Sunday, September 25, 2005

Team Armageddon

I'm now an official Civil Defense Volunteer. We had our orientation yesterday. Six months probation, and then I'll get my ID, uniform, and permission to put flashing lights on my car. I really like that last part. Too bad the lights can only be amber or red - my van will look more like a tow truck than anything macho and exciting - but I'll take what I can get. I'm not sure how much action District 1 gets beyond flooding, but I guess I'll find out.

Spent the rest of the afternoon with the training for the newest Community Emergency Response Tea, and I got to unleash my inner superstar. There were six trainees, and we gave them a nice and difficult afternoon. For the first scenario I was an "unruly disturbance" - a surfer with a head injury and a dead friend - basically I wandered around the dark building trying to get them to pay attention to Me! Me! Me! In the second I was corpse number one - shot in the back by terrorists. In the third I was an autistic boy who wanted donuts and refused to let any male touch me. Three of us [autistic me, a "mentally challenged" adult, and our injured doctor] tried to throw a group tantrum, but we scared off the rescue team and were then split up.

The trainers wouldn't let us do the scenario where zombies attack the CERT rescuers. They pretty much ignored us whenever someone brought the idea up.

And few of my friends sees the humor of our CERT being "Team Armageddon." Gay men don't do gallows humor very well.

Made the final reservations for Turkish pensions, updated the links ... six more days and I'm outta here!

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