A short update on the lady from the car accident from last year. She is doing ok; she hurts pretty bad still, and may never completely recover from the injuries in her neck. But she always has a smile when she sees us. We ran into her at teriyaki and she introduced me to a friend of hers as the first responder at her car accident.
We had lunch with her recently, and it turns out she is a huge scifi/fantasy reader. We like a lot of the same stuff, and I think we'll start exchanging some books. She was interested in reading my book, which was pretty sweet (but shoot, she'll figure out that I'm crazy, heh).
She works in the same building as my husband, so we run into her once in a while. She's a really great lady, I'm hoping for a good recovery for her. Still a lot of appointments, but she's working full time and getting by.
Monday, September 07, 2009
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Maybe I should change that, post a little more in my little more anon corner of the intarwebs.
Everything is going ok. Work got a little crazy a few weeks ago, prompting a bit of anxiety that I didn't really need (and really making me wish I was getting bled on by strangers instead), but it cooled down once I ran around kicking ass for a few days.
I went on a 22 mile bike ride yesterday, which was pretty darned good by my standards and the fact that I'm a little gimpy on the bike. I got a sunburn which hurts like hell but I think it'll be fine. I also went to my dad's yesterday and spent the afternoon with him and my mom (well, my stepmom actually). We paddled around the lake in boats and sat by the fire pit drinking wine.
I don't talk much about my family here, mainly as this blog was oroginally a place that I just ranted about work where no one would notice. But I will say, my dad is pretty awesome. We're a lot alike, and were both pretty gung-ho to run out into the lake yesterday (my husband looked a little tired, but I told him that he didn't have to paddle, just sit there and enjoy the day). It's good to hang out with my dad.
I have been working on editing the novel a bit lately. It's a little bit of a pain in the butt. It's a lot of material, and that's hard to figure out. My husband suggested I pass it on to my dad to read, and my first thought was "oh hell no, this thing is a disaster!" It's just too much stuff. And hard to cut because I get so attached to the characters that I don't want to cut out interesting stuff regarding them. Trying to tell myself "it's interesting stuff for the next book, really, just put it there". Plus I have a very active imagination and it's always plotting. I find plots everywhere.
My husband is suffering one of the more annoying parts of raising a teenager this weekend, boiling down to "Teenager drives almost 300 miles away after we tell him the car can't make it, then calls to say the car broke down and we have to go get him." Yes, that's 16-ish hours with stops and towing a car that my husband will not get back (my sunburn made it too hard for me to sit in a car all day, so I stayed here and mowed the lawn).
With that, I'm back to the editing, at least until hunger gets the best of me. Maybe I will drum after that if there's time (although I'm not sure I want to drum given that my arms and shoulders are so burnt, might stretch things a little farther than is comfortable). But I think editing will keep me busy for a while. 113 pages down, 800-ish to go.
Everything is going ok. Work got a little crazy a few weeks ago, prompting a bit of anxiety that I didn't really need (and really making me wish I was getting bled on by strangers instead), but it cooled down once I ran around kicking ass for a few days.
I went on a 22 mile bike ride yesterday, which was pretty darned good by my standards and the fact that I'm a little gimpy on the bike. I got a sunburn which hurts like hell but I think it'll be fine. I also went to my dad's yesterday and spent the afternoon with him and my mom (well, my stepmom actually). We paddled around the lake in boats and sat by the fire pit drinking wine.
I don't talk much about my family here, mainly as this blog was oroginally a place that I just ranted about work where no one would notice. But I will say, my dad is pretty awesome. We're a lot alike, and were both pretty gung-ho to run out into the lake yesterday (my husband looked a little tired, but I told him that he didn't have to paddle, just sit there and enjoy the day). It's good to hang out with my dad.
I have been working on editing the novel a bit lately. It's a little bit of a pain in the butt. It's a lot of material, and that's hard to figure out. My husband suggested I pass it on to my dad to read, and my first thought was "oh hell no, this thing is a disaster!" It's just too much stuff. And hard to cut because I get so attached to the characters that I don't want to cut out interesting stuff regarding them. Trying to tell myself "it's interesting stuff for the next book, really, just put it there". Plus I have a very active imagination and it's always plotting. I find plots everywhere.
