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photojournal: infant/child cpr class

2009-11-07T20:34:44Z

MY FIRST CPR CLASS

First things first: We got study materials with some really great pictures of children choking and dying.

No pictures of actual infants in the manual though. What they did have was pictures of the fake babies that you use in the class to practice CPR. Everyone got a fake baby to practice with. Your baby, presumably, would either look like this:

or this:

However, this was my baby:

After lunch was the first aid portion of the class. In addition to learning how to make a sling and treat hypothermia, lessons included:

Making sure your friend watches the road when she is driving and isn't texting.

Making it look like the coworker you accidentally killed is just chilling.

And finally, how to know if your dad is a zombie and what to do if he is.

Aimee Poulin: Certified Baby-Saver

erotophobic @ 2009-11-04T23:27:00

2009-11-05T04:30:49Z

In case facebook didn't tell you, this is the way I feel about how the vote went!:

Come on, really?

erotophobic @ 2009-11-01T13:52:00

2009-11-01T19:15:42Z

So everyone knows that Halloween is a time for really awesome things, but also for costume-makers to invent really slutty versions of every costume idea you've ever had. Which is fine you know, whatever, show off the goods. At least that is the attitude I have been trying to take in my quest to be non-judgmental. But everyone has their judgmental moments, and on the train platform last night I noticed one girl that I just thought "oh jesus what a dumb looking costume, it's so sexied-up I can't even tell what it's supposed to be." But then she was sitting across from me and checking her phone, and must have suddenly gotten some bad news or something because she looked like she was about to cry the rest of the ride. And then I felt really bad. Because there must be nothing worse than being on the verge of tears, alone on a train full of strangers, dressed like you're in a porno.

Also I ate so much candy I almost barfed. Maybe next time, Paranormal Activity. Nevertheless I still woke up wanting to eat Halloween Oreos for breakfast. (They should really be paying me for this kind of product placement.)

erotophobic @ 2009-10-30T19:30:00

2009-10-30T23:32:54Z

YOU WANT HAPPY?! okay.

erotophobic @ 2009-10-20T09:37:00

2009-10-20T14:20:15Z

Yesterday I got out of work early and it was such a nice fall day that I ended up walking the whole way home. 2.3 miles google maps tells me. Aw yeah.

Also I THINK WE'RE GOING TO GET A CAT<3<3<3<3

erotophobic @ 2009-10-16T18:49:00

2009-10-16T22:50:26Z

What I really want to do is, the other night I watched "Once" with Laura and Alice, and I really want to have a bunch of people come over and serve them hot food out of giant pots in the dark and then sing songs.

erotophobic @ 2009-10-13T12:28:00

2009-10-13T17:03:30Z

I am 22 and a half this month.
I keep dreaming about speaking French. Gotta brush up on that.
This weekend was awesome. Everyone should move here. It still baffles me that I moved here.
It's 1pm and I am still in jammie jams.
Hello.

erotophobic @ 2009-10-04T15:53:00

2009-10-04T23:49:25Z

How much longer in my life can I get away with wearing silly things? Studded belts and sweater vests with little people on them and almost gratingly bright colors? And stupid t-shirts and clothes intended for children to wear and dresses that are too short?

How much longer can I avoid wearing dress pants and fitted white button-up shirts, how much longer can I avoid wearing clothes that need to be ironed, or dry-cleaned? Black knee-length skirts and nude nylons and khaki pants and bras and subtle jewelry? Zzzzzz.

erotophobic @ 2009-09-21T19:19:00

2009-09-21T23:35:13Z

A conversation between the girls today:
13-year-old: "I thought I wanted to be a doctor, but I don't know. I don't think I could do surgery."
11-year-old: "I could."

erotophobic @ 2009-09-18T09:10:00

2009-09-18T13:20:33Z

Oh man I hung out with the coolest kids yesterday. Overheard the 11-year-old who has never had a boyfriend give very good boy advice to her friend on the phone. Something along the lines of, "tell him you have too much going on right now to deal with this! You kind of like him, but you also like someone else. Did he actually ask you out? You're not ready. You need to do your homework and then you can deal with it. Take a bubble bath."

And we walked the dog. Who is a cockapoo. I CHANGE MY MIND I WANT A PUPPY

erotophobic @ 2009-09-10T18:59:00

2009-09-10T23:15:49Z

This city is getting me in such good shape! The most exciting consequence of which is, I have been getting really good sleep here. No jokin'.

