New year, new stuff

Over the past 6 years I've had the opportunity to really enjoy New Years Eve with some good people. My friends Heather and Lincoln always have an excellent laid back new years party with a bonfire in the back yard, good people, good food and good drink. They also have two kids in elementary school that are both just a couple different kinds of awesome.

The bonfire consists  mainly of everyone bringing their Christmas trees and whatever brush/wood/tree stumps Lincoln wants to burn off. In times past the fire would be lit at midnight in a somewhat questionable way (will he blow himself up this year?). This year the fire was started early in the evening and kept going til after midnight. At midnight everyone was handed a very large sparkler. We all lit ours in the fire at the same time, a couple minutes after midnight. Good times.

I'm incredibly thankful for this party every year. In the past it was always a toss up of having a good time on new years. There was the time I had a get-together at my place that was ruined by one of my friends dumping their long time girlfriend that night (actually that happened a couple times). Then there was the new years where my roommate and I spent new years watching movies with a couple that had broken up months before and were still living together, but my roommate was intimately involved with the lady in that couple equation, and ex-boyfriend/roommate of said lady had no idea, and they were both trying to get her to abstain from the alcohol. All the while, she kept trying to talk me into sneaking out with her to go to the bars.That sucked, but I digress...

So the new year brings a couple new things. First off, I'm going to start doing a couple per diem shifts a month for 45th Parallel EMS up in Colebrook. I'd been looking to do some part time Paramedic stuff to expand my horizons and such, so this will give me some more experience, and a chance to work in a different environment than the incredibly comfortable one I have working for Berlin EMS. Colebrook has a very small hospital with limited resources and paramedics are a nice pre-hospital resource to have that far up north. 45th Parallel EMS is a non profit organization that provides a full time staff/coverage for nearly a dozen towns in a large area with a total population of around 7k. Looking forward to it, can make some extra coin while gaining more rural EMS experience.

With that said, I just have to check off a thing or two for my January schedule, then I'm going to call a former fellow student from the School of the Silent Warrior to see if he and I could work out together on occasion. He's a 5th degree black belt who was always very knowledgeable, and a tough guy to spar/grapple with. I'd spoken to his wife recently, and she told me he's had the same affliction of the past year that I've had in missing the dojo and the regular training that went with it.

Have not heard from my former instructor since his last blog proclaiming a soon to be return teaching a few months ago. My hope is that with the new year he hopes to teach again. Here's hoping...