Tonight after the gym (and me waking up at 3:50am to work the 5am-5pm shift) Earl and I caught the indie movie The Good, The Bad and The Weird. It was GREAT!!

I was expecting cheesy and juvenile humor (after all, E, lover of zombieland, picked it out ) but it was surprisingly hilarious and really enjoyable! Here’s the trailer:

In addition to great action sequences, it also had an interesting plots with lots of twists and turns. Throw in some truly hilarious moments, and it was a rollicking good time of a movie. Afterwards we noshed thai at Chai Yo and took a little late evening stroll around Nob Hill.

In other news, I was offered a second job this week! Super, super excited to be teaching skills to EMT-B students right here in San Francisco. This will be a side-gig from my main EMT job at the ambulance company. I am completely thrilled to become an instructor! Starting in a few weeks.

Weekend plans are nothing all that special. Yoga, sleeping in, laundry, brushing woofer, studying, farmer’s market and probably amble on down the hill to Bay to Breakers on Sunday. Oh- I’m gonna try and attempt this Dragonfly Stir Fry Rice which combines sausage and crab (!!!!). I’ll let ya know if it comes out as stupendous as it sounds Have a good one yourself! <3, cj

Last summer when I was job hunting for an EMT position in the Bay Area, I wrote a post about my impressions on the EMT job market and how EMS seemed to be affected by the recession from the perspective of a job hunter. This post gets frequent google hits for things like “EMT Job Market San Francisco,” “How to Get a Job as an EMT in the Bay Area,” and “How hard is it to get a job as an EMT right now?” The popularity of this post inspired me to try and help out fellow EMT students and dole out some advice on getting a job.  Keep in mind that I’ve only been working as an EMT for about seven months at a small, family-run BLS/ALS operation, and also that I am NOT a hiring manager.  Ergo, these are plainly non-expert opinions. However, I love my job and genuinely enjoy helping out EMS students, particularly those who are driven and motivated to achieve their goals and advance within the profession.

With that said, here are some thoughts and advice on how to land an EMT job:

• Research!

The first thing you’re gonna have to do is hop over to google and research.  Pull up the county EMS website for whatever counties you could feasibly work in.  If you dig deep enough on their website, it *should* have a list of every single approved ambulance provider in that county.  This will give you a great list of all the companies where you can apply.  Once you have a list of all the ambulance companies close to you, research them!  Go on their websites, ask your instructors from school and friends about them.  Job hunting, like everything else, is a numbers game.  So the more places you apply, the better your chances will be of landing a position.

• Get all your certs in order BEFORE you apply.

This is another thing that county EMS website can help you with.  They should detail what you need and how to obtain your county certs.  What you need to work as an EMT will vary from state to state, however the things I had to obtain were as follows:  DM51 medical examiner form, two livescan federal background checks (you will have to find a livescan location and go and get fingerprinted for this), ambulance driver’s license, printed out personal driver history form, County EMT Certification and NREMT certification.

Yes, you technically can apply places without all of these certs in place, and some companies (if they really like you) will wait for you to have them completed, however imo why give them a reason to put you on the bottom of the pile?  Be the organized candidate that has everything done up front.  Not the one still scrambling and waiting on things to come back before he can start.

• Create an organized “portfolio” of your materials.  Put together a separate one for each company where you plan on applying.
  

This doesn’t have to be a fancy binder, it can just be a file folder with your name printed on it.  However, it should include the following:  front and back copies of all the above mentioned certs, resume and cover letter, completed application for the specific company (generally can find this on their website), front and back of your DL, list and contact info of references, letter of recommendations (if you chose), first aid cert and possibly EMT school graduation diploma.  Have it all together in a neat and organized fashion.  It also helps to have multiple copies of everything- have a few back-up copies in case more than one person at a company requests them.

