker bought me a sewing machine today. I know, you are thinking “what an odd gift.” True enough. This particular co-worker is a newer dispatcher. One I’ve watched blossom from a greenhorn into a very competent caring dispatcher. She works very hard at her job and makes an effort to get it right the first time. How could I NOT like her? I’m always of the mind if something is worth doing, it’s worth doing right. I forgot who taught me that but it’s always stuck w/me.

This all came about while we were training for the new fire deployment. Lady N (not her real name, duh!) is a superb knitter and can often be found knitting a variety of items. Knitting takes too much patience in my opinion. An opinion I expressed to her but w/interest. During our down time, we’d often talk about our lives, tribulations, etc. I confided to her that I’d always wanted to learn how to sew. I talked about my earliest memories from childhood. My foster mother was an expert seamstress (spelling?) and made all my clothes up until she passed. She would often include me in her chores of finding threads, fabrics, etc. Very good memories from a time in my life where everything was as it should be. I used to spend hours watching my mother sew. I’ve always thought making your own clothes a very noble sort of thing to do. I know many folks consider it gay but hey, I am gay after all. (Ding Ding! Whatta we have for’em Johnny?)

So Lady N, out of the kindess of her heart, decided to buy me a machine so I could learn on my own. I was am really touched. She doesn’t owe me a thing and here she is buying me such a nice gift. I checked and it’s a pretty decent one too. Not decadent as that’s not her style however, a sturdy well made one that will see me thru my beginnings and well into expertise. (Yeah, I know it’s not good grammar, get over it!) When I asked her why, she said “because you have always been so supportive and kind to me w/o having a reason to be.” My response was well that’s just who I am. She said, “exactly!” Kindness really does go along way.

Tomorrow, I get to bring it home on muni. What? You think it will fit on the back of blue?

Work Work Work II

I’m over this week. Nothing overly exciting just over it. You know how it is. The weekend fast approaching and you get ants in your pants.

I was goofing off w/the camera and snapped this pic of my buddy kristaki. He so ignunt. Didn’t anybody tell him flipping off the camera is ‘so 80’s’? *g*

799 to 802

One of our regular callers died this past week. Harmless lady, just a bit addled by life and a little fuzzy in the logic dept. She would call us almost daily w/some new story about her husband or son stealing from her. (Both of which have been dead for years.)

The way the system works here is even if we know you are a complete loon, we have to send out the first call of the day to confirm you are, in fact, ok. The beat units know them just as well if not better than we. So, it was a bit of a surprise to see a medical call instead of PD at her address. Sadly, they discovered our dear 799 (senile person) was in fact an 802 (dead). All natural mind you. Nothing suspicious. But still very much 802. It upset several of my coworkers. Besides the obvious surprise, we were all very sad. We talk to her so much she almost felt like family. In the end, we decided to send flowers as a form of respect.

We actually have a whole contingent of crazies who call us often. Some worse than others. We have the “voodoo puppet victim” who is the worst offender and always spews obscenities. The lady who claims the KGB is running sex gadget all over her body as a form of mind control. Another sweet lady albeit loony as a jaybird. Then there is the guy who complains about the automated voice on muni buses harassing him wherever he goes. These are just a few of the more noteworthy ones. Sometimes, if we aren’t too busy, we spend time talking to them. Nothing revealing just casual conversation. Usually this serves to calm’em down and life goes on.

So, what’s your crazy person story?

Clarity…

I guess what I should have said is sometimes I’m forced to be a real bitch. And don’t you know I’m good at it too. I don’t like doing it but sometimes it is required to get ones point across. Chicky decided she wanted to loose her ever-loven’ mind on me for a problem that wasn’t of my making. She found out, I’m not quite the easy mark she expected.

I’m reminded of a phrase from Dolores Claiborne, “…sometimes being a high-riding bitch is all a girl has to hold onto…”

Fiction imitates life? Life goes on…

Table for One

For whatever reason, I’m feeling lonely today.

I had two meetings this morning for work so I’m in early. There were too many major decision makers in attendance to blow it off. It would have taken another month to reschedule. In the end, it went smoothly.

I have to start getting ready for the new roommate. I’d forgotten about it until he emailed me yesterday w/some details…ooops! I’m looking forward to it though. I don’t mind living alone but I often prefer having a roomie. And since we already know each other it makes it that much nicer.

Depending on how things shape up in the coming months w/my ride a alongs, I may have to take time off from work to continue my education. Nothing definite yet.

Duty calls.

Nice Moby

This past weekend everyone kept saying how nice I was like it was a surprise. I must admit I was a little taken aback by that. Of course, I’m a nice guy! *g* But, I guess I sorta take that for granted. It’s pretty easy to miss if you aren’t looking for it in my writings.