I also can't afford to eat junk food (other than sody which will be the final frontier of my bad habits) so, I'd say it's been a healthy week and a half.

I've also not had TV channels or a microwave for a week and a half and you know what? No big deal.

Last night I went to my friend Christy's house to play ping-pong. And when I say house, I mean Quaker Commune, and when I say ping-pong, I really mean do that for a half an hour and then discuss the merits of macro versus micro social work and play word games with Quakers and their friends (or you could say, Friends and their friends.) It was a good time representative of the diversity of Good Times to be had in Boston.

erotophobic @ 2009-09-02T08:12:00

2009-09-02T12:17:12Z

Well here I am! Livin' on the third floor. My legs are all floppy from moving yesterday. Our place is going to be sick once it's all unpacked and everything. Classes start today for me! And the internet-maker is coming today, so's that we have legit internet connection. (Though as you can probably tell, wireless signals abound here.) Okay well I should probably assemble a bed and put away clothes so that I don't have to a) continue wearing the same clothes and b) sleep on the floor again.

erotophobic @ 2009-08-24T18:31:00

2009-08-24T22:40:06Z

I have such a great habit of meeting really fabulous new people RIGHT before moving far away.

Another thing I did the other day, was I realized that someone had un-friended me on facebook, and went on a rampage and deleted about thirty people to make myself feel better. Isn't that awful? It's true though. I did that.

erotophobic @ 2009-08-21T21:31:00

2009-08-22T02:54:19Z

-Today at work, one little boy took off his shirt during lunch inexplicably, and another little boy said, "he's pretending to be a dad."

-I had a dream last night that I lived in a building with my family, and Patrick, and my coworker Jessie and her baby and her mom. But, we had to evacuate really fast because SADDAM HUSSEIN WANTED TO BLOW UP THAT VERY BUILDING!

-This summer I have been mistaken for a 12-year-old on three separate occasions. This is slowly ceasing to be amusing. Am I Benjamin Button or something? The older I get, the younger people think I am. So if you have any theories about how much I will Appreciate This When I'm Older, at this rate when I am 30 people are going to be asking me where I go to Pre-School.

-Guess how many days until I move to Boston*? ELEVEN!

*Actually Somerville

erotophobic @ 2009-08-19T21:35:00

2009-08-20T01:36:38Z

There is a thing that I don't like about driving, and that is that speed limits seem to mean "drive 5mph greater than this number or everyone around you will get mad at you."

erotophobic @ 2009-08-15T21:21:00

2009-08-16T01:24:53Z

Tonight I went to the beach with my mom and my little brother and his friend Gabriel. In his spare time, Gabriel does things like study physics and write his own synth music. He also says things like "why are little boys sexist?" and "do you ever wonder if everyone else is a robot?"
Garbiel is 11, by the way. Future best friend y/n?

dear world

2009-08-12T02:58:16Z

Well I seem to have signed a lease today!

erotophobic @ 2009-08-06T23:37:00

2009-08-07T03:38:50Z

I have two L.L. Bean backpacks that need monogramming! Any ideas? Ten characters (including spaces) max.

erotophobic @ 2009-08-03T07:21:00

2009-08-03T11:24:54Z

Last night I kept dreaming about a) going to grad school and meeting only first-year undergrads, and also b) going to work and being the only person there. I think they are variations on "forgot about this math test" or, more commonly for me, "back in a high school theater production for which I never received a script." I am more than a little skeptical about this whole being-a-grown-up thing.

Does anyone know what a "credit reference" is on an application to rent an apartment?

BLOCK O' TEXT

2009-08-01T01:45:00Z

I got my real and true plastic card license in the mail yesterday aw helllls yeah. I can't even believe it is real and not fake. It's like I'm 16 at 22.
For the last few months I have been sharing a drink with a friend on occasion, which I had never previously done until the last few months. And I should specify that when I say "a drink" that is really what I mean. I have really never been anywhere near drunk. And have ordered a drink only on occasions where, say, a dear friend is getting a divorce, or I am graduating college and the dean of the honors college is paying. I can count on both hands the total number I'm sure. The point is I had decided it wasn't so bad a thing to do, because it seems like an adult's way of drinking and not a 15-year-old's way of drinking. But then it also occurred to me that my dad is an adult, and his way of drinking is to spend all afternoon drinking beers alone and then drive around town. And I also remembered that I don't feel like an adult pretty much at all, and I read in a book that kids from lower-income backgrounds feel more uncomfortable with the adult world growing up and maybe that has something to do with it. The adult world is incoherent to me, even now that I am technically part of it. Which it turns out can be a good thing because that means I can pretty much do it however I want. Drinking "adult-style" has not caused me any trouble at all but it feels inauthentic. It feels like I am twelve years old putting on nail polish and smearing it all over my fingers. Which I'm pretty sure would still happen if I tried to put on nail polish today because it's not my style. I guess the point of my story is that I have a license now and I probably am not going to use it to buy alcohol. However it will help me out if I want to go to 21+ shows, or my brother needs me to buy him cigarettes because he lost his ID, or whatever. In addition to the whole, you know, allowing me to drive a car thing, but that will be obsolete in about a month. Wahaha.

