And On We Blindly Stumble! 3.4

Friday I had my OC training, HOLY FREAKING GOD!!!! IT BURNED!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It burned. We had a short class explaining what OC pepper spray was and how it was concieved, history, all that. Took a short quiz and signed our waivers and practiced our evasion and Spray techniques. We though we were ready until the time came, a crowd of office staff, police officers and our fellow PEA's were there with cameras ready. There were three of us and I was the second to get sprayed. I got a nice larger dose, some say more that the others, then I had to PRY my eyes open to identify an object in the instructors hand, everytime I pried open my eyes the excess OC went into it, blurring out the object and making it even more painful. Finally he let me give up and go to decon, I dunked my head into a container of dish soapy water, got the excess off, IT FELT SO GOOD! I opened my eyes in it and the burning stopped too, as soon as I got out it bruned again, then came the rinsing off and I stood in the wind as cold air helps and the wind takes the OC off the face, we were given a bottle of spray water to get it off and releive the burning, all I could feel that was burning was my forehead and cheeks, everytime I tried to take a deep breath I inhaled the excess OC oils that were still on my face, so after about 10 minutes of spraying I finally was able to get my eyes open, the cold wind felt so good. After 30 minutes the burning slowly started to leave my face, after an hour of stomping groaning and screaming it was almost gone, but the oil started to trickle down my neck and soon that started to burn. My face was pretty red and swollen, my eyes were literally red. Derrick came and got to see me after decon, spraying myface with a water bottle and dabbing at it. We were supposed to let the air into our pores but the water kept it out because we kept using the spray because it FELT SO FREAKING GOOD!!!

I though it was all over until I got home, the oils started irritating my face again due to the absence of cold air and wind. I got into the shower and remembered to wash my hair with dish soap in cold water FIRST and to bend over so the water is dripping off your head and not dribbling down your chest, because there is still residue in the hair and when it reaches the sensitives, IT WILL BURN. I remembered this, but didnt quite get all the OC off, I lifted my face up and my eyes and forehead started burning badly again. I got more soap and immediately began working it into my face and eyes, when I was done it burned a little so I went for a walk and it got better, soon my thumbs started burning and I was unfortunate enough to make a call on my cell BEFORE wiping it down, my ear lobes started burning and after a wash down and an hour in front of a fan I almost felt completely well, my thumbs burned on and off and my eyes felt sore and tired, and I still have this queasy feeling in my stomach, which is either from the OC or the dish water i ingested during Decon.

Anyho that was my adventure on Friday, upon feeling that I have decided I will not use this against other human beings, unless there is a threat to me or others.

I have pretty much gotten things settled as for moving home, I got my uncle scheduled to come down with a trailer and pack my stuff up, still scrounging around for boxes and figuring out