Tired?

I'm pretty tired. I had a long four days even though they went by quickly... I'm not sure how that works out, but it did.

I think I'm going snowboarding tomorrow afternoon. That excites me.

I have to work again on Saturday for four more days. BLAH. But then I get a whole shwack of days off, so it makes me happy.

How's everyone else doing?

I'll just come out and say it...

I am petrified of anything first aid.

I am trained in first aid, CPR, defibrillators, and all things aidy, and I still am so scared of having to deal with any kind of situation.

I have personally never dealt with too much... The other week there was a small girl choking in the middle seat. Her father was a)hitting her on the back, b)shoving his hand in her mouth to remove the item causing her to choke, and c)grabbing her neck and shaking her. The first two things are what they tell us to NEVER do, and the third one, well, I have no idea what would drive someone to do that but oh well. I stood at the aisle, yelling and the dad to stop it. Well, actually I said "stop! STOP! STOP!!!!" without giving any other instructions than that. After realizing that me yelling stop wasn't really an effective use of my skills, I reached across the dad to grab the girl, and I imagine my idea was to start doing abdominal thrusts when she coughed and what looked like a litre of water came out of her mouth. I stared at the girl, then looked at the dad and said "are you ok now? can you talk?" which is what my mum does any time someone is coughing/choking, since if you can talk your airway is clear, and the dad just said "yeah she's fine." I asked the girl "can you talk? what's your name?" She answered me, so I decided she was ok. Then, I looked at the dad and said "don't DO that!" and walked away. Since that experience I have learned that a)I need to be a more effective communicator in emergency situations, since "stop it" and "don't do that" don't really make my message clear, b)I should trust my instincts and act a little more quickly, and c)some parents have no idea what to do in those situations and just do anything they think might maybe help. Panic I guess?

So this brings me to someone dying. We have things we're supposed to do when someone dies on board, and that article on Kristen's blog really isn't far off. The only thing I would have done differently is perhaps INFORM THE GUEST SITTING NEXT TO THE DEAD BODY AND NOT JUST LET HIM WAKE UP AND FIND IT!!!!! Are you freaking joking me?? There must have been some kind of miscommunication between the flight attendants, that guest, and perhaps the media, because there's no way I'd sit a dead lady down and walk away with no further instruction. We DO have to "secure" the corpse, because if we just left it lying the galley or aisle for example, if we needed to evacuate they would hinder everyone else's evacuation. We're told to be as discrete as possible but really, carrying a dead body isn't easy or discrete. Hopefully they have just died in their seat, because then we can leave them there and call it a day. If someone dies while we're performing first aid, we have to continue until EMS comes to take over since we can't pronounce anyone dead. SO, we have to continue CPR until we land unless it's deemed too dangerous by the captain to do so. (This slightly contradicts the whole securing the body so it doesn't hinder an evacuation, but in that situation we would, and I'm going to use my own words here, huck the body out the door before initiating the evacuation. Or at least that's what I would do.) I've worked with several flight attendants who have had guests die on board, and it's never a good situation, but you just have to deal with it. I would hope that the people sitting in the first row would get up and move so we could put the dead person there since there is more room. I don't think anyone has the right to be mad or upset or judge the crew in the situation from the article, because honestly, how on earth are you supposed to deal with it?? Yes, they should have told the person who was sitting next to the corpse, and I highly doubt they really just plopped her down and left without any explanation, but if they did, well oh well. At least that guy is still alive! That's just me. I wouldn't be exactly rational in a situation like that.

On a more positive note, I'm up for my first aid re-certification, so I'll learn all the new first aid (since it's changed this year) and hopefully become a little more confident. On an even more positive note, every month we get our statistics on medical emergencies on board, and in almost 90% of all situations there is either a doctor or nurse on board. So they can at least help us. We also have a sat phone that is a direct line to a hospital, where they will give us instructions on what to do and we can even administer some of our crazy medical supplies we have in a secret compartment. And we have a defibrillator. So if you get sick on the plane and need an IV and your heart stops, we're prepared.

iPods and ponytails

I've been a blogging slacker recently.

I very much enjoyed the three nights that I got to spend with my sis and Jordan last week. We just hung out and had a good time, saw 300, ate some good food, and just had fun. I miss that.

I went to Puerto Vallarta for an hour. I was really nice out, and I was super jealous that I wasn't staying there. I won't talk more about that. I'm a bitter, bitter person.

Yesterday was my mum's birthday. We gave her an iPod shuffle... Today I have to go give her a tutorial on how to use it. I hope she finds it easier than checking her voicemail on her cell phone, because I've had to give her instructions at least four times on how to get her messages.