• Shake a tailfeather and go apply IN PERSON

DO NOT FAX IN ALL YOUR STUFF!! DROP IT OFF IN PERSON!!  Do you know how many faxes these places get?  How do you know anyone checks the fax machine there, anyway?  I would say a fax’d in application is an instant bottom of the pile move, *if* it makes it into the pile at all.  Yes it is a pain in the butt to go in person, but will yield exponentially greater results.  You may even land an on-the-spot interview!

When you go in person, dress professionally.  Don’t wear “EMT gear” or an outfit that you would wear for a ride along.  This isn’t a ride along, you are there to convey your interest in the firm and elevator pitch yourself about why you would be a great fit.  Dress sharp and look like a professional.

• Follow up like a maniac stalker ex boyfriend

Take however many times you think you should follow up without appearing crazy and too-gung ho, then increase it twofold.  I almost lost a job offer because I didn’t follow up enough.  When they said they would call me, I really did wait for them to call me.  I should have been calling them every week to touch base.  Sometimes these companies work excruciatingly slowly with hiring.  They understandably have LOTS going on, and even if they liked you and are planning to hire you, you can fall through the cracks.  Don’t let this happen to you!  Be polite and not harassing, but persistent and keep following up.

• Do extra Ride alongs

Ride alongs are a fantastic way to not only learn about the company and see if you would like to work there, but also develop repartee and debut your talents to their firm.  You can do “extra” ride alongs after above and beyond the ones required by your EMT program to graduate.  If you haven’t done a ride along at a company where you may be interested in working, call them and set one up yourself.  Even if you’ve already graduated, chances are your school can still help you set them up as well.  Depending on the company’s particular policy, you may have to go through your school for insurance reasons.

• Bonus: Ways to be a Good Ride Along

Bring cookies to share with the crews on duty and dispatch, be curious/ask lots of questions, have good “energy,” be genuine, act interested, interact with the patients, get in there and take the vitals, hustle to open and hold doors for the EMTs and patients, help out as much as you can with everything.  If your EMTs are trying to sleep for some of the downtime, give a pause to asking questions and let them chill out

• Network!

EMS is a surprisingly small community- one that is getting even smaller with technology and social media.  Networking can help you learn about opportunities and to begin cultivating a positive word of mouth.  Start networking in school with your classmates.  It’s invaluable to have a “crew” of fellow EMT students where you guys can trade info about how your job searches are going, what companies are hiring, what places are good to work, etc.  Help each other out!  You can also network with your EMT school instructors and administration.  Volunteer to help them as a fake patient when they’re testing out other classes.  Help set up and clean up after events.  Things like that.  Other places you can network:  Professional EMS associations in your area, county EMS organizations, volunteer in a local ER, volunteer at a local firehouse, ride alongs, and EMS 2.0 meetups.

• Send handwritten thank-you notes for EVERYTHING.
  

Send them when the people you’ve networked with hook you up with a connection or a contact.  Send them to the crew you did a ride-along with.  DEFINITELY send them after an interview.

• Take extra classes to make yourself an even better EMT
  

Show them you are dedicated to this career and serious about being a fantastic EMT!  Here are some ideas of extra classes you can take:

-any FEMA NIMs class, I suggest ICS 100, 200 and 700 to get you started. These are pretty boring but you can do them online and they are free.
- Spanish for medical professionals
- any EKG or 12 lead class
- NERT training (with some research you can probably find these offered for free)
- Public speaking (will help bolster confidence when giving a verbal report in the ER and an MD, two nurses, and an ER Tech are all staring at you)

If you follow some or all of these steps, you will hopefully find a job eventually.  EMS is a fantastic and rewarding career, and I sincerely wish all of you job-hunters the best as you take the first steps in your career trajectory.  I know how tedious and arduous the process can seem when you’re just starting off.  Stay positive, stay on top of things, and persistence should yield success.  Those of you with specific questions about working in the Bay Area are more than welcome to contact me directly.

Cheers,
Ceej

Absolutely nothing, that’s what!

