Firegirl Follies: Torched...

I'm sure I drew your attention, by the title of this post. A nifty fire story perhaps? Not so... not yet anyhow. This is a story (another one) of embarassment. Hence, the follies. I'm sure most of you remember the beloved 2002 Winter Olympics here, in Salt Lake City. I remember them fondly, but not in a nostalgic, warm fuzzy. More like a cheek-flushing red kind of warmth. 'Tis yet another folly, of karma. Our ambulance was to be stationed at certain places along the torch route, as different people ran it through the city. Our first stop, was by the hospital, where none other than Donny Osmond himself was running past.

We sat there, freezing, and waiting, freezing and waiting. Finally, a flicker or a spark if you will, of what I thought was the torch. YES! I might be done here soon! No, it was a flicker and a spark from Donny's white teeth and rock hard shine spray in the coiffed hair. Still, he carried the torch. Flashes flickered from all angles as all the ladies in Utah County squeeled and photographed him running past. I looked at my partner and giggled, raised a pointer finger into small circles above my head, and rolled my eyes whilst screaming "WHOOOOPEEEE!" No offense, to you Donny fans out there. Our next job was to take the back roads and station ourselves at another stop, where the torch was lit in the city, and then continued on into another. We made it there to a HUGE crowd. There was a band, speakers, the whole thing as a big celebration of the torch lighting. The other ambulance, got a call into the city. We stayed at our post. Of course, someone all excited and flustered from the celebration, collapsed. We ran to the patient, and started care. We found out, this patient had a heart condition, to which we take very seriously. We loaded the patient up and I was the designated driver for the day. The only route out, was the motorcade behind the torch runner. That was the route I chose since all other roads were blocked with the run and parties and such. I turned on my lights, and followed the procession. I started flipping the siren here and there, as a little "woot woot" to alert the motorcade that I needed to get past, or through. Of course, they think I'm part of it, so I flip the sirens on more. Ifinnlay move out and around it and flip my siren annoyingly, to get through. I look to my right, and through all the mayhem, didn;t notice until now, that the torch runner, was right beside me.

Here she is running along, and her backdrop is an annoying lit up ambulance that looks like a 12 year old hijacked it. I stopped and my cheeks were immediately hot. A motorcycle cop finally noticed once running along side the torch chick, that I was needing to get this poor patient going. He rode up and asked where I needed to go. I told him, and pointed to a road on the opposite side that would get me out of the torch mess. So, what does he do? He stops the torch procession, and lets me cut over. I ducked as I drove through it, hoping not to be noticed. By the time I made it back to the station after that, I was known as "woot woot."