The End of the Odyssey

Back in October, Faith begged to be a part of some activity called the Odyssey of the Mind.  Having heard only tidbits over the previous school year, my assumption was it was some secret squirrel club we didn't qualify for.  But when she brought home the flyer for the information meeting, I gave in and we went.

About Odyssey of the Mind

It seemed like something she'd totally love and so I signed her up and offered to co-coach after some coaxing.  The entire thing is kid-designed and kid-led so how hard could it possibly be?

It was hard.  Not physically hard...or even time consuming hard.  But it was super hard to let the kids create their own concept, plan, script, set.  

I never realized what a control freak I was until I had sit quietly and watch 7 very intelligent girls struggle with creating a PVC pipe backdrop.  In my head, I was yelling "it's out of shape, the weight distribution is the problem, no a rock won't help".  I think my co-coach and I actually cheered when one of the girls very quietly said "maybe we could duct tape it".  I think we scared the poor girl when we got all excited. "What was that??!!!! What was your fabulous idea?!?!? Perhaps you could try her idea girls!"

This brave man gave Faith a power saw to break down a huge box for their backdrop.  Kid-led means THEY have to do it all

Then the girls went crazy spray painting their new backdrop, only to scrap the whole plan 3 days before the competition

It was hard to know if we were preparing them properly for the spontaneous part of the competition. At that point, the girls walk into a room alone, and either perform a verbal or hands on or mixed spontaneous problem with no one else in the room but the judges.  Everything is timed, with very specific instructions and specific criteria to meet.  They themselves must ensure they hear the instructions, understand them and respond as best they can.

The hardest part however, was seeing their sad little faces when they learned they placed 5th out of 16 teams in their division.  They wouldn't go on to the State Competition.  It was the end of the road for our team.  With two girls having placed at the World Competition the year before, I knew they were particularly disappointed.  And despite my own exhaustion, I was a little disappointed too. The girls worked so hard. They got top scores for Style and their Long-Term Problem. It was that tricky spontaneous score that brought them down to 5th.

I was proud of the girls.  Despite not getting the outcome they wanted and their little hearts being broken, they still cheered for the other teams in their school.  They congratulated other teams and friends they saw. They were good sports and good kids.  Especially since they nominated us, their coaches for an Omer Award, which was a pretty cool moment. We all did our very best. That's about all we can ask.

This goat really sums up the OM experience

Things Sue taught me

In honor of losing a dear member of THRS, I feel the need to share things Sue taught me.
Many moons ago, when I got the idea of minors working rescue (think 1999) not only did I have to work with the townships attorneys, committee members,  insurance people, human resources, and voters....I also had to sell the squad members on the junior program, since they were the ones absorbing the responsibility of keeping us alive.  After jumping thru a million hoops (at the age of 16) I was faced with the squadies, and told "if you sell them, it's a done deal".

I met with most privately so we could hash out their real thoughts.  My conversation with Sue was pretty clear...
"Are you going to date cops??"  Um...we'll I'm 16 so I'm guessing no, that's sort of creepy (we laugh at this now)
"Will you listen to me when I hold you back?"  Not happily...but yes.
"What are you bringing to the table?"  We'll...we'll carry all the heavy stuff, listen, do paperwork...and we can't drive.

It seemed like a simple deal, but what I really learned from Sue, non-squadies won't get.  For instance, one day, someone was working to fix a garage door...they got tangled in the door pulley and basically were almost strangled in front of me and 2 others while we panicked. After the situation, there was a huge screaming match....and while I wasn't involved, I cried because adults yelling was so scary to me.   A week later, Sue pulled me aside, reminded me "it's done, were family here kiddo....I love him so much and was angry he thought we didn't care....but we've yelled and screamed and were over it....so let's move on"
That was a true sign of unconditional love.

A few years later, the tropicana collapse happened.  I was there and offered to go with her. She said "baby girl, I just don't have it in me after 9/11....if you NEED me, I'll go....but I'd rather stay and support you in any way" I grabbed a partner and we were gone 12 hours.
And she did support us. She called me 3 days in a row, afterwards to check on me.

Sue taught me unconditional love among this family.
She taught me to cry outside your patients house.
She taught me how to humbly say "you're welcome" when a patient came to thank me.
She taught me how to accept criticism from our elders when we weren't exactly right.
She also taught me how to stand up to someone when we were right.
She taught me how to stay safe.
And she loved me and every other junior, when everyone else saw us as a pain in the ass....she let us on her truck, let us carry those bags and let us treat critical patients, giving us confidence.

