Saturday, March 28, 2009

People people can feel weird as well.

Today in the on going list of tasks completed to get my daycare license I took a First Aid class. First aid hasn't changed much since I took it six or seven years ago. Except one major thing I was not ready for. They have you partner up not just to immobilize broken limbs and pretend to stop bleeding but now you physically roll your partner and do a full body check for injury. I can only speak for myself. It freaked me out really good, to touch someones hair, look in their eyes, touch their neck and shoulders no big deal. Touching their breast bone, lower ribs and hips really surfaced some boundaries issues with me. I pretended and said spoke what I was pretending to touch and it still gave me the ick factor. That wasn't the worst we then had to learn to roll someone passed out with and without a neck injury from their back to their side. I much prefer the neck injury to the just passed out guy. I had a strange woman take my arm and lay it across my chest. I'm sure for the normal person no big deal but I'm nursing and not a natural size. I got the look form my partner... where in the hell does the arm go. I finally just moved my own arm. Holy cow talk about crossing over the line into the uncomfortable zone. I have already recruited Warren for my partner in the renewal class two years from now.
The sad part is I don't think I can help someone in need that isn't a child or someone I know for fear of this line crossed. It was so much easier in my last class when we rolled dummies and not people. I could have been a hero to someone with that training, I think.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

California Acadamy of Science




Since January I have been trying to get into the "New" California Academy of Science. Let me tell you the place is so much more popular than it was when they had the old building. The first time we went was January 2nd. The line was so long you couldn't see an end. We went to de Young instead. I would recommend de Young to people without the kids or with older kids. I went with my troop, they were good but not really that interested. Warren seemed to like it. A great place to try out his new camera.

We then tried again Valentine's Day. We got in after about 30 minutes in the members only line. As much as I enjoyed talking with some science teachers from the Richmond school district the kids got very antsy. The building was crowded Warren and I got separated and it took almost an hour to reconnect. Our kids were hot, tired and cranky. We could not wait to leave.

I am very persistent and thought maybe a weekday would work better. Could not find a single adult that could go during the week. I almost gave up when Tuesday night I found out my daughter had a minimum day the same day Joey always gets out of school early. I picked up the kids and we left to the Aquarium. Just me, two schoolers, a preschooler and a baby. It was a quick drive at 1230pm to get there. The directions from the website worked perfect. There was parking and no line to get in. We explored the Philippine coral reef, saw the taxidermy animals I remembered as a child and walked around the swamp and aquarium. About two hours after we arrived it started getting busy so we weren't able to see the rain forest or the living roof, leaves something for next time and more I'm sure. We did see some really cool Bat rays and skates, an albino alligator from above and beneath and see a cool show with a diver in a huge fish tank. Over all if you're a scientist at heart get a membership, break up your visit into a few trips and have fun.

I loved it and my kids seemed to enjoy them selves as well.