Merry (???) Christmas

This is a tale of a girl, who thought that she might be able to get back into the good graces of her family. You see this girl is quite unlike the rest of her family. This girl graduated high school, went to college, and now works in a very respectable profession helping people. She married her best friend and they live happily with thier kittens. What is so wrong with this girl, you say? That is a question that this girl is still trying to figure out for herself.
*Author's note - the above preface should be read with sarcasm.*
So much to say about Christmas, but lets get to it. I had to work Christmas Eve, which sucks hugely because I got to wake up Christmas morning with 3 strangers instead of my husband. Billy had to work Christmas Eve also, so I knew by the time I got home he would be nestled all snug in the bed with visions of sugar plums dancing in his head. I have been so on edge the last week or two because my sister wanted to have the "family" over at my mom's house (read - dragon's lair, enemy territory, etc) for Christmas brunch. Since I am eternally willing to do whatever to make other people happy without paying so much as an iota of thought to what might make me happy, I agreed to come over and bring a breakfast casserole.
So, I am driving home, thinking all the while, that I'm not so sure that going to my mother's is the greatest idea. I call my sister and voice this concern to her (after wishing her a Merry Christmas) and she cops an attitude with me and asks if she should stop and get eggs herself. (Remember, I was supposed to bring a breakfast casserole.) Well, I was so shocked by her response and obvious disregard for how I might be feeling.
*History note - I still haven't spoken with my mother since I got married 3 and a half months ago. I did send a birthday gift to my mother through my sister on the 23rd, and got no response.*
So, I go home, but I'm not really sure what to do at this point. I really want to celebrate Christmas with Billy, but I know that he has only been asleep for about 2 hours and I really also want him to go with me to my mom's so I don't have to go alone. I let him sleep while I watch TV and bake the damn casserole. I wake him up around 10 (so he's had 4 hours of sleep) and beg him to come with me to my mom's. We load up the following - the freaking casserole, 3 presents for Nicky, 2 presents for Jaela, 1 present for my brother, 2 for my sister and 2 for my mom.
Nicky and Jaela got toys from Aunt Sissy and Uncle Billy. My brother wanted a bikini top for his jeep, and for my sister - I paid for her entry into the Disney Princess Half Marathon, I also got her a jewelry box and a white gardenia candle. My mom recently purchased for herself a camera and wanted a tripod for it. That is what I got for her as well as a rechargeable battery charger with 4 batteries.
Well, we walk into the house and it's like nobody even cared that we were there! We are standing in the middle of the living room which looks like a hurricane hit it. My arms are full of gifts and Billy is holding the G.D. casserole and no one is making any attempt to help us. Finally, I am able to drop the kids gifts on the floor in front of them and Billy makes his way past the mess to the kitchen to put the hot casserole down.
Still, no one has really said anything to us, they are busy doing their own thing, which I might add is playing with the gifts they have already opened, and eating breakfast. Which, I guess they couldn't wait for us to get there to start.
I think at this point is when I started to feel physically ill. My sister hands Billy and me a couple of unwrapped shirt boxes that contain - you guessed it - shirts. Mine were identical except for the color, short sleeve with a layered cami from Wal-mart. Billy got shirt with a funny saying on it and an UnderArmor shirt for work. My sister then points out to me a wrapped package sitting on the shelf next to me and says, "That's for you too." The package is wrapped in gold foil paper and in my mother's handwriting across the front - Kristi. Sitting underneath the package is an unwrapped pack of ladies bikini underwear, but those weren't labeled so I wasn't sure if they were meant for me or not, but since I do not need underwear, I decide that they are not for me. I unwrap the package and it is ---------------
A. Pair. Of. Pink. House. Shoes.
But not only, a pair of pink house shoes, they are SIZE 11!!! I do not wear a size 11, more like an 8 1/2. As my family graciously opens the gifts that they wanted, the gifts that they told me they would like to have. I stare in disbelief at the pair of too big house shoes and wonder if these were really meant for someone else.
I cannot even express to you how hurt my feelings were.
I looked at Billy and asked him if he was ready to go. He says yes and we get the hell out of there. We head home to celebrate our own Christmas, which is difficult because what should be a happy and joyous day is now going to be forever engrained in my heart as a sad day, that my family made me feel like I wasn't part of them. As I lie in my husbands lap in front of our beautifully decorated tree bawling my eyes out at how inconsiderate my family is he strokes my hair and tells me that he is just so happy to have me at Christmas. I can't even imagine how he is feeling, knowing that my family has made me hurt so badly. I love him so much, and am so happy that he is my husband, my best friend, my family. I cannot consider "those" people, my family. I have done nothing to earn the hurt that they heap upon my heart. I have tried to do every thing in my physical and emotional power to make them love me and all it does it come back to hurt.
When people ask me if I had a good Christmas, I lie. I tell them that it was wonderful, time well spent with family. LIES, ALL LIES!!!
I hate Christmas. Next year, Billy and I are going somewhere far away, with no family and we are going to enjoy ourselves, which is what we should have done in the first place.

