Mice hunts and Fire Calls...

---

"Jessi?? Are you awake?"

I hear my roommate Anthony whisper through my door....well yes. I am quite awake actually. Even though it's 3am.

So what do I owe this waking up to you ask? Well that would be our mouse hunt. Apparently he set the trap and the mouse ate the cheese but escaped with its life because the trap didn't set off. It was the mouse's lucky day I suppose.

See we have this problem. It's called, the house is old (as in old victorian 100 year old - old) and it's cold outside. Cold enough that if I was a mouse, I'd come into a warm house if I could too. So these things find any hole they can, which we have in abundance by our ancient heaters and they scurry about our house.

Anyways, the trap misfired and he wanted to know if I knew how to reset it. Because I apparently am the mouse expert. My roommate Cj (I have 3 in total besides myself) is somewhat of a slob. Well the dishes in the sink piled up to a mountain and had not been done in over a week. There was food stuck in the bowls, silverware stuck (literally) to the plates and it was gross. So finally I got sick of it all and decided to do dishes that were not my own (a whole other story mind you) and when I get down to the bottom, low and behold what do I find?

You got it. A dead, DROWNED mouse.

It was gross and after making each one of my roommates look at it and yell about how this is why we do dishes, I got it out of the sink and disposed of it. So this somehow makes me a mouse expert. Go figure.

But alas...the saga shall continue I am afraid, as we have a snow storm coming up tomorrow into Wednesday so I'm sure the mousekateers and their whole posse will be taking up residence in our cozy Victorian house. :P

---

Oh and to finish the post via how I titled this blog; fire calls.

Tonight was my last drill with my company which makes me inherently sad and bittersweet. I have said my goodbyes and put in my leave of absence but it's hard.

These men have been my life for the past almost 2 years now. I have learned so many things, made fun of things and got made fun of myself, drank myself stupid with some of them, and seen some pretty amazing fires and rescues.

I have proven myself to be not just another girl who plays "firefighter" or just comes in to find a husband or boyfriend. But an actual part of my company. I have risen for calls at 3, 4 or 5am only to go home and been on fires that have gone on for over 24 hours straight. I roll hose and hump high rise packs with the rest of them and LOVE every single moment of it.

Now it's time for me to move on to another place and quite literally another country. I have not resigned and will be doing firefighting in Israel but it's sad that I have to leave them to go and try to find myself again. I found a huge part of myself here in Stroudsburg Fire Department and its hard to leave that behind.

Fire is fire is fire. No matter what country you're in and I'm glad I started out as a volunteer. Because now I know what it truely means to be a firefighter. I don't do it for the paycheck, I do it day and night because I want to and care. I get the ideology behind it and I'm thankful for all that I learned and everyone I have met on this journey of mine.

Now...I get to do it Israeli style. Wish me luck.

---

Photos

tinkme
My assistant Chief Tink and I.
I love this man. :)

ladderpipe
Our ladder pipe in action.
Do you want to climb 75 feet in the air?
I DO!!

ladderpipe2
That's me up there!

davincis
They told me there was no fire on the roof I was standing on.
Hmm...yeah. Good thing the roof didn't collapse under me.

wetgear
Our water fight ended up with me soaked. The boys were certainly happy about that one...

38crew
This is my family....and Ray half naked.

mypicture
I can make a mans suit look good....sorta.
At least my hair cooperated with me that day. It's the little things.