I am now officially certified for CPR and the use of AED's. Thas right, I can zap people back to life if their heart ever goes funky. Learning CPR was ok, it wasn't a blast, because my respect for the instructor had gone a small ways downhill after his first appearance. He tended to make slightly silly jokes that made me, in my "gosh why can't they just feed me pure data" bitterness, annoyed. But he got better towards the end, and their was a woman who had been a medic for a firefighting department for 20+ years who had loads of experiences to offer, and plus she brought CANDY. She knew very well how to win me over.
I'd say the main issue I have with the lessons is that almost all of what they are teaching is stuff I will a) forget soon, and then b) if any problem occurs, will think of on my own. (i.e.= someone bleeding? check it. Treatable? Treat it. Not? Call 9-1-1 and do what I can, like compression, tourniquet). The only really handy stuff was CPR and what not to do in the event of a poisonous snake bite (DO NOT ice it, snakes are cold blooded and their venom does just fine, thanks). But even then, in the event that someone is bitten by, say, a coral snake (deadly numero uno), Sam has been told to call 9-1-1 and put a bandaid over it. Thanks, lesson, I might not have thought of putting a bandaid on a poisonous snake bite.
Whining and pining aside, one of my podmates had his birthday on the 22, and we all went out to a really cheap mongolian/chinese/vietnamese place where, for $6, you can fill a large bowl to overflowing with meats and veggies and sauces and then have them fry it up on a huge hot stone. It was really delicious, and, budget permitting, I'll be heading there again.
Today in Sacramento (actually yesterday at this point) was Make a Difference Day, part of the city-wide initiative for getting individuals active in serving the community. So Americorps was out there doing varieties of projects. I have heard: helping plant/play with kids at disadvantaged schools, picking nuts and apples to help clear government land, and for me and my pod, working in a massive food warehouse. This warehouse, run by Senior Gleaners, takes food from supermarkets that don't meet the wicked stringent quality standards of the food industry (like one broken packaging=entire batch trashed, day old bread, etc) and redistributes all that would-be waste to the homeless and poor. They service over 400 (I think) organizations that provide for impoverished people DAILY. Their facilities were enormous, and I was really cool to see how large such an organization, for such a cause, can get. Granted, I spend the entire day wiping rejected soda cans down with bleach and a cloth to be reshelved (and I don't consider providing soft drinks to the homeless a really earthshaking bit), but I was still doing my part to help them save man-hours. We repackaged ~2426 soda cans, and threw out ~400 that were unsalvageable. It was pretty sticky work.
But tomorrow I finally get to sleep a bit, so I'm psyched. And, I had thought I lost my plate today (we have to provide our own dishware) but I found it three kitchens over on top of a fridge.
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