My husband is suffering one of the more annoying parts of raising a teenager this weekend, boiling down to "Teenager drives almost 300 miles away after we tell him the car can't make it, then calls to say the car broke down and we have to go get him." Yes, that's 16-ish hours with stops and towing a car that my husband will not get back (my sunburn made it too hard for me to sit in a car all day, so I stayed here and mowed the lawn).
With that, I'm back to the editing, at least until hunger gets the best of me. Maybe I will drum after that if there's time (although I'm not sure I want to drum given that my arms and shoulders are so burnt, might stretch things a little farther than is comfortable). But I think editing will keep me busy for a while. 113 pages down, 800-ish to go.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Drummergirl's first actual car accident response
Yesterday started out in what seemed to be a normal fashion. We get out the door a little later than we'd planned so my husband decided to stop and get a chicken breakfast sandwich from McDonald's.
As he pulls off the offramp, someone comes flying up on his ass, has to slam on their brakes, then agressively goes around. He flies through a red light and lane changes a few lanes without a blinker.
I mutter, "Where's a cop when you need one?"
My husband just flipped the guy off, and we pull into the drive through.
The guy he flipped off turns his car around, chases us, gets out of his car, and starts yelling at hubby in the drive through. I don't remember the exact details of the conversation, but it equated to the guy didn't seem to think he'd done anything wrong and denied it.
He's flashing his badge (turns out he's a cop, whoops) and says, "You should be more careful who you flip off!" and starts freaking out.
My husband is not impressed and looks up at him. "Yeah, I might flip off a mentally unstable cop."
The guy flips out more. The drive through people ask that they take it somewhere else. Husband says, "Sorry, there's a cop out here who thinks he's God."
Then the guy is REALLY pissed, but he storms off with some vague threat. He'd been sort of making threats the whole time.
Finally he leaves and we're like "meh, whatever, he just proved he deserved the finger."
We keep on driving thinking it wouldn't get any weirder. We're driving down I-90 when traffic suddenly stops. Hubby slams on the brakes and we see a car veer to the side. It's pretty obviously an accident, so we start to drive around it. When I see that the woman in the front car isn't moving, I urge him to pull over. Hubby calls 911 and I race out into the freeway, thankfully there's only one lane of traffic and it's moving slow. I hold up my hand to stop traffic and cross to her car. The guy from the van that hit her is looking pretty upset that she's not moving, and he takes one look and starts asking for someone to call 911. Hubby is already on the phone.
I immediately forgot just about everything (in truth, all training I'd had went straight out the window) and started operating on instinct and let my brain catch up as it would. Otherwise, I knew I'd freeze, but I figured so long as I kept coming up with things to do or ask, it'd be okay. I opened the car door slowly and asked her not to move. I told her I was there to help her, and asked her what hurt (neck and back). Her breathing looked good, her radial pulse was there but fast, and I had her squeeze my hand and tell me what day it was. She hasn't blacked out (thank goodness) and didn't seem to have any damage on her, so I figured the best bet was to keep her right there and still until the EMTs showed up. I got her seatbelt off carefully (it wasn't holding her up or anything where she was at, and it was just one more thing in the way), and saw she wore a Microsoft badge. I asked her if I could take a look at it, although asking her name would probably be easier now that I think about it.
Once I had her name, I kept saying it and told her I worked at Microsoft, too. She wanted us to get a hold of her boss, so my husband started on that. I ran around to the far side of the car to get her wallet so it would be there if anyone needed her ID.
An actual EMT arrived then from a passing car, and he held her neck in place while I kept talking to her. I should have thought of holding her head in place, but since she seemed to be stable I'd been hesitant to risk doing too much. Although I think I did quite well for my first car accident response as a random bystander. She really appreciated us being there.
I think I remembered most of the things I needed to remember; forgot a couple of obvious ones like turning off the car (doh) and asking her age, which we got when the police arrived. I had positive handoff to EMS when I met them and relayed her name, age, and condition (yellow based on breathing, pulse, and mental state). They wanted to know how many patients, and it was just one - the other guys were moving around fine.
My husband sent her a mail with pictures of the scene when we got to work, and we heard from her later in the day. She was very thankful and called us heroes. That felt good even though I can't say I feel really like a hero. I'm just a girl who likes to help people. She's got back and neck pain and her left arm hurts, but nothing was broken and the ER sent her home with some painkillers (they took her to the hospital not far from work).
