Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Would You Recognize Me If I Did This?


Tonight I had my CPR/First Aid re-training.

It's one of the routine things I have to do to keep my Certified Family Home.

Only this year, by a stroke of luck, it was held at my husband's former place of employ.

I wasn't worried when the instructor described The Place, because #1 I knew how to get there, and #2 I assumed that the owners would not be there after hours.

#1 turned out to be true, but as for #2?

False, false, false.

So infinitely false.

The kind of false where the owner's dog came in and licked my toes for two minutes.

(it also licked one of the CPR dummies - I made a special note not to use that one)

The kind of false where the owner herself came in a couple times, forcing me to employ stealth mode.

(which is just a mode I have where I turn my head slightly so that my face is obscured by my hair. it's complicated. don't try it at home)

The kind of false that had my heart pumping and my mind racing with unchristian thoughts during the entire drive home. That is, after I spent the first three minutes wondering if my car was rigged to explode at any second. Because I couldn't rule that out completely.

And that's when I decided that judging people isn't all bad.

I mean, it's a defense mechanism. One we are all born with. One that we (I) use far too often, even when not faced with danger, but a defense mechanism just the same.

And sometimes, especially when a person has proved time and again to be a horrible human being, judging them is the only way to ensure the safety of the things you have worked so hard to obtain.

Sanity, family, self-respect, a professional license. For example.

I guess what I am saying is that if you are ever on the side of the road, bleeding to death and unresponsive, I will have the training necessary to save you, but instead I will probably pass out.

Is that what I'm saying?

Sure.




3 comments:

Mardee Rae said...

hmmm, you look like Rindee in this picture, so I'd say stealth mode works. For you. I hope they don't know Rindee, though.

Anonymous said...

I have always wondered what I would do if I ever needed to do cpr. Since my cpr/first aid has expried do I just yell for help? "Help! This man needs cpr/first aid and my certification has expired!"

Michelle

Sharlee said...

I could barely recognize you. I was like, "Who IS that behind that curly brown hair?!" So, what you're saying is that you successfully avoided recognition? Phwew!