whenever there's trouble, we're there on the double

27. Get CPR certified.

I started First Responder training last week.  "CPR training" has been on my to-do list for a long time anyway.  This is a lot more intensive than that, so of course I jumped at the chance when I learned they had classes in our area.

The instructor is a gregarious and rambly local EMT and firefighter.  He's a nice guy but it remains to be seen how effective the instruction is -- several times the class has gone off on a long digression to cover another hysterical story about a greenstick fracture or meth overdose he covered once.  Which I don't mind hearing about, as long as I feel like it prepares me to take care of a terrified car wreck victim some day, which I'm not sure it will.  But hey, we'll see.

Possibly the most disturbing thing I've learned tonight is that paramedics consider rotten.com a great source of photographs for teaching aids.  (Not entirely surprising, but disturbing nonetheless.  And I'm deliberately not giving you a link there -- if you don't know what it is, then you probably don't want to see it.)

signs point to "wtf"?

1. Take a photography class.

I'm trying, I'm trying real hard, I really am.

mzrowan announced that she'd signed up for a photography class this fall.  I was so surprised that the class actually fit into my schedule these two months that before I knew it, I had signed up for it too.  Bonus!

I was even more surprised when she discovered, almost by accident, that we have homework before the class even begins.  Wow.  Okay.  Well, glad she noticed so that we could be prepared!

Then we got email from the instructor yesterday.  He just discovered that he has a scheduling conflict on Thursdays and cannot teach on that day after all.  We should all write to him in the next 24 hours and let him know which days we cannot make class, so he can find one that works for the most people.

Not so cool, but okay.  Mistakes happen, right?  I email him my limitations.

Voicemail this morning.  Apparently he didn't get my email.  Class has been rescheduled for Tuesdays, starting on the 22nd.  I am committed on Tuesday, September 22nd for First Responder training.

Now, I think I could actually safely miss this first responder class -- there's a make-up session scheduled in October, and so far classes have really been kind of information-light anyway.  But I'm already so cranky that I really don't want to bend on principle.

Other warning signs: his mail with directions to the class session say, please don't arrive too early, because the studio is too small for "hanging-out" space, and also that he expects to start the first class precisely on time, so please be punctual.  Dude!  It's a little much to ask people to be punctual but also not to arrive too early!

Here's the topper, for me.  We're supposed to get our books before the first class starts, and (I think) even have completed the first reading assignment.  But the course syllabus doesn't even appear to list the titles of the books we're supposed to have!

I have sent him email that I think is reasonably polite but firm: is there a possibility of a make-up session for the September 22 class?  And can you please clarify which books we are supposed to get and what we should have completed before the first session?

I really don't want to give up on this, and there's a part of me that's hoping that his apparently total logistical flakiness is because he's a really brilliant guy and a fantastic instructor.  But the rest of me keeps asking, "Say WHAT now?"