Hubby has a picture of the rear end of the car completely crunched with me next to the woman looking kind of "wha?".
All in all, an interesting day. I was completely wired after I left the scene, it was stronger than coffee. I was totally awake all day. I'm so glad I got to help someone, and that I actually managed to get most of it right. Not bad for my first actual response to an accident (I'm not counting the fender bender where everyone was up and walking afterwards), and considering I was probably half asleep when we came up on it. I learned a lot for the next time (yes, I'm sure they'll be a next time because now that I know I can manage myself well, I'll be stopping at every car accident that doesn't have response already on site).
Planning on sending the woman some flowers next week. I think she could use it.
As he pulls off the offramp, someone comes flying up on his ass, has to slam on their brakes, then agressively goes around. He flies through a red light and lane changes a few lanes without a blinker.
I mutter, "Where's a cop when you need one?"
My husband just flipped the guy off, and we pull into the drive through.
The guy he flipped off turns his car around, chases us, gets out of his car, and starts yelling at hubby in the drive through. I don't remember the exact details of the conversation, but it equated to the guy didn't seem to think he'd done anything wrong and denied it.
He's flashing his badge (turns out he's a cop, whoops) and says, "You should be more careful who you flip off!" and starts freaking out.
My husband is not impressed and looks up at him. "Yeah, I might flip off a mentally unstable cop."
The guy flips out more. The drive through people ask that they take it somewhere else. Husband says, "Sorry, there's a cop out here who thinks he's God."
Then the guy is REALLY pissed, but he storms off with some vague threat. He'd been sort of making threats the whole time.
Finally he leaves and we're like "meh, whatever, he just proved he deserved the finger."
We keep on driving thinking it wouldn't get any weirder. We're driving down I-90 when traffic suddenly stops. Hubby slams on the brakes and we see a car veer to the side. It's pretty obviously an accident, so we start to drive around it. When I see that the woman in the front car isn't moving, I urge him to pull over. Hubby calls 911 and I race out into the freeway, thankfully there's only one lane of traffic and it's moving slow. I hold up my hand to stop traffic and cross to her car. The guy from the van that hit her is looking pretty upset that she's not moving, and he takes one look and starts asking for someone to call 911. Hubby is already on the phone.
I immediately forgot just about everything (in truth, all training I'd had went straight out the window) and started operating on instinct and let my brain catch up as it would. Otherwise, I knew I'd freeze, but I figured so long as I kept coming up with things to do or ask, it'd be okay. I opened the car door slowly and asked her not to move. I told her I was there to help her, and asked her what hurt (neck and back). Her breathing looked good, her radial pulse was there but fast, and I had her squeeze my hand and tell me what day it was. She hasn't blacked out (thank goodness) and didn't seem to have any damage on her, so I figured the best bet was to keep her right there and still until the EMTs showed up. I got her seatbelt off carefully (it wasn't holding her up or anything where she was at, and it was just one more thing in the way), and saw she wore a Microsoft badge. I asked her if I could take a look at it, although asking her name would probably be easier now that I think about it.
Once I had her name, I kept saying it and told her I worked at Microsoft, too. She wanted us to get a hold of her boss, so my husband started on that. I ran around to the far side of the car to get her wallet so it would be there if anyone needed her ID.
An actual EMT arrived then from a passing car, and he held her neck in place while I kept talking to her. I should have thought of holding her head in place, but since she seemed to be stable I'd been hesitant to risk doing too much. Although I think I did quite well for my first car accident response as a random bystander. She really appreciated us being there.
I think I remembered most of the things I needed to remember; forgot a couple of obvious ones like turning off the car (doh) and asking her age, which we got when the police arrived. I had positive handoff to EMS when I met them and relayed her name, age, and condition (yellow based on breathing, pulse, and mental state). They wanted to know how many patients, and it was just one - the other guys were moving around fine.
My husband sent her a mail with pictures of the scene when we got to work, and we heard from her later in the day. She was very thankful and called us heroes. That felt good even though I can't say I feel really like a hero. I'm just a girl who likes to help people. She's got back and neck pain and her left arm hurts, but nothing was broken and the ER sent her home with some painkillers (they took her to the hospital not far from work).