I learned a lot from Sue as an EMT, but I really feel like I learned so much more from her as a person.

Tell me what you learned from Sue.

Awesome day

Last week was pretty rough for the Paloff family.  Hearing a dear friend had lost her battle with cancer and knowing we wouldn't be able to get up to NJ to be there with our friends and EMS family, we were both pretty bummed, grumpy and just  generally miserable.  

Dave knew his sister and her family were coming down for an Easter Disney trip, their first ever.  So Dave worked out a little plan with his sister to surprise the girls.

We started Sunday with an early mass at 8:30 at a local Catholic Church.  All three of us really enjoyed it.  It was an odd blend of contemporary music and traditional mass mixed with a really relatable homily.  Just a great Easter service.

After a little breakfast and hot tub action, we got the kid ready for dinner and told her we had a 90 minute ride to dinner.  This kid had no question about driving an hour and a half for a meal.  When we finally got there and Isabella and Katrina walked into the restaurant the little girls instantly started shrieking and crying and Katrina just stood speechless.  It was such a sweet emotional moment for kids.  OK it's possible all four adults teared up too...

Easter 2014 - Kissimmee, FL

These girls hadn't seen each other in 5 months!

While the girls were sad to leave each other, their smiles were worth the few tears when we left.  Thanks to Andi and June for sharing a few hours of your family vacation with us.  We were so grateful!

Next up, David and EJ and Joey!

So...that didn't take long.

Saturday morning, while I was working at my desk at home, I *thought* I heard Faith crying hysterical.  I put myself on break to see what was happening and Dave said "Pretty sure she broke her nose."  I panicked, thinking "must get her to hospital...I have 8 hours of sick time...but have 9 hours left...."  Dave talked me off the ledge, brought her to me and I saw a very puffy nose and eyes.  She ran into the sliding glass door at her friends house.  Thank GOD she didn't go through the very strong double paned sliding door or we'd have been in real trouble.  Dave said he'd take care of her, I should get back to work and we'd wait a few hours to see if she needed a doctor.

Thankfully, work had some technical issues which pulled me off the phones for a bit, allowing me to get myself together, calm down.

By the time I logged off at 9:30pm, she looked better.  

She said it hurt but she was ok.  Fast forward to Sunday, it looked HORRIBLE.  Her eyebrows weren't even because of the swelling.  Her nose looked crooked too.  So off to Trinity Medical Center we went.  

Trinity is a pretty nice hospital.  They have this thing called "immediate bedding" where you walk in and they take you RIGHT to a bed (It was like Kessler my NJ peopes).  We waited about an hour to see the pediatric NP to come down and he was amazing.  He gave her a full neuro and head trauma assessment and since she passed with flying colors we needed no imaging.  He explained everything to her, that her nose was certainly broken but her orbital was fine, despite the raccoon look on the one side.  Luckily she broke it straight on so she shouldn't need to see an ENT, provided nothing else hits her in the face while it heals.

Once that was situated, we had to wait for AAA to come get my keys out of my car.  (Yes I know).  Shout-out to my husband for getting us the "AAA Plus" plan which covers something like 6 lockouts a year.

All in all, the hospital staff was awesome.  From security, who helped watch for AAA while we were discharging, to the nurses, doc and registration.  

Poor kid headed to school this morning, mortified and asking if she can refuse to tell anyone what happened.  At first her teacher was nervous about her being in class and made us see the nurse.  Once we talked to the nurse and someone in the office, everyone agreed she could be in school, provided she skips recess and gym, and goes to nurse immediately if she has a headache, blurred vision, nosebleed, etc.  Good thing I didn't just drop her off. 

It doesn't look too terrible, but it's definitely startling.  And apparently it may get worse before better.

But hey, at least we made it 4 months here before meeting our friendly neighborhood ER staff.

I miss NJ...

OK So I don't miss New Jersey exactly.  I actually miss my amazing health insurance.  #ObamaCareSucks
#FLloveObamaCare

I had my first meeting with an insurance agent this morning.  Like first ever in my life.  Shocker - we don't qualify for any subsidy because my and Dave's employer offers group coverage.  