Work has been a terror this week. WAY too much going on. Our contract negotiations are in full swing and the city is playing hard ball. The union is using my dept as the focus of it’s campaign. Mainly, as we are the extreme compared to other depts. in the city. No word yet on what affect our efforts have had on the process. Only time will tell at this point. We have one more big rally coming up next week. If the turnout is good, it will definitely help.

My friend in the hospital is still not doing well. On top of that, the family has shown up and causing more harm than good. Thankfully, he is still intubated so he is unaware of all this. I’m beginning to lose hope he will recover. Every step forward is met w/two steps back. It has been weighing on my mind a lot this week.

I finally got back into the gym today. I’ve only been once in the last two weeks and it’s been driving me nuts. It felt good but I only got half a work out in. Back and biceps. Tomorrow is quads and calves. I’m still working on the work out tips post and am hoping to have it up over the weekend.

I’ve been so distracted this week, I totally forgot last night was the final contest for the BCC contest. Ooops! I don’t even know who the winners are. How sad is that? Ugh. I’m glad the hard part is over. Now my work drops off quite a bit till June. Hey, I’ll take my breaks anywhere I can get’em.

Duty calls…happy weekend all.

The Martyr Returns

I rarely talk about work other than in vague references. I’m breaking w/that out of frustration. Beyond my ongoing EMT training, I’m a 911 dispatcher. I’m also a union officer for our local chapter. And for a change, my anger is directed at my fellow dispatchers rather than management.

Here I am literally leaving my friend, who is very ill, in the emergency room, to go speak at the rally and only two of my coworkers show up to lend a hand. Granted it was raining but two out of 110? That was like a kick in the teeth. I was initially very angry with my coworkers for such a poor turnout. Many of which bitch and whine daily about our problems. (I’m also of the mind don’t bitch unless you are part of the process.) I was so upset, in fact, I almost resigned my post. Why am I spending all this valuable time on people who obviously don’t give a damn. I’m not even gonna be in the same job a year from now.

After cooling off (and getting food in me), I began to see the bigger picture. Lately, I’ve been very frustrated w/the lack of leadership from our chapter president. She means well, but is very unorganized and doesn’t really fill the role effectively. This lack of direction is undermining our efforts. As clearly demonstrated by the poor turnout, our membership isn’t listening to us. That’s just wrong. And it’s not for lack of effort. All of the officers give of themselves to better our center. However, working hard and working smart are two different things. I’m a big believer in working smart first and hard second. And that’s not happening. Normally, I’d step up to the plate and offer to take over. However, with my focus on training to be a medic, I simply don’t have the free time the position requires.

Never being one to give up easily, I’ve called an informal meeting of the officers tomorrow. I’m hoping to express myself w/o pointing blame. Maybe my tizzy will spur the prez into action. If not, I’ll stick it out till the end of the year and after that, I’m done.

15 Minutes…

Today has been a most unpleasant day.

I woke to find another close friend has gotten so sick he can barely get out of bed. Some people are just so damn hard-headed at times. Of course, he didn’t need to get this bad. Much of his discomfort could have been avoided had he expressed himself a bit more. Being a private person is a royal pain in the ass. Ok, I’m a tad angry as he was in pretty bad shape when I got there. My anger is not directed at him. He is a wonderfully kind friend and it hurt me to see him sink so low w/o reaching out to me. Or maybe he just needed to be a bit more direct. He did come to me a couple weeks ago w/a complaint of general malaise but this was far beyond that. Far beyond.

I had to swallow my pain and don my clinical hat which is hard to do when you care for someone. Even at the level of EMT, I could tell something was horribly wrong. I have my suspicions but no sense putting his biz out for the world to see. Of course, not having any insurance while going to school makes the situation all the worse. He had to go to the state hospital, being the only choice in said predicament, off we went. The stars must be aligned in his favor because he only waited about an hour to see a nurse who recognized the seriousness of his condition. She was kind and thoughtful.

When I left he was being wheeled in for tests. Another friend arrived in town and is w/him still. I’m hoping for the best.

As if that was not enough, I was scheduled to speak in front of the Board of Supervisors today regarding our upcoming labor contract for work. Being the only union officer that lived in the city, it was me or no one. I made it on time, even if I was a bit out of sorts. I gave a short killer speech as to the deplorable condition our center is in and left. I got my 15 minutes of fame today. In reality it was only 2 minutes and only aired on public access. Ok my 15 minutes of not so fame today.

I’m tired, hungry, and bitchy so I’m off to devoure half a carcass of something roasted and tasty.