It’s about time for another blog post, eh?
The Thursday before last I woke up to find my phone making obnoxious noises at some obscene time of day. It was so early in fact, the handful of people walking the streets must have been vampires - there simply is no other explanation for it. After untangling myself from the sheets Houdini style and much stumbling around in the darkness (and adding carrots to my shopping list) I found the evil little thing and managed to mash they keys until “Check CNN & call me” glowed on the screen.
By now I’m expecting to see my mother being dragged away in handcuffs or a straight jacket. Much to my disappointment, I flipped open my laptop and clicked onto CNN to find an article along the lines of “A plot to blow up planes in flight from the UK to the US and commit “mass murder on an unimaginable scale” has been disrupted.” Much drama ensued as my mom explained they’d cancelled her flight to NY etc etc… I’m sure you’re aware of events. If not you may click here and find out for yourself. Eventually, at the cost of an extra $2,600 and 3 days both her and my sister arrived safely at JFK to find the travel insurance doesn’t cover “acts of terrorism.” With terrorism related delays/inconveniences almost as common as delays due to poor weather conditions, surely it should be covered by even the most basic travel insurance… While I’m on the subject of terrorism, does anyone feel that it’s becoming so common they barely take notice of it anymore? That it’s just another part of life?
And now on to my day in the morgue. There was one case that got to me and I still feel as though it hanging over me. It was the case of a four year old that appeared to have drowned in six inches of water despite the fact her parents were only a few feet away. What gets me most is if her parents hadn’t consumed enough alcohol to intoxicate a whale, they would have seen her fall and saved her but they didn’t. That was strange enough but aside from the usual things you’d expect with a drowning victim, they also found she had a number of fractures at different stages of healing which suggests she was being abused - probably by the oh so wonderful parents. The fact she they were being forceful enough to break her bones and no one knew about it REALLY haunts me.
On Thursday I took a little trip to Greenwich in Connecticut (for all you weird foreign people, I don’t mean Greenwich village, NYC) for a work “thing”. I even have a little map of the journey from my apartment to the place up in Greenwich ’cause I’m good like that! To be honest, the only thing I really learned was how difficult it is to stay awake while someone patronises a group of you in a completely monotonous voice while you’re held captive in a warm room. It was utter torture! On the bright side, the long car journey gave me plenty of time for introspection which, when accompanied by really good music, makes for a rather enjoyable little trip. By the way, everyone should buy Evermores album “Real life” because, well, quite simply it’s awesome.
My boss decided that Friday would be dedicated to “team building.” with a little help from wikipedia I can now tell you that:
“Team building” (or “‘teambuilding’”) refers to the process of establishing and developing a greater sense of collaboration and trust between team members. Interactive exercises, team assessments, and group discussions enable groups to cultivate this greater sense of teamwork. Team building has many contexts, for example in sport clubs and work organizations.
This basically meant my boss planned a morning of, to quote Nick, “buggering around.” Anyway, the big boss man decided we were going to go paintballing (and there was no way to get out of it!). Given my “gun issues” and the fact I’m taking medication which makes me bruise more easily than a banana (I look like crack whore!), I wasn’t terribly excited BUT in the name of “team building” I was willing to give it a shot, so to speak.
After a minute or two of listening to the rules, Nick nudges me and says “I’ll take you to breakfast if you fake a panic attack” so I shoot him a confused look and he continues to explain he doesn’t like paintballing (’cause he’s a wimpy little girl :P) and if I had a panic attack about the guns, he’d obviously have to take me home… Panic attacks are really nasty and I felt like I was going to have one anyway so I figured it’d be easier just to fake a small one and go have breakfast instead of running around getting shot at and having a bigger one. …and so I do. We spent the morning shopping and eating before finding out that paintballing got a little too competitive and someone’s cracked a rib. Rather them than me I suppose!
I was on call in the afternoon and when I had a little time to think about what I did, I felt really guilty because, well, I was. I called my boss and came clean about the deal I had with Nick and he actually seemed to find it funny. I’m not sure Nick will ever be able to live down the fact he was too pussy to go paintballing but at least I have a clean conscience!
On Saturday I was on call again but ended up tangled in prank calls. It’s really irritating to be ready to do your job and get there to find the place you were sent doesn’t even exist! In this case, the street address was real but the house number was one above the final house on the street and it took us a minute to realize we’d been screwed over. While I was out dealing with that, there was a real call that I could have been going to which made me really mad. If I EVER find out who it was, I’ll personally cut their fingers off so they can’t call us again. I had some real calls in the evening (and had a kid barf on my shoes and it ran down inside them. Squelch, squelch, squelch…)
And that brings me to today… I’ll let you know when something actually happens!