work-related injury

2009-07-26T13:57:01Z

A TODDLER BIT ME

erotophobic @ 2009-07-23T18:40:00

2009-07-23T22:42:59Z

Got my license. Finally got added to my parents insurance which mysteriously went down after adding me? I'm THAT good. (?)
First drive without a licensed passenger in the next seat: Drove Isaac to the store to buy cigarettes while David read my passport aloud in the back. Made some WILD left turns. Now I can drive alone but... where to go?

Summer at parents' house part 3

2009-07-21T01:14:43Z

Here is a long entry about my life.

There was this baby at work who was my favorite baby, and his mom was in an abusive relationship and their lives were in turmoil and, basically, when I left work last Wednesday I was pretty sure I would never see him again. Which was sad because like I said, favorite baby. But then I was at work today and VOILA! There he was! And even if he never comes back for whatever reason (and there are numerous reasons that I would be completely fine with) I was so happy that I got to hug him and play with him, and we all went for a walk to Bates and had a picnic on the grass by the duck pond and ate pb&j sandwiches. There is a really sad element of child care work, being that it is always temporary, and walks an awkward line between professional and personal. You get really attached to these kids basically as part of the job, but you're supposed to just let them go when they leave or when you leave; you're not supposed to have favorites; you're not supposed to have any sort of relationship with them on time that is not paid for. It's really strange.

After work I went driving a little with my grandmaman and remembered how to parallel park or something. Then I enjoyed my brother's massive neurotic episode, in which I had to interact with other humans for him because he was too overwhelmed. It's official: I am really good at dealing with people when they are having bouts of the crazies. My grandmaman has less patience than I have, which is evident from this thing she said today, which was "I'm too old for this bullshit."

I went to the beach with her yesterday and she saw the book I was reading and asked me something about what I thought of gay marriage. We didn't really talk about gay marriage much, because she started telling me about my uncle (her son), or more accurately, about a boyfriend he had for a number of years. She said she loved him like a son and wishes they had never broken up. The older we get, the more I like to listen to her talk.

My neighbor is mowing his lawn... right now. At 9pm? I have to sleep soon so that I can get up tomorrow for an 8am driving test followed by a 9:30am dentist appointment. Potential worst morning ever. Although if it is, I reserve the right to have a bout of the crazies. So nobody else here better step.

erotophobic @ 2009-07-19T18:49:00

2009-07-19T22:50:59Z

Totally lost my ability to parallel park without hitting the curb. Have a distinct feeling this license thing was just not meant to be. Guess we'll know for sure Tuesday.

LEWISTON IS ON FIRE

2009-07-15T21:30:51Z

from the Lewiston Sun Journal:

Chaos spread across the city Wednesday afternoon as the Cowan Mill on the shore of the Androscoggin River went up in flames. Buildings around it were showered with falling cinders.
At 4 p.m., flames were shooting from the upper floors of the mill next to Longely Bridge. Within 15 minutes, most of the roof had collapsed and what sounded like thunder roared as walls and floors came tumbling down.
Thousands of people stood on the sides of Main Street watching the intense fire grow bigger, unaware that another building had caught fire behind them.
That happened at about 4:20 p.m. when embers from the burning Cowan Mill floated down onto the roof of Bates Mill No. 5, setting the saw-tooth-roofed building across the street on fire.
Auburn firefighters rushed to that scene to snuff out the flames before they could engulf Mill No. 5. Meanwhile, there were reports that fires were starting at the building housing Espo's Restaurant, close to the burning Cowan Mill.
"Our concern right now is for other roofs and other buildings," said Lewiston police Chief Michael Bussiere, who was trying to help control a crowd of several thousand that clogged the downtown. "We've got major issues with traffic control."