Live Fire Training with the FOOLS

So, while most people are spending the Saturday before Christmas doing last minute shopping and baking their holiday treats, a select group of individuals is training as thier lives depend on it.

I should give you some background - The Fraternal Order of Leatherheads Society (F.O.O.L.S.)is a social/training group made up of guys and girls that simply put love firefighting and training. A few months ago, I recieved a phone call from one of my lieutenants at work that they were putting together a local chapter of FOOLS and they invited me to become one of the charter members. This was a huge honor for me for two reasons - 1) I haven't really been a firefighter for very long (4 years) and some of these guys have 2, 3 even 4 times as much time in as me, and 2) turns out, I'm the only female that was invited.

Back to today, I headed down to Ocala to the Florida State Fire College for live fire training. There were about 20 guys out there, 6 instructors and 14 firefighters. We started the day out with a quick walk through of the Konex box that we were going to be training in. The Konex box is pretty much a tractor trailer without the wheels on it. One corner of the box is where the fire is. It looks like a huge fireplace and there are about a hundred pallets stacked out back that they use to stoke the fire.

Our first evolution was to go in as groups of 4 - 2 two man teams - each on a different hose line. One hose line had a fog nozzle, which is similar to what you might have on your garden hose, only on a much larger scale. The other line had a smooth bore nozzle, which has a hole smaller than the end of the hose and it compresses the water as it leaves the orifice, thus making it faster and go farther. Both of these nozzles are used in fire fighting, but there is a huge debate about which one is better and we got the chance to see for ourselves what each line could do. I could go into a huge discussion about thermal layering and such, but I won't bore you. I would have to vote for the smooth bore nozzle.

We got to take in Thermal Imaging Cameras (TICs) to the hot box with us. When that fire was cooking and before we started messing up the thermal layering with water it was 600 degrees in the box with us!!!! It was HOT! It was cool to see how the layers of smoke and gases bank down from the ceiling and what they look like as they get heated up.

Our second scenario had two of us going in, find a victim, call for the rescue team and then head to the fire to put it out. I was on the rescue team first and me and Jeff got the guy out pretty quick. I fumbled with my rescue rope for a second or two, but that is why we train. Then we switched and we got to go on the hose line and the other two executed the rescue.

After lunch our last scenario involved breaching a wall and doing a "low profile" crawl. If you can imagine studs in the wall of your home are usually 16" apart. There are times when we might have to bust the wall to get out. Well, we have to fit ourselves, and possible victims, through that 16" clearance. The way to do that with all of your gear, including your air pack, is to sit with your back to the wall and let the air pack go through the hole, then move your arms like you are doing the backstroke through the hole, then you just slide right through.

We had a crew on the hose line and my crew went in, cleared the wall, rescued the victim and got out of the building, clearing ourselves and the victim through the wall in record time. If, I had to guess I would say less than 45 seconds from the time we went in until the time we were all out. It was AWESOME!

The final evolution was the hottest. Eight firefighters, plus two instructors, two hoselines and TICs went into the fire room and hung out while it got HOT in there. We had two lines of people and we rotated on the nozzle. I have to say, it was probably the hottest I have ever been in. We were just hanging out in there and the outside command came over the radio and said, "Interior ops, everything OK?" We all laughed and the instructor answered back, "We're just hanging out."

You could feel the heat literally cooking your. My hands were burning and tingling. The air in my pack was cool, when I first went in, but the longer I stayed in, the warmer it became. Right before I left the structure, the air going into my lungs was certainly hot. I kept thinking, this is hotter than my oven when I'm baking a cake!! After a while, I had to get out, my hands and knees were on FIRE! (Not literally, of course)

All in all, the day was a valuable learning tool for how and what decisions to make when faced with fire. I had a great time and I can't wait to do it again.

We are the (SEC) Champions, my friend!

Who rocks the house?
I say, the GATORS rock the house!
And when the GATORS rock the house,
they rock it ALL THE WAY DOWN!!

Unfortunately, I had to watch the game at work tonight. Actually, I guess getting paid to watch football isn't too bad, but I have a better time at home where I can get all crazy and scream at the TV. I did a lot of screaming at the TV for this game. It was way too close for comfort and for the first time since losing to Ole Miss my Gators actually trailed in the score. A couple of times. In the end though, the Crimson Tide couldn't handle the Gators and the final was 31-20.

So, while all of Gainesville, and probably Atlanta, are going crazy, running in the streets and hootin' and hollerin', I'll just be hanging out here in the 'berry with my boys.

Go Gators!
K.