Picture it, the Huron room, September 12, 2005.....

Several of the managers, including myself, are gathered around the conference table awaiting CPR recerts. Now, since I was gone from work for the past 3 days, I had absolutely no idea I would be doing this today. I'm horrified. Each of us is handed our own mouth piece to the dummy and we pair up for partner CPR. Ugh, I get Ed. The military guy, everything has to be absolutely perfect. There is just nothing like kneeling on the floor hovering above a CPR dummy with someone pacing back and forth monitoring your every move. (That would be the instructor pacing back and forth.) I begin with the chest compressions, Ed takes the breaths. At this point, I realize, I have on lipgloss. When I go to do the breaths, I'm going to leave lip gloss all over this mouth piece. I'm so intently thinking about this, I forget to start counting as I do the compressions. Of course Ed says "Count", and I start over, this time actually paying attention to what I'm doing.

After we finish the 4 compression cycles, it is now my turn to do the breaths. I hate this part most. Breathing into a plastic dummy just somehow seems so wrong to me. But, you'll be happy to know, I got a 100% on the written test, and passed the hands on. So, if ever someone happens to collapse, choke, stop breathing, or lose their pulse, I am still certified in CPR.

Next step:

Blood borne pathogens and First Aid. Which, I need to be leaving right now because the class is starting in 2 minutes.