I was out running con woofer this am and must have ran by a house cooking breakfast because MAN did I get a whiff of something tantalizing and bacon-y. Right then and there I altered course and Linus and I jogged over to the store, bought English Muffins and eggs, and came home and made these:

Bacon egg and cheese sandwiches might be one of my favorite foods EVER. In college I dated a guy who made these on the grill whenever we were camping or tailgating and they would come out SOOO good. The key is to use the LARGE sandwich-sized english muffins, so that way you can fit on three fried eggs. Our little corner grocery store only had regular sized english muffins, so, rather sadly, I could only fit on two fried eggs.

Still used a pound of bacon, tho

We each had an extra 1/2 of an english muffin to mop up runny yolk. Runny yolk orbits in its own realm of awesomeness.


Linus even got in on some bacon action. He had to do “manners” to get it, however!

Lucy doesn’t care for bacon or eggs (lame!) but she did find a nice spot to curl up in the sunshine.

We, erm… also had some fruit to counteract the massive pile of bacon and make a tad more healthy.

I am going to go lie on my back now and let this post-bacon aura wash over me in waves of deliciousness.

A silly photo from just now, whilst E is doing some work reading about cats online and eating a CARROT!! Yum, carrots! Didja know corgis like carrots? Didya? We sure do! look at me all lonely like down here by myself, dontcha think i could sure use a carrot?

In other news, we are having GRILLED WISCONSIN BRATWURST for dinner! Um, holy cow. I am sooo excited to make these suckers. Though, when your lover hails from the badger state, there’s a tad bit of extra pressure not to screw em up. Earl already schooled me on proper beer-soaking and fork-pricking methods. Hopefully they’ll turn out okay. Also exciting is that, per most of the recipes I found, “drinking beer whilst cooking wisconsin bratwurst is a mandatory part of the process.” Sweet! At least I’ve got that part down.

I’m making these soy-sauce sesame crusted roasted radishes as a side. Not because they particularly sound like they’ll go with grilled bratwurst, but because we have radishes on hand and I’ve been wanting to try that recipe out now for a while. I’ve seen roasted radishes mentioned a LOT lately, and people are always talking about how surprisingly awesome they turn out. Radishes get such a bad rap in the vegetable world. We’ve been roasting lots of veggies lately (asparagus, mushrooms, tomatoes…) and it’s just failproof. They ALWAYS turn out awesome. No huge shocker there that roasted radishes are good, too! Well… I guess we’ll see about that

Oh- one amusing anecdote from my day. I realized we had no crusty rolls to serve the brats on tonight, so I decided to run to the bakery and get some. I had to get a run in anyways, and the bakery was 3 miles away, so it was perfect. I just couldn’t decide if running to the bakery to get a bunch of hard rolls on which to nosh beer and brats is counter-intuitive, awesome, or stupid. What do ya think? The cool part is, I left at about 5:30, and the bakery was closing at 6:00, so it ended up being a bit of speedwork, too! (anything below 10:00 min/mile is certainly speedwork for me at this point.) Anyways, I made it and the rolls look awesome. I also bought a bit of shortbread at the bakery which I noshed mid-run before heading back home Couldn’t resist. Anyways, I kinda like this “running to get your errands done” deal.

While walking to the ER to volunteer the other week, I spied this GORGEOUS festival of “bottle cleaners.”

How stunning!!

Aren’t these trees super cool? They’re actually bushes that are cut into the shape of trees. They’re all over the Bay Area, but before we moved to the west coast, neither Earl nor I had ever seen them. We think they’re pretty neat. I don’t know the exact name for them, although I’ve heard them called both “Bottle Cleaner” and “Pipe Cleaner” plants… I’m sure you can see why.

My aunt, who lives in Pleasanton, told me those trees are really common out here, however she does NOT like them, because they “attract too many bees.” I think if we ever have a yard, I would totally get a couple of them, they’re just so cool looking! Bees, schmees… besides, isn’t there a major shortage of bees now anyways, so shouldn’t we encourage them to be buzzing around?

