Oh, the places you'll go...

So, yesterday was my first shift with Duplin County EMS. I bounced out of bed at 0400 with vigor and enthusiam (actually, I rolled out with head-fuzz and cotton-mouth), and jumped in the shower. I had responsibly spent several hours the night before grocery shopping and preparing my food for the following tour. That may sound insignificant to all of you, but all I had in the refrigerator was some exceptionally outdated milk. (I have no one to impress here, hence the bachelor lifestyle..) I again, responsibly went to bed at 2200 hours with the expectation of staying up all day and providing a helluva first impression. I am NOTHING, if not professional, geez, anyone who knows me knows that.

I spend 20 lazy minutes trying to decide if I am really awake at such an ungodly hour, if this is really hot water pouring down my back and wouldnt it be an amazing invention if someone could figure out how to quick-brew and serve coffee in the shower. Mostly these thoughts came out in monosyllabic grunts: hot...water....coffee....rinse hair....need...caffeine....NOW! But as is my nature, and my routine, I like to be clean and dressed BEFORE I drink coffee, unless I have nowhere to be and then I leisurely head over to the coffee pot first thing. Because cobwebs infest themselves in my head overnight, I am commonly ditzy and slack-jawed in the early mornings. I generally take an hour to get ready but its because I have to figure out where things like my toothbrush are (its always behind the sink), or whether or not I want to wear white socks today (they are all white). I have a transient case of the "umbles" in the morning: stumble, mumble, tumble, fumble and grumble.

Finally, at 0500, I depart from my beautiful cat-house of a home and head for the metropolitan-mecca that some people refer to as Wallace. It takes me 1 hour and 40 minutes, not to mention a phone-call to a very sleepy Derrick for directions because the TO and I obviously werent on the same page when we talked about how to get to station 2. G-d Bless you Dammit, (thats Derricks nickname because of his initials and his propensity to piss people off) and I love you.

I arrive. I meet my FTO and we spend a liesurely couple hours in the bay smoking cigarettes and discussing EMS. Because medics normally have Alpha personalities, we can usually make conversation. I had, by now, had 2 cups of coffee and was back to my overly-verbose dialogue. We ran a call around 1100 for an elderly diabetic with a sugar of 25. I think someone told Amanda that I was NEW, period. And though the three of us fumbled over each other a little bit, everything got done. See, in Brunswick, with several of my previous partners, I was used to taking control and monopolizing the conversation. I like to be entertaining and crack jokes so the family remains calm. Amanda likes to take control too, but I think thats mostly just due to confidence and a dominant personality and nothing to do with thinking that I suck. Because, I dont, in fact, suck. ;)

We drive on. We restock. We meet my supervisor. And this man, by all definitions, should not be wearing a white shirt. He is COOL. He is engaging. He is helpful and funny and he calls me sweetie. He is not an asshole, or a spiteful, vindictive, spineless, jellyfish of a whiteshirt that I have come to expect when working for the government. They are a special breed, if you have not had the pleasure. They can be nose to nose with their prey, while all the while figuring out the best way to dispose of the filleted carcass. This man, though, is like Steve Berry. I had not heard one bad thing about him prior to our first meeting and I now understand why. I can tell you this, he broke down my I-Hate-White-Shirt-Walls in less than an hour. I have, since Durham, been VERY wary around administration, but Rob is just a medic, that happens to have a different colored shirt and can get me shit when I need it. I am so excited to have a supervisor that I respect. He has a plethora of experiences in EMS that make it easy to glean knowledge and solicit advice. Ahhhh, but I was comfortable. And hey, its only taken 8 years!

I rode with Rob for a few hours, hitting all of the stations, meeting my shift and shootin the shit, as it were. Duplin county is rural and most of the folks are country, but they all have stellar personalities and were quick to engage me in conversation. They werent standoffish and there was no air of superiority.
I made it back to Station 2 around 1900 and did absolutely nothing but eat dinner with the Dusty and Ashley, the medic 7 crew.

My coffee and vitamins lost their power to sustain me around 2330 and despite one canceled call, I was able to sleep, in a real bed, until 0630 this morning.
I must say, being a city girl, I was a little scared initially about what I was getting myself into, for crying out loud, you can smell pig-shit when you cross the county line from Pender into Duplin. But yesterday was a pleasant surprise for me and I am so excited to get up at 0400 on Tuesday...at least until the alarm goes off...