Friday, November 02, 2001

I learned two things on the ambulance yesterday. 1. Attitude is everything, except when dealing with the mentally ill. 2. I may not be as tolerant to the entire confused gender population as I thought. I’ll start with number one. (Seems logical but it’s not always how I work) As we dropped a pleasant woman off at the nut hut for a little rest, we encountered an elderly man whose answer to every third question or bit of conversation was, “go to hell!” While I’m fully convinced that if such a place exists I’ll be in charge of my own division, there was no need to wish eternal damnation on my partner. I tried my best charm but in the end, I had to tell him I’d se him there. Some people just refuse to climb aboard the manners train. My next bumble of the day came when I referred to the obvious male nurse as "he". I had no idea that when you pluck your eyebrows, wear a tasteful amount of makeup, have better nails than a bride on her wedding day, but are still by all other appearances a man that its time to start dancing around pronouns. I think it would have been worse to say, “It is going to grab her feet as we slide her over.” I need to take a class on dealing with gender issues. One other thought. If these people freak me out imagine what a squad of gender indifferent peace keepers would do over in Afghanistan. No beards, no veils, no plumbing, oh my. 12:00:00 AM    says you