They pay me to do this???

Today was day four of my new career and it was great. So many times throughout the day I thought to myself, "I can't believe they are paying me to do this!" It's still a bit strange feeling and at times I forget that I'm no longer a volunteer and now an employee. It is a bit of a shift and kind of sad to accept not being able to respond to calls outside of my work hours. The training is fantastic, the drill ground work is a wonderful refresher, and how much do I love being able to work out doing PT almost every day?! Today after classroom we spent the entire afternoon doing shake-n-bakes, SCBA drills and emergency air operations, and confined space blackout drills. It was good physical work, pretty sweaty, and a blast!

The new group of employees is great. There are six new fire/paramedics and us three fire/EMT/Engineers. To this point everyone seems really great, excited to be here, pretty much everyone comes with great experience in some way or another, and we are all working really well together. I am excited about the new friendships and working relationships with these new members of my FD family. One of the medics was one of my academy instructors in my probie academy in 2003 which is lots of fun! So many great resources to learn from. I can even honestly say that I don't even mind the new red (probie) shirts that we were issued on Monday. It's a strange feeling to be a probie again but I'm here for the long haul and am okay being one of the least senior people on the department for now (even though I've been there over four years). :-)

Having 6 8-hr hospital clinicals thrown in at school yesterday was a bit unexpected and will make the next few months schedule even busier. I look at it though as an opportunity to learn and absorb more detailed information in the OR, ED, and RT units which could be really interesting. It's going to be a tough and very busy few months with fire academy M-F and paramedic school on C-shift days but it'll all work out.

Thanks to all of you who are pulling for our little cage-fighter Charlie. He's hanging in there and keeping all those who love him on our toes. Hang in there, little man!!!

Back to the books now to try and get caught up a bit on my school reading...yikes!!!