Of all the bottle cleaner trees I’ve seen in the city, this one in particular had the most and brightest blooms. I stood there in the sunshine and soaked in her beauty for a solid two minutes. A perfect 10! Don’t you agree?

UPDATE: A bit of google-ing and I found out the tree is called the Callistemon, and is native to Australia. I do declare, the Callistemon which I found here in the SF city streets is FAR more comely than the one in the wiki entry!

On this gorgeous and sunny California spring morning, my friend Amy and I met at the base of Mt. Diablo to do a 7 mile hike.  It was such a fun day!  Strenuous hike but not horribly so.  We gained about 2500 in elevation (where we started, at the Park Headquarters, is already about 2k up) total.  I was huffing but Amy, as you can see in the video, handled it like a champ.

I busted out my new flip video camera (I found it during spring cleaning yesterday) that I had won at my company Christmas Party last December.  Hope you enjoy my very first video creation!

ps- there is some surprise bonus footage at the end shot by Earl when he was testing out the camera

Oh yeah, Spring Cleaning Day.

We have all the windows open and the apartment smells fresh and, although lots of dust is flying around through the air,  is on the way towards getting cleaner.

Saw a couple hummingbirds on my 6mi run through GG Park this morning.  It feels like spring is here!

ps- Linus was surprisingly brave when the Dreaded Vacuum was near him today.  Impressive!

Have you seen What’s Up, Tiger Lily? If not, you should. It’s a superb Woody Allen comedy centering around the search for a secret egg salad recipe.

Today, I lived out my own version of What’s Up, Tiger Lily. You see, every time Earl and I head up north to go skiing, we eat egg salad sandwiches on the drive up. It’s a tradition stemming back from the very first ski weekend we took to Quechee, Vermont from New York City together. Earl was coming to meet what was almost my entire family- parents, sister, brother in law and two nieces all for the first time. When I picked him up on a Friday after work in the Jeep (back when she was still spiffy and not all busted) at his apartment at 98th & West End, his arms were overflowing with not only ski gear, but a bag of egg salad sandwiches and snacks for the drive.

“Egg salad?!” I scoffed, having never tried in my life, “Yuck! That’s disgusting! Who eats that?” My father had ingrained in me (I think this was some wacky holdover from the 50s) that egg salad sandwiches were “for dweebs” and “gross.” So I’d never really gave them a whirl.

“Suit yourself, more for me,” responded Earl as he dove into his. Somewhere up the Jersey pike he offered me a bite. Practically holding my nose, I tentatively ventured a nosh. “Woah! That’s pretty good,” came my response as I chewed. Luckily, my sandwich had yet to be devoured so I got to scarf it in pleasure and have been an egg salad convert ever since. We used to eat them almost every weekend during the winter, especially when we drove up north. Later when we moved together on the Upper East Side, we still would head all the way over to Lennys Bagels on the west side (99th and Broadway, to be exact) to grab some.

I even converted a few others to egg salad afterwards! Every Friday during Lent I would bring in two egg salad sandwiches to the Private Equity Firm where I worked and share one with the admin. Formerly a strictly chicken salad gal, she RAVED over them and quickly became a convert.

Once we moved to San Francisco, Earl and I spent many sad days longing for those Lennys Egg Salad sandwiches. Out here in California, they just don’t know how to make em. There’s always too much dill, or celery, drowning in mayo, or other junk. One time I even tried one with RANCH DRESSING!!! Can you believe it!?! My theory is that San Francisco (and California in general) needs more Jews. We already went through this with Matzoh ball soup- here the same problem is rearing its head.

Today, as we were packing our bags to go skiing and I was contemplating what we would eat for dinner on the drive, I reached the end of my rope. Just like I learned with matzoh ball soup, the only way to get decent egg salad out here in this stupid city is going to be to make my own. That’s IT! I’m calling Lennys!!

