RECOVERING GRADY ADDICT

I will freely admit that I am an accomplished artist of spinning white lies. The kind you tell the cable company for sympathy so they will work with you to keep the internet and TV on. The kind that keeps bill collectors from blowing your phone up with harassing calls. The kind that spares someone's feelings when you forget their birthday. The kind that will excuse your expected presence from a family function you just don't feel up to making. Yeah, those are the little white lies I am really good at. Then there are black lies. The flat out malicious lies that ruin peoples' lives. The one's that cost people their jobs, wreck marriages, break up happy homes, tarnish reputations, turn children against parents. I could site examples, but why beat dead horses? Those lies you never recover from. Not really. You move on, but their scars are still ugly and painful. The kind of scars that never heal and go away. You spend your days trying not to dwell when you have been hurt by...

As New Orleans (and the rest of Southern Louisiana) prepares to be seriously fucked for the second time in three years... My favorite Louisiana blog buddy, the Paramedic I wanna grow up to be... Kelly, ( aka "Ambulance Driver", aka "A.D." http://www.ambulancedriverfiles.blogspot.com/ ) prepares for a 6am shift tomorrow in New Orleans. He has packed and prepped, as all good public safety folks do, to spend several days stuck at work, possibly unable to leave, most likely his relief unable to get in, and tons of 911 calls awaiting his attention. Please say a little prayer for him, and all his colleagues as Gustav ass rapes Louisiana tomorrow. My only question is this: As we EMS peeps have lovingly referred to Katrina evacuees as Katricians, will Gustav evacuees be Gustavians? Nope, that almost sounds classy.

My day, yesterday I awoke at the usual 5:30am to get dressed and ready for my almost two hour rush-hour commute to Alpharetta. Upon arriving at work at 7:59, my partner was yet in the office, so I set myself busy to ready us for the day ahead. Mike, co-owner and C.O.O. of the company (of 5 full time employees) calls me into his office. I will simply sumarize my feelings as this: My intolerance for incompetance, drama, bullshit, unsafe work conditions, and unreliable paychecks, along with my feelings that the newbie EMT's skills should be nurtured and honed, and demand for partners who actually bathe regularly - did not set well with management. I was branded as a boat rocker, and trouble maker with a bad attitude. While all my EMT partners told me just how much they liked working with me, learned things from me, and agreed with my views on company operations, management told me repeatedly over the last week just how much no one wants to work with me. So either management's view...