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Thursday, September 28, 2006

Butterflies and swooning.

I happened to be standing in one spot outside for more than a few minutes yesterday - a rare occurrence indeed - which afforded me the opportunity to observe a butterfly flitter past. It was orange and black, and I recognized it as probably a Monarch.
Then I noticed another of the same species and marveled at how pretty the little things were with their decorated wings and gracefully erratic flight patterns.
Then I noticed another.
And another.
Within the span of about 30 minutes, I counted dozens of butterflies! All were flying in a general southwesterly direction (though not in a straight line) and most were paired up with another butterfly, or two, or three.
Apparently my house lies directly under the Monarch Butterflies' autumn migration path. I get to see them as they pass by on their long flight to Mexico. How cool is that? :)

On a more startling and less soul-gratifying note...

A girl fainted on me yesterday. I was sitting in an aisle seat to watch a speaker on whom I have been assigned to write an article for a class. The school's theater was packed well beyond fire code and those unable to find seats stood against the walls.
In the military, soldiers are cautioned not to lock their knees when standing for long periods of time or risk fainting. I never quite understood how that worked.
Apparently, she hadn't gotten the memo. I'm not sure if it was the locked knee thing, but I'd be willing to bet it was at least a contributing factor.
There I was, intently trying to capture full quotes with my pen and paper, when - Wham! - she fell onto my lap and slid down to the floor like a dispatched Redwood.
I must admit, my very first thought was, "Hey! Get off me!" but that soon turned to, "Oh, okay, I think I they covered this in that First Aid course I took last year."
"Are you okay? Are you okay?" I touched her shoulder and spoke loudly like they taught us. Three hundred people or so looked on and someone shouted they were calling 911. The speaker stopped talking amid the chaos that surrounded me and the unconscious girl.
I couldn't tell, but it looked like she may have suffered a slight seizure for 3 or 4 seconds. When she came to, I helped her to sit up. There was a throng of people at hand ready to assist, so I relegated myself to simply pulling her long hair away from her face and standing by.
And here is where I've been influenced by tacky journalism: As the girl recovered, I asked her her name. Partly I was helping to ascertain her awareness and mental status, but also partly I was making a note for inclusion in my article.
Water and orange juice were brought to the girl as she sat, waiting for authorities and apologizing for causing a ruckus. The speaker attempted to get back on course, but realized that it was futile and, citing awkwardness, ended the talk early.
So surreal. Really.
posted by hilary at 9:09 AM |

5 Comments:

Blogger Kristine said...

Wow! On both the girl fainting thing AND the butterflies!

9/29/2006 4:45 PM  
Anonymous hilary-dilary-dock said...

I love watching butterflys!

Also, I sorta had the same thing happen to me, except it wasn't a girl fainting into my lap. It was an older lady and she fainted in the parking lot of Big Lots. She was bleeding badly from the back of her head and, the sad thing was I didn't want to touch her out of fear I may catch soemthing from her blood! I did get someone from the store to bring me some paper towels and got the lady to hold it on her head. She couldn't remember her name. However, I kept asking her every so often what her name was. Then after she remembered, I asked her if there was anyone I could call (I had already called 911 after she couldn't remember her name and discovering the huge gash on her head). She said she knew she had a daughter but couldn't remember her name. So every so often I would ask that.

Anyway, to make a long story short, and after contacting her daughter once she remembered her name (I looked up the number in the phone book), the daugther called me and thanked me for helping her. She wanted to take me and my mama (she was with me) to lunch to thank me but I declined. I didn't do it to get payment...I did it because I care about people. And she was a person who needed my help and care at the moment...

Funny thing is, the people at Big Lots just stood by and watched and did nothing unless I looked straight at them and said, "You go get me some paper towels." Or "You go get me a phone book." Funny thing is, when I was learning CPR, we were told to point at someone and say "You go call 911." If you just shout "SOMEONE CALL 911!" normally everyone is like, "I won't because someone else will." But if you tell someone to do it, someone specific that is, then it'll happen. We were told to say, "You go call 911 and come back and let me know you did so." We used to joke around about that in class because it seemed silly. But it actually works and I wasn't laughing that day when I was spitting out orders.

Ok, I'm done rambling about nothing! LOL!

9/29/2006 8:19 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

And every Friday here at Parris Island, a recruit (or two or three) goes down during graduation from locking his knees (or her knees as the case may be) or from not hydrating properly...Graduation is a Loooonnnnnggggggg ceremony to be standing there at attention all locked and cocked and trying to remember to NOT lock your knees...just everything else!

Jenna

10/06/2006 10:05 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I actually had to fall out (leave) a formation in New Orleans one time. I had been standing there in formation for about 30 minutes and realized that the floating dark spots in front of my eyes were not normal. Better to step out of formation that to literally 'fall out' of formation. It was June and miserable, and I had only been there for about 2 weeks, they probably thought I was weak and a slacker, but in hind sight - so what....

I love the idea of specifically telling people a task - I will remember that.

10/29/2006 2:06 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh yeah that was from Tracy (Top)~

10/29/2006 2:07 PM  

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