I called Lennys and sweet talked the manager into giving me their egg salad recipe this afternoon. My lips are sealed and I can’t post the recipe on this blog, however I will tell you that it’s deceptively simple. Idiotically simple. I’m making them right now (the eggs are cooling as I type this) and I can’t wait to see how closely my sandwiches replicate the Gold Standard. I was a little wary with bread, but went to the hippy grocery store and got the freshest, fluffiest, thickest sliced cracked wheat bread I could get my hands on.

I will end this post by saying hopefully they come out well, and that if you are ever in New York City (or happen to be there right now) to get your butt over to Lennys on the upper west side and please scarf down an egg salad sandwich in my honor.

Pretty low key night around here. A few camphone photos:

I received my new running shoes in the mail today! This is exciting because it’s the first time I’ve bought myself shoes in over two years (mandatory EMT work boots don’t count). Yay, employment! There seem to be so many “basics” that I scrimped on while unemployed that I almost have a backlog of necessary boring life items to procure. Linus was kind enough to model my new kicks. I’ve been using these Brooks Trance running sneakers for several years. Absolutely love them, tho for a while they kept redesigning them to be more and more ugly. Each year I would buy the new model and they just kept getting worse looking. Was happy to find a model online that wasn’t horrendous- check out the steezy orange! Also, I found them online for $79- and free shipping, whereas normally at the store they run $140ish. Nice.

After his modeling stint (which he clearly didn’t enjoy), Linus got a treated to a nap in the bed (which he enjoyed).

While hounds and nerds slept, I wrassled up a tuna casserole for dinner. This recipe is an oldie, originating from my Aunt’s mother. Pretty basic- tuna, egg noodles, peas, cream of mushroom soup, and some milk. I added celery, mushrooms, a little lemon thyme and two diced hardboiled eggs… stemming off my my (#1FAVORITE MEAL OF ALL TIME) mother’s chicken casserole recipe. The top is a mixture of crushed potato chips and cheese. Not the healthiest meal in the world, but certainly scrumptious comfort food at its finest!

Lucy enjoyed staking out the shoebox as her new snooze spot, with added bonus of being the first to crinkle the sneaker-wrapping paper.

All in all, nothing big to report. I’m working the 6am-6pm shift tomorrow with a really cool partner. I’ve been enjoying the 6-6 shift- you don’t have to get up *too* early (set my alarm for 4:45am, which seems a heck of a lot easier to stomach than 3:45am for the 5-5… must be psychological), but you still get off in time to do stuff at night (gym!). We’ve been having some crazy interesting calls as of late. My Monday shift seemed to be a magnet for cranky patients. Everyone we transported was in a really bad mood!

Other goings ons: taking the Corvette back on Thursday and as a thank-you present to my uncle for letting us borrow it I am taking him out to dinner (Dennys! the man likes what he likes) and a movie of his choice. Apparently he *loves* to go to the movies, although my aunt hates going, so he has no one to go with. Hmm… that is a familiar situation We had lots of fun driving the ‘vette this weekend- we took it up Highway 1 and along the coast to Stinson Beach. It was surprising how many people will pull over on a windy road and let a corvette pass! My uncle did give me specific instructions to “drive it like a Corvette is meant to be driven” and we took him up on it. Earl’s head hit the ceiling when he was driving which was mildly amusing for me. Apparently 6’4 people aren’t meant for Corvettes. The Jeep is back from the shop but will be going right back in a few weeks when our budget is ready to dole out for the next round of slated repairs. Blegh.

