The life,times, troubles, toils, and tribulations of Raymond.

 
Last Wednesday I made my way to the California Department of Motor Vehicles for the next step in my quest towards service in the Emergency Medical Services field. I was after my California Ambulance Driver Certificate. For this certificate you do not need to take a practical driving test, but you are required to take a 30 question multiple-choice written exam, and you are only allowed to miss four question. Now going into this exam I was a little worried, mainly because just about everyone I talked to said this was a difficult test, and that it took them three times to finally pass.

Well I showed up with all of my required documents: Fingerprints, Medical Exam, EMT licensee, and right to my firstborn. After I turned in all of these documents to the friendly DMV service personnel I was sent to wait in line for my exam. I then girded up my loins for the examination. The test was fairly straightforward, but there were those few questions that threw you because there were more then one answer that could be correct. Well, I finished the test and walked back to the correcting desk and watched. I only missed one question on the first side. WooHoo this is going to be a breeze, I am a genius. Then as the second side came the grader mark off another one, then another one, and one more. Then she continued and marked no more. Only four wrong! I had passed on my first try. I felt pretty darn good. I drove all the way home making yowling siren noises and flashing my high beams on and off to make me feel important.
posted by Raymond at 12:09 PM

 
Have I ever mentioned how much I love Britney Spears.

Simply Beautiful.



posted by Raymond at 10:55 AM

 
I merely post this because I can think of no worse way for a man to die.

From the Reuters News Service:

An enraged Ethiopian mother of five will be tried for the murder of her husband who died after she crushed his testicles in a fight, police told the state-run Ethiopian News Agency.
Police said on Friday the man was so embarrassed after the incident that he declined to seek treatment for the injury, and died days later.
"Following a disagreement over the husband's spending habits, his wife refused to give him his dinner and also decided to sleep alone," police in the western region of Wellega said.
"The husband was so angered by this affront by his wife that he tried to beat her. In the melee that followed, the wife grabbed and twisted his testicles causing serious damage."
Police said the unnamed woman, a resident of Wayu-Tuka district in Wellega, had had several arguments with her husband about the amount of money he spent on booze.

OUCH!
posted by Raymond at 10:51 AM

 
Kansas City Ties

I spent a good week in Kansas City during the summer of 1999. I traveled with friends Ben, Lindy, and Sarah, and stayed with relatives of Lindy. I had a really good time, but I figured that would be the end to my Kansas City time. Oh, I was wrong. With the radio show “Southern California Baseball Report” I have had the fortune of working with the two time All Star Mark Gubicza; a very nice guy, and fun to hang out with, and a former Kansas City Royal. Okay, so I thought that would of end of my ties to this town. Wrong once again. Recently during theses past two week, my Raiders pre-game show has featured “The Nigerian Nightmare” Christian Okoye, a former Kansas City Chief, whom I had only know of from a big poster of him I saw in the Kansas City Airport. So I guess Kansas City won’t leave me alone. Now I can only hope that maybe I will end up dating a Miss Kansas City, that wouldn’t be too shabby.
posted by Raymond at 10:49 AM

 
Yeah, I know it has been a long time since I have blogged anything. I am sorry, but I have been pretty busy lately, as you shall learn as I plan a multi-part series bringing you all up to date as to what I have been doing.

First things first, I have been hired by Lifeline Ambulance of Montebello, California. Lifeline is a recent upstart ambulance company, which is a bit more then one year old. They specialize in inter-facility transport, and are growing quite fast. They recently hired a batch of new recruits and I am lucky enough to be one of them. Of course I do not know what kind of a hire I am yet, whether it be full time or part time, but either way I am just happy to hired by a smaller company that actually seems to car about it’s employees.

But before I can work in an official capacity for the company, I need to go through training and orientation with a Field Training Officer. My F.T.O. was Ms. Rita Arredondo, or as I like to call her “The Frau.” This comes from the fact that Rita is a German immigrant, the companies toughest F.T.O., and pretty darn strict. So just my luck, I get hired, and then I get assigned to the toughest training officer in the company.

Well after being assigned to my F.T.O. I now have to train with them until I am cleared though all of my paperwork, equipment, and customer service skills. At first I didn’t think it would be any big deal, learn a little paper work, find out where all of the stuff is on the ambulance, and I would be good to go. Oh, boy, I was wrong, I was not prepared for the German boot camp that awaited me.

posted by Raymond at 9:36 AM