Large projects in progress: [Not all art related]
+ Various gift art.
+ Short comic project with ~Tom-One.
+ Art Trade with ~MilwaukeeDriver
[No specific order.]

- So...after almost nine months in the field, I've finally run across my first 'occupational hazard'. I won't get into the thick details of the call, due to patient privacy rights, but this particular call really exemplified the disrespect and irreverence that myself and other emergency medical service personel everywhere experience every day.
To be blatently lied to by an RN, and ignored when calling for help; well, I just can't understand 'Why'. Worse yet, I'm currently on observation for possible exposure to MRSA right now becuase of all of it, and have been put on a strict medication regimine to hopefully destroy any of the existant bacteria before it colonizes.
I can count on my two hands all the times I've heard the words "Thank You"; I'm always amazed at how many cars will just keep coming while your rolling lights and sirens - and how many of them will follow your wake, you know...to get through traffic.

A lot of us don't do this job becuase the money - surely not, becuase there's no money in it. We don't do it for the excitment - excitment only exists on your first day, everything after that seems to just make you...tired. Honestly, I can't even tell you why I do it. I think it's a personal thing that everyone has to figure out; but one thing I know for certain is that doing anything else in my life is simply not an option. Maybe it's one of those 'born to do it' things. It must be - becuase I can't think of any other reason why anybody would take the same grinding degredation, day in and day out, and yet still manage to get up for work again the next day - or in the middle of the night, or in the waking hours of dawn, or whenever it is that the next call comes in.
It's unfortunate that my job allows me to constantly see the worst sides of people. Hell, I won't lie - it's convinced me that people are inately bad. That many of them just can't imagine that somebody else, some stranger, would give them everything in a heartbeat.
I see the neglected - their families leaving them for dead in nursing homes commanded by burnt-out RNs; the weakened - more inclinded to giving up and spending the remainder of their lives being turned in bed by an orderly to prevent the formation of pressure sores; the suicidal - 15 year old girls, throwing their lives away becuase their crush started dating somebody else; the dangerous - lacking any reguard for others and prepared to go to every extreme to be heard; and the suffering - lost causes plugged into unmoving machines, living wide-eyed, but with the alertness of a coma- their families too stubborn to just sign the DNR and let them sleep.

But.
At the end of the day, when that one person looks at you - a family member in the ER, a patient on the gurney, an LVN on their 23'd hour - and smiles at you and says "Thank You". Well...it's easier to think, "Gosh...maybe I just complain too much. "
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I never mean to make any these journal entries very emotional, or very insightful to my personal life; Usually I insist that the journal be used as a bulletin board to explain where I'm at - artistically - and what's to be expected in the future. Occassionally though, I feel like it's worth it to type out what's on my mind; use this as a liaison to people I don't often get the chance to talk to anymore. Sometimes it's nice to see a little bit more of the person behind the gallery.

Previews:
Started inking and colouring many of the cards. Waiting on a few on them though, since I had to order some new markers to complete them. I enjoy working digitally, but getting back to traditional art feels wonderful!
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Take care!
-R +

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