*yawn* Well I am off to read, write in my journal, and pass out. Horray for not doing the dishes. Corgi BART and Corvette pics to come
Yours in casserole fandom,
C

In an effort to kick my butt back into shape, at the advice of a wise man on TGR, I am attempting to hike or run at least one peak or park every single week. The additional benefit of this exercise is that it has me learning about and discovering a plethora of cool places here in the San Francisco bay area (and eventually, beyond!), and of course getting my dog out for some fun and exercise in the woods. Yes. *ahem* Because… as you know, the dog allowed himself to get really fat and out of shape over the past year. The dog was a little more concerned with his career change than working out and the dog didn’t use his period of unemployment as well as he could have to exercise during his free time and stay healthy. Well, good for the dog (now), because now that the dog has a stable job that not only pays the bills but that he really loves, the dog is finally motivated to get back at it, utilize his time outside of work wisely, and to get healthy again. Yay, dog.

In a “getting out of a rut” workout advice thread someone posted over on TGR, one of our members suggested to hike a new peak every single week. This struck me as a BRILLIANT idea, and I have adopted as a goal moving forward. I plan to either hike or run these peaks and report about them here with photos and write up once I return. As often as possible, I will try to bring a friend along for company and conversation, and of course bring ze woof!

Here is my first “Peak a Week” Report, which was the towering Mount Sutro in San Francisco, a staggering 908 feet. Linus and I hiked Mt. Sutro with our friend Andrea, who is here from Germany. Andrea’s husband, Matthias, is Earl’s former coworker. Andrea is sorting through some visa/work study/internship issues right now from her German university, and until that comes through she is generally free in the days, which works out wonderfully with my oddball EMT schedule. It makes her the perfect hiking partner for a Tuesday morning hike!

Linus and I walked over to the UCSF area where Andrea and Matthias live. Mt. Sutro is located right behind UCSF. Despite having lived there for a few months and having been avid hikers in Germany (this couple has hiked all over the alps!) neither Andrea or Mattius have explored Mt. Sutro yet. Perfect!

We walked up Willard Ave and followed this beautiful staircase to the trailhead. San Francisco is filled with gorgeous staircases, which I am discovering and attempting to document here. This one off of Willard was covered in green moss and particularly enchanting.

The view from the staircase was sweeping. You can see downtown all the way to SOMA.

Once on the trail, it went up and up. Not at too steep a pace- this would be the perfect place to come for a woodland jog.

Looping through Eucalyptus groves. I’ve heard that Mount Sutro is so infrequently used because most citizens of San Francisco think it belongs to UCSF and is off limits. That’s unfortunate, because it’s such a peaceful, serene escape. Then again, the less people who use these trails the better condition they’re in and the more isolated they feel. We didn’t pass a single person on our hike through this little forest.

At the top, there was a little meadow. The meadow was underwhelming- you could say our summit was anticlimactic.

The meadow was mostly filled with dead plants- must be a lot nicer in the spring when everything is in bloom. Plus, there really was no view to be had because it was all blocked by trees. Linus had a good time, though!

Andrea smiling on the way down. I asked her if San Francisco’s “Mount Sutro” compared to anything she’d hiked in the Alps. She laughed.

We came across this little glen with a shrine inside.

It was pretty faded, so you couldn’t really read it, but appears to be an old Native American of some sort.

Look at all the green! These green vines completely filled this valley. Looking at this photo, can you believe you are in the middle of a city?

And back down! If you look to Linus’ left, you can see the wine barrel signpost. Wine barrel furniture adaptations are HUGE trend in this city. I’ve seen about a dozen just in our neighborhood. Sort of bourgeois chic.

Final view from the staircase. It turned into a very grey day! Our skyscape is so dull due to the overcast. Still, not a bad little urban hike and nice catching up with a friend. We capped of our day with some coffees and salads at Boulange de Cole. It was chilly and almost rainy by the afternoon so we had an enjoyable time parking ourselves in a cozy booth to warm up.

Coming up: Amy and I tackle Mount Tam, Linus and I at Skyline Ridge, Edgewood Park and then beyond. I found a few Bay Area hiking websites (this one and this one in particular are great resources; I’m sure there is some overlap, however between the two of them there are almost 500 hikes!). If I do a peak a week, I should be done exploring all the hiking around here in about 9 years. Shesh.