Hubby has a picture of the rear end of the car completely crunched with me next to the woman looking kind of "wha?".
All in all, an interesting day. I was completely wired after I left the scene, it was stronger than coffee. I was totally awake all day. I'm so glad I got to help someone, and that I actually managed to get most of it right. Not bad for my first actual response to an accident (I'm not counting the fender bender where everyone was up and walking afterwards), and considering I was probably half asleep when we came up on it. I learned a lot for the next time (yes, I'm sure they'll be a next time because now that I know I can manage myself well, I'll be stopping at every car accident that doesn't have response already on site).
Planning on sending the woman some flowers next week. I think she could use it.
Sunday, March 02, 2008
Two cool things
I started college again this week - hubby and I decided it was time to get off our butts, so we signed up for classes. We're doing the online sort of thing, but it works because of our crazy schedules.
And CERT training starts this week - it's Community Emergency Response Team training. Learning how to deal with major disasters and triaging patients and search and rescue and lots of other fun things. I'm pretty excited about it.
And CERT training starts this week - it's Community Emergency Response Team training. Learning how to deal with major disasters and triaging patients and search and rescue and lots of other fun things. I'm pretty excited about it.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Still keeping busy
Still loving the job, freakishly enough. Found out today that the whole team is getting Zunes for the holidays. On top of giving me lots of free food for some work I did? Management is on my happy list.
We're currently having a lot of floor captain and first aid training on my floor. I got a shiny sticker that declares me a floor captain, and I have first aid in Jan (just in time to renew my card, too). It's very good stuff (and me and the guy across the hall can totally nerd out on it all day).
Fell on my head last week, hit it hard on ice, and now I can mysteriously drum way more of Rush's "Limelight" than I could before. Perhaps the key to drumming is head injuries, although that's not something I think I want to do again. I've had enough CT scans to last me a year, thanks.
Developed a nasty new addiction. Damn you, Bioware, for Mass Effect. Now the laundry will never get done. Particularly with 2 Xbox 360s and 2 Mass Effect addicts in the house (between me and my husband, that's it, I don't think anything will get done until we're on vacation next week).
We're currently having a lot of floor captain and first aid training on my floor. I got a shiny sticker that declares me a floor captain, and I have first aid in Jan (just in time to renew my card, too). It's very good stuff (and me and the guy across the hall can totally nerd out on it all day).
Fell on my head last week, hit it hard on ice, and now I can mysteriously drum way more of Rush's "Limelight" than I could before. Perhaps the key to drumming is head injuries, although that's not something I think I want to do again. I've had enough CT scans to last me a year, thanks.
Developed a nasty new addiction. Damn you, Bioware, for Mass Effect. Now the laundry will never get done. Particularly with 2 Xbox 360s and 2 Mass Effect addicts in the house (between me and my husband, that's it, I don't think anything will get done until we're on vacation next week).
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Recovering from virus?
The day after my birthday (my 30th, no less), I got really sick. It's mostly gone but I missed three days of work for it. A little rough these days, that, given that I'm the primary knowledge base for a lot of my team and we've had a lot going on lately. I did a lot of work from home which helped (apparently, most people didn't even know I was out unless I specifically told them, and even then my boss said she didn't even notice I was gone because I wrote so much e-mail while out).
Unfortunate side effect to being sick is that I don't feel like doing anything but sleeping and playing video games. I'm back in the gym tomorrow (weights are calling my name), and hopefully lots of drumming this weekend. Also finishing the granite on the kitchen island.
Probably the part I'm stressing the most about being sick is that I didn't get much writing or drumming done; I did draw a little, but not a whole lot else. My brain wasn't able to focus on text or just about anything, so I mainly watched TV. Drumming was hard because moving made my head spin (and I'm not exactly a stationary drummer these days, I'm all over the kit). I'm glad it's over, but it hit me so bad (worse than I've ever been hit). I'm still coughing a bit and blowing my nose, and just finishing up the antibiotic ointment for the case of pink eye that I got at the same time. Yes, it was that screwed up (timing is everything!).
