Maricarmen

These pictures were taken with my camera phone during Maricarmen's birthday party on her backyard at her day care. With a little color corrections here and there they turned out pretty good. Treyton has been under her care during the day since he was six-weeks old. I recommend her to any mom looking for a day care.

FM

...stands for Floor Marshall in this case. Yes, I volunteered to be the FM at work for the floor I occupy during the first 8 hours of my day. Somehow I always refer it the Fire Marshall. I don't know if it's because of the abbreviation or my subconscious mind knows that I will be dealing with fire that comes with this job title.

So I met up with Nurse Z, a male RN and also the Emergency Response Team Lead. We went over the floor plan to determine areas of coverage. As of today, I am responsible for 19 rooms and of those rooms, 8 rooms are occupied. It means as of today I am responsible for 8 lives, not many compared to my other FM peers.

I now possess the Emergency Response Kit, see the picture below, that was given to me by Nurse Z. I am imagining myself in my head dressing in that manner, yellow suit, during the fire drill. I was a bit discouraged. Back to the kit, inside it are:

1. a gray metal clipboard that has two collapsible sides where you can also store things, not your ordinary clipboard and I must say it's quite fancy. Inside the clipboard, sheets of contacts and manual;

2. a bright fluorescent vest that I am sure glows in the dark;

3. a yellow flashlight;

4. and a silver whistle.

That's me, supposedly?, in that yellow fire retardant suit and a face mask.

Here I am, again, imagining in my head with me and my Nine West black patent Mary Jane's, a fluorescent vest over a black suite and a pencil skirt, herding people with a whistle in my mouth, a flashlight on my right hand and a clipboard on the other.

And here's the sequence, in order, of what I would imagine the drill is going to be as soon I hear the siren, piercing our ears:

1. I put on the fluorescent vest

2. I hang the whistle around my neck, I am still unsure of its function

3. I hold the fancy grey clipboard on my left and the yellow flashlight on my right

4. I go over to each room I assigned to make sure they get their asses out to the designated area.

5. Mark my sheet "left the room" if the person cooperates with me and mark "left to die" if the person refuses to leave and just wanting to stay

6. Knock on closed door rooms (i.e. janitors, bathroom stalls to tell them, "There's a fire drill, whatever it is you're doing, please wrap it up, posthaste"

7. Herd the crowd to the stairs to join other evacuated victims.

Seems like quite a bit of a process for an emergency situation and I think the one missing component that I believe should be included in the kit, is a flip flop. How does one speed up in heels crowding a herd? And perhaps the sequence is practical when the fire is not directly on my floor for the truth is, if there's a fire and I smell smoke, my ass will be the first one to get the hell out of the building.

Maybe I should resign myself as I feel I am not suited for such responsibility.

Relay For Life

Click on "fullscreen" below the picture to get a better view of the pictures.
We came to Relay For Life to support my mother-in-law as a cancer survivor.