I start my annual training soon for my job... I can't believe that I've worked there a year already. Insanity.

This is kind of lame... Sorry my big comeback post is so terrible.

I missed the big St. Paddy's day parties this weekend. I have a Guinness with Kristen, but when everyone else I know was partying hard, one beer isn't really sufficient. I talked to Matt a few times that night, and each time was significantly more hilarious. The highlight for him was being able to fit his hair in a ponytail and looking like an irish fighter. I know you're all wondering how I ended up with such a sexy guy who has hair that can fit in a ponytail, and I wonder the same thing every day, don't you worry.

I will come up with something better soon.

Outside

It's harder running outside than on a treadmill. I miss only having to run upwards while the ground moves under me.

Oooops. And by "oooops", I mean "F@#$ this f@#$ing s%&*".

So I was supposed to arrive last night at 8:40. Well, things didn't really go according to plan, and we sat in Hamilton for a while waiting for the reverse thrust on the right engine to be fixed. I ended up getting into my house at 12:30am. I set my alarm for 6, since I had to work at 7. Well, I woke to a light knocking on my door, to which I said "hunh, what? My mini bar doesn't need to be changed thanks*", but REALLY it was Linda telling me it was 6:58. So I said "oooops", which was actually a little bit stronger than "oooops".

I shot out of bed, threw on clothes, and got to work. Whatever, no biggie, but it just sucks to be late since I hate being late.

*So when I was in Moncton yesterday, I was napping in the middle of the day after some waffles from Cora's, not wearing pants, when I woke to a soft knocking at my door. I walked over to my suitcase, to find pants, which couldn't have taken me more than 5 seconds, when I heard the keys in the door and the lock opening. I grabbed a towel from the floor, threw it around my pantsless self, and opened the door as it was opening from the outside. It was a guy, and he asked "oh, I was just checking the mini bar and wanted to know if you needed more stock." I just stared blankly at him and finally said "ummm, no, it's fine." and closed the door. Who does that??? Knocks, waits five seconds and then opens the door??? What if I was just walking out of the bathroom after a shower? What if I was getting ready for work? (Which I normally do in undies and a tank top to cut down the polyester wearing the most possible) It totally freaked me out. Anyway, this morning's knock brought back memories of that and I even checked to make sure I was wearing pants before going to the bathroom.

Exciting day for someone... I don't know who, I think you know them very well...

Tomorrow will be a very exciting day for SOMEONE I know... Not me, but someone. They maybe, just maybe, will be getting their very own brand new toy delivered to their office, providing that* nothing irregular happens in my flying schedule that is. They should bring an appropriate bag with them to work, so they can bring all the bits and pieces home with them.

*Is it "provided that" and "providing", or did I do it right? I can never remember.

I heart cooking

I decided I'm lazy. I never cook anymore since I think "oh well what's the point of cooking for one?" Also, on the road I live off granola bars and hummus, so why shouldn't I at home? Well, I'm sick of eating miscellaneous snack items for every meal or ordering out, so I'm cooking again. Two nights ago, I made some Thai turkey burgers that turned out really well, though the tomato on my bun was slightly mealy. They were tangy, juicy, tender, and all sorts of other delicious things. Last night, I decided to make tofu parmesan. The description of the recipe says "a delicious alternative to the family favourite" or something like that, to which I said "what the hell is ____ parmesan? I've never had anything like this in my life". So apparently whatever-it-normally-is parmesan wasn't a favourite in my family. In any event, I made it. It had tofu slices in bread crumbs and parmesan cheese, baked for a bit, then put in a casserole dish with some pasta sauce (that happened to have a nice kick in it, which, in my opinion, made the whole dish) and then topped with more sauce, mozza, parm, parsley and the leftover bread crumbs. Baked for a while, then broiled for a few minutes, and voila. It was really good. As I was making it, I thought to myself "you know, I don't think I'm going to like this", and the whole reason I chose to make it was because I had some tofu, and wanted to get rid of it before it went nasty. But in the end, I liked it a lot, and so did Matt. It's really nice to date someone who's slightly adventurous in their eating habits, since I am as well. One of the things I like the most about eating is trying new things, going to different restaurants, eating "ethnic" foods, and cooking with different ingredients. He pretty much likes anything, and basically just appreciates that he has some kind of food to eat, so he likes it when I cook too. (And by "likes it when I cook", I mean the whole two times I've cooked since I've known him).

I'm leaving for the weekend, get back Sunday at midnight, and then leave again on Monday for three days, so I'm going to be tired. And it sucks. Oh well. I love my job......... right???