"But it's cost is half a paycheck"  

"I understand and unfortunately the calculation only considers the cost of the employees coverage and since you both are  100% covered, you do not qualify for a subsidy for Faith"

My employer offers coverage that we could use for Faith and I, for the low cost of $300/month.  SOUNDS GREAT RIGHT!?!?!  Except that's the bronze plan with super duper deductibles ($4000) and coinsurance (40%).  Thankfully the agent actually explained those things to me since I'd actually NEVER encountered such a thing with NJDirect.  Hospitalizations were always covered 100% after the copay, bloodwork 100%, scripts $3.  I have literally never even known what our deductible was because it really never affected us, except her ambulance ride last year.

When I told the agent this, he knew we were from the Northeast and public sector, because apparently they are the only states with this luxury left.  And even though the guy knew he probably wasn't getting a sale from me, he still walked me through the differences between Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum...and after all of that conversation it seems our best option will end up with each of us on different plans.  Gold or Platinum for the kid, as her asthma usually causes a hospital visit, then follow-ups to tweak meds.  Dave and I are good with Bronze/Silver (ie whatever is free from our employers), and probably a health savings account.

This is one instance where I DO miss NJ.  I miss the simplicity of picking between two awesome options and knowing I don't need to keep a couple grand aside for emergency medical expenses...

Thank you ObamaCare for pulling our subsidy because "group coverage is offered" and for not considering the fact that it's offered at full-boat cost.  The whole thing is kind of a joke for families like us who have always worked to stay covered, even if it meant I worked the overnight at Wawa or the phones for Hilton when Dave wasn't offered affordable coverage or any at all...

If any of my private sector/non-NJ friends are looking for coverage, the agent showed me
This Website
It gives a really good breakdown to understand it all...

This was one of the few times I felt completely lost about the whole stupid process...but we're getting there.


In other news, Dave had his first experience picking the kidlet up via the "Car Riders Line"...lol.  He couldn't understand why it always took me so long.  I called him 20 minutes in to check on progress (and make sure he hadn't given anyone the finger) and heard "I've just breached the outer fence...this is *&^%$# ridiculous".  Welcome to my world my love!!!

Nobody works on Fridays...oh wait

It appears to me that no one works in Tampa on Fridays.  I got to work SO quickly that I am now 45 minutes early.  Thank goodness for great break rooms with computers, TV's, couches...if only I was one of those people who could sleep anywhere...

In my short stint of traffic, jamming to some country guy playing live on the radio, I had a "This is my life" moment.  We're not wealthy by any means.  We cross our fingers each time we start a car, hoping it hangs in there.  We use coupons constantly.  We really really are starting to like it here.  Granted, I *did* have to turn on the heat this morning, but if a bit of crappy weather is the worst thing going for us, then I think we're doing alright.

3 more weeks I will be working my 4X10 shift and NOT driving to Tampa every single day.   Soon after that we may have some new adventures to work on.  It's awesome to feel like there's really good stuff just within reach. 

Phillies Spring Training

What a DAY!!!!

Today was the day...

As in the day we finally remembered we wanted to get to a Phillies practice before it was over.  It was close, we got there around Noon.  Lucky for us, they were still practicing and there were a bunch of people in Phillies garb watching.  Such a cool experience to be around people who also dig the Phillies.

Faith had her shirt and hat on and was ready to ask for an autograph.  Her first one signature was Larry Bowa!!

Larry Bowa's signature.

After that, she was ready to ask ANYONE.  We got to ask Jimmy Rollins, Ruben Amaro, and another coach guy (no disrespect...I just have no clue.).

Jimmy Rollins signing Faith's hat.

All the players were pretty cool.  Even if they weren't signing, they'd chat with the little old ladies, kids, whoever.

One particularly cool thing was Ben Revere, holding a kids hand and talking to him through the fence on a break.  I don't know if they knew each other but Ben Revere seemed to know just how to talk to the young man, while the mom signed in ASL and the boy tried to communicate with him.  He must have spent about 10 minutes with this kid, asking him "I'm trying to do a good job for you...am I doing alright out there? Are you having a good time?"  Such a sweet moment.

If you've never been to the training facility next to Brighthouse Stadium to watch the Phillies practice, you're missing out.  With four full-sized fields, meeting in the center with a clubhouse, netted bleachers, concessions and just really friendly people, it was worth the 30 minute drive.  Free parking and free entry made it an awesome affordable day!

This was the farthest they were...slide practice.

Dave was a happy guy!