Mini-Meet…

I trundled up to Baltimore yesterday afternoon, in DC traffic (1 hour to go 16 miles), to meet up with AD, TOTW, and Epi at the EMS conference…

Did I mention I HATE DC traffic???

I actually found a parking place less than a mile walk to the bar even! Of course one of the ‘courteous’ Baltimore drivers tried to dive into it as I started backing up, but the law of gross tonnage won 🙂 After suitable honking and hand gestures that fine lady decided to look elsewhere…

Did I mention I HATE DC and BALTIMORE traffic???

Anyhoo, paid the King’s ransom to park and walked over to the bar- And there was AD, holding court as usual 🙂 Since it was early, and the beer had just started flowing, it was pretty quiet by our ‘standards’…

TOTW and I retired to the outdoors to indulge our bad habits and catch up on happenings since the last time we saw each other and commiserate on the condition of Lou, who literally IS a legend in EMS, one of the original medics and later paramedics at Baltimore Shock Trauma. TOTW and I discussed how to get somebody to sit down with Lou and capture an oral history from him, since he was there at the start of it all. Lou is not well, and his health is declining, please keep him in your thoughts and prayers…

Meanwhile, AD and the crowd had moved to a bigger table, and the beer was starting to flow, so we wandered back in. Since the crowd was all EMS folks, I truly felt like a third wheel, but I enjoyed watching the show, and yes Farm Girl, I did pass along your greeting 🙂

As we were ordering food, a BIG ol’ boy(as we say down South), not quiet as big as Matt, but close showed up at the table, staring intently at AD for three or four minutes. He had heard AD give a lecture on something a couple of years ago and was STILL impressed by it!!! He joined us and things got merrier as the beer continued to flow.

Turns out this ol’ boy is a paramedic at Lennox Hill Hospital in NYC; and in his off time he’s a club bouncer in NYC. I asked him if he’d ever had to fix somebody up AFTER he pounded them down, and he said only a couple of times, then he casually mentioned he’d been shot THREE times bouncing! One time SIX shots in the back!!! He said thankfully he was wearing a vest when that happened! I asked him if he ever wore his vest while working for Lennox, and he just grinned and said, “No comment”.

Bottom line, that Gentleman TRULY works the mean streets, and has for 18 years… More power to him!

Epi popped in, saying she was upstairs with another group of EMS bloggers, and complained they were all younger than her and the booze and Jello shots were starting; so we started kidding her about being ‘mama’ and by coming down to OUR table, she immediately became the youngest person there…

Epi seemed much happier than last year, and did say that even with all the issues of paramedic school life is MUCH better! That’s great to hear, as she is truly one of the good (AND Nice) ones…

Meanwhile, the beer and food continued to flow, and AD continued to hold court, while TOTW and I just watched and shook our heads… He is really something when he gets on a roll, as he was last night! 🙂

I had to bolt early, as I had stuff to do this morning, and as I left I heard AD say to the waitress, “Oh, we’re gonna be HERE a while darling, just hang on to that check for me”… TOTW just rolled his eyes, and told me they had a hour drive to get to where they were staying, so there is no telling what time they got home…

So I trot my happy ass back out to my truck, to find that somebody had keyed my driver’s side door from top to bottom (I wonder if the bitch that lost ‘her’ parking space to me came back?). Then the fun began as I started trying to get OUT of the parking space, since new people had left me about ONE foot in front and in back!!!

After backing and filling ‘forever’ I finally got out, and back on the road home…

Did I mention that I HATE DC and BALTIMORE traffic???

54 miles and TWO hours later I finally get home (and this was WELL after ‘rush hour’)…

Did I mention I HATE DC and BALTIMORE traffic???

But it was definitely worth it, good times with good friends is ALWAYS worth the effort!!!

Comments

Mini-Meet… — 10 Comments

  1. Old NFO was driving around D.C. looking for a parking space and, becoming more frustrated by the minute, he prayed, “Lord, find me a parking space and I will give up skewering Obama and pissing off liberals.” Suddenly, he spotted a parking place. “Never mind, Lord”, he said, “I found one”.

  2. Don’t you just hate the traffic and the terrorist with keys? But thanks for the description of AD holding court.

  3. Nice to see you again. Let’s try to make the intervals shorter. The big dude was incredibly interesting. I missed the back story about how he ended up getting shot. That will teach me to go to the men’s room at critical junctures in the narrative.

    I wish I knew how to get in touch with him, as he’s an AD fan, but doesn’t seem much interested in blogging. Which is the world’s loss.

    On the Lou front, I managed to introduce him to a long time friend of mine. In fact, he was one of my paramedic school instructors, which should give you an idea how old HE is. The short story is that they hit it off immediately and my friend is going to work on the EMS Museum project with Lou. Score one (a large one) for me.

    Thanks for the regards from Farm Girl. I love her blog.

  4. These days, EMS is SILLY if they don’t wear vests. Some of the guys in my area do, some don’t.

    How about in your neck of the woods? Do EMS responders wear vests?

    BZ

  5. I live in Baltimore and I HATE Baltimore and DC traffic too. Sounds like a great time, sorry I missed it but I didn’t want to get you all sick.