However, birthday rocked, got money and an iTunes giftcard and a gift cert from my team (aw!) to a music store. A surprise birthday lunch and for dinner we went with my grandma to dinner. After promising that he would throw me no surprise parties, my husband decided to be clever and got a coworker to do it instead. Sneaky loophole! But it was fun anyway.
Addicted to "The Battalion" podcast; it's about the San Francisco Fire Department. Good stuff. Between the iPod and hubby and stepson's new video cards (Radeon HD 2900 Pros), the geek factor is probably through the roof in our house.
We now have almost official full custody of stepson (it's shifting from temporary to permanent). He said tonight that he felt bad he didn't get me a birthday present. I told him it was cool, but in retrospect, I should have told him that my present was knowing that he got to stay with us. He gave me some presents in game on Guild Wars instead (aw).
And I'm sad that winter is on the way - time to take the ol' sportscar/racing car off the insurance again and garage it for the winter. On the other side of that, it's around this time of year that I met my husband 11 years ago, and that's always good to think about. 11 years together, 7.5 of it married, and we almost never fight (really). I think in the last 7 years we fought 3 times.
Yay I'm 30! :D
Unfortunate side effect to being sick is that I don't feel like doing anything but sleeping and playing video games. I'm back in the gym tomorrow (weights are calling my name), and hopefully lots of drumming this weekend. Also finishing the granite on the kitchen island.
Probably the part I'm stressing the most about being sick is that I didn't get much writing or drumming done; I did draw a little, but not a whole lot else. My brain wasn't able to focus on text or just about anything, so I mainly watched TV. Drumming was hard because moving made my head spin (and I'm not exactly a stationary drummer these days, I'm all over the kit). I'm glad it's over, but it hit me so bad (worse than I've ever been hit). I'm still coughing a bit and blowing my nose, and just finishing up the antibiotic ointment for the case of pink eye that I got at the same time. Yes, it was that screwed up (timing is everything!).
However, birthday rocked, got money and an iTunes giftcard and a gift cert from my team (aw!) to a music store. A surprise birthday lunch and for dinner we went with my grandma to dinner. After promising that he would throw me no surprise parties, my husband decided to be clever and got a coworker to do it instead. Sneaky loophole! But it was fun anyway.
Addicted to "The Battalion" podcast; it's about the San Francisco Fire Department. Good stuff. Between the iPod and hubby and stepson's new video cards (Radeon HD 2900 Pros), the geek factor is probably through the roof in our house.
We now have almost official full custody of stepson (it's shifting from temporary to permanent). He said tonight that he felt bad he didn't get me a birthday present. I told him it was cool, but in retrospect, I should have told him that my present was knowing that he got to stay with us. He gave me some presents in game on Guild Wars instead (aw).
And I'm sad that winter is on the way - time to take the ol' sportscar/racing car off the insurance again and garage it for the winter. On the other side of that, it's around this time of year that I met my husband 11 years ago, and that's always good to think about. 11 years together, 7.5 of it married, and we almost never fight (really). I think in the last 7 years we fought 3 times.
Yay I'm 30! :D
Friday, October 26, 2007
I'm nuts
Lord help me, I've rediscovered the joy of EMS scanners. I spent yesterday happily coding away while listening to all the crazy stuff going on. If only I was out in it!
Life is insane. Work is nuts (it's the blind leading the blind, my boss is having me help the rest of the team code, and I'm thinking, "Yeah like that's going to help, I'm lousy at this stuff"). And then I have drumming, bellydance, working on the house, writing, trying to cram in weightlifting, the occasional Guild Wars, and of course spending time with the family. We got custody of my stepson for now so there has been a tiny bit of adjusting to having a 16 year old living with us, but it's been good. He's the most awesome teenager ever so that helps. He's learning to drive. Also, my husband's band has a show tonight, and the rest of the weekend is booked. I think every weekend is booked. Maybe next weekend I'll try to find some time to play the XBox 360 - I think it's calling my name. Although I may just go play the good ol' xbox. And I have this bad urge to take up drawing again. I guess it's no wonder I haven't had time to hike or race or go offroading. :P But we have taken up riding our bikes again more recently, although the onset of the cold makes that a little harder.
We're putting in granite countertops, and since we're doing them ourselves we're hand polishing the edge of each tile. Yes, this is painful. I usually sit around doing it while watching TV.
At work, we have a wacky coding deadline next week, and I'm not the strongest of coders anyway. I'm actually kicking butt on the coding, but I'm also trying to help others with
their code, and that's a little hard as I'm learning as I go a lot, too. It's fun in a sick sort of way.
Winter is on the way already; we've already had one windstorm that knocked the power out. Thankfully, we bought a generator last time this happened, so while most people sat in the dark, our little corner of neighborhood had 3 generators going. Four extension cords later we had the fridge, freezer, a lamp, and the entire entertainment center running. Hey, I may not have power, but I have Xbox 360 and cable. :)
I'll be 30 in about a week and a half. Best part about 30 is that I feel awesome. Life is awesome. :D I work at a company where the product I help develop is used by SO many
people, and I get to help make it great. I get to do most of the stuff I love. How can you go wrong with that? And I may even get in good shape again soon (drummergirl SMASH). I'm convinced I'm going to finish a novel one of these days and I'm seriously contemplating trying to pitch a TV show. I'm completely insane, but I like that I don't stop dreaming as I "grow up". What the heck is growing up, anyway?
I'm having to learn to drum Limelight by Rush. This is a little painful right now; Neil Peart is a drumming god, and the switching around in and out of different timings is really strange for me still. 4/4 to 3/4 to 6/8 to 2/4 ect. It's awesome fun, though. I'm up to three drum kits. I think it's time to sell one. I like having a digital kit, but I only need one acoustic and I have 2 (I couldn't help myself waah). And at the moment we're in this place like sardines in a can and I can only have one kit at a time up anyway.
Life is insane. Work is nuts (it's the blind leading the blind, my boss is having me help the rest of the team code, and I'm thinking, "Yeah like that's going to help, I'm lousy at this stuff"). And then I have drumming, bellydance, working on the house, writing, trying to cram in weightlifting, the occasional Guild Wars, and of course spending time with the family. We got custody of my stepson for now so there has been a tiny bit of adjusting to having a 16 year old living with us, but it's been good. He's the most awesome teenager ever so that helps. He's learning to drive. Also, my husband's band has a show tonight, and the rest of the weekend is booked. I think every weekend is booked. Maybe next weekend I'll try to find some time to play the XBox 360 - I think it's calling my name. Although I may just go play the good ol' xbox. And I have this bad urge to take up drawing again. I guess it's no wonder I haven't had time to hike or race or go offroading. :P But we have taken up riding our bikes again more recently, although the onset of the cold makes that a little harder.
We're putting in granite countertops, and since we're doing them ourselves we're hand polishing the edge of each tile. Yes, this is painful. I usually sit around doing it while watching TV.
At work, we have a wacky coding deadline next week, and I'm not the strongest of coders anyway. I'm actually kicking butt on the coding, but I'm also trying to help others with
their code, and that's a little hard as I'm learning as I go a lot, too. It's fun in a sick sort of way.
Winter is on the way already; we've already had one windstorm that knocked the power out. Thankfully, we bought a generator last time this happened, so while most people sat in the dark, our little corner of neighborhood had 3 generators going. Four extension cords later we had the fridge, freezer, a lamp, and the entire entertainment center running. Hey, I may not have power, but I have Xbox 360 and cable. :)
I'll be 30 in about a week and a half. Best part about 30 is that I feel awesome. Life is awesome. :D I work at a company where the product I help develop is used by SO many
people, and I get to help make it great. I get to do most of the stuff I love. How can you go wrong with that? And I may even get in good shape again soon (drummergirl SMASH). I'm convinced I'm going to finish a novel one of these days and I'm seriously contemplating trying to pitch a TV show. I'm completely insane, but I like that I don't stop dreaming as I "grow up". What the heck is growing up, anyway?
I'm having to learn to drum Limelight by Rush. This is a little painful right now; Neil Peart is a drumming god, and the switching around in and out of different timings is really strange for me still. 4/4 to 3/4 to 6/8 to 2/4 ect. It's awesome fun, though. I'm up to three drum kits. I think it's time to sell one. I like having a digital kit, but I only need one acoustic and I have 2 (I couldn't help myself waah). And at the moment we're in this place like sardines in a can and I can only have one kit at a time up anyway.
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