Work work work

I am terrible at keeping up to date with posting on this.  Also, lately I'm terrible at just being online.  I decided to turn my life further upside down (I was already half-way there, why not just REALLY stir things up, eh?) and change my career plans completely.  So, my dreams of academia are on hold.  Temporarily, but indefinitely.  I am not giving them up entirely, just a little bit, for just a little while.

I am giving them up for this:

That's my job site.  Now, I had no idea how lucky I would be to get such a placement when I decided on this new path, but there you have it.  I'm well pleased.  I am now what is called an Occupational First Aid Attendant, Level 3.  I'm there in case bad things happen, as the step between the accident and the hospital.  I can put on bandaids (properly!), clean wounds, deal with sprains and strains, and if a really BIG bad thing happens, stabilize someone as much as possible and strap 'em to a board to get loaded into an emergency transport to go to the hospital.  Mostly, it's a sit around and wait job.  It's a lot of down time, which is.... down, but gorgeous surroundings and I love my coworkers.  It's a good thing I'm not busy fixing people all the time, that would indicate unsafe practices!  As it is, I do other little things like keep track of who is where on site.  It's 5-6 days a week, 11-12 hours a day.  So, that's why I'm behind on updating anything.

I love my job.

I'm also extremely glad I moved up north to FSJ.  It's gorgeous here. Yes, the mosquitoes are huge.  I heard that one landed on a runway recently and the ground crew fueled it up before realizing it wasn't a plane.  (ba-dum-tiss!  That's actually my Papa's joke.)  And the days are long this far north - sunlight peeks over the horizon at 3am and doesn't fully disappear until after 11pm.  And I hear the winters are atrocious.  Time will tell.  For now, I'll enjoy my summer, with a short drive to a view like this of the Peace River:

*dreamy sigh*

Am also loving my participation in the SCA.  Garb, combat, camping, bawdy songs.... doesn't get much better than that.  However, my first "war" event, north of Edmonton, was rained out partially; it flooded so bad that the war field became a war lake.  And the tent partially flooded.  And everything I took was soaked.  But.... still a lot of fun.  And I got a special dragon token for playing the harp!  Huzzah!

Ishbel, of course, continues to adventure with me.  She has come to work a couple times now, and sits in the car being a terrible influence on me.  I need to stay awake in case of an emergency and she keeps trying to talk me into a nap.  So hard to say no to such a cute face!

Ishbel at the W.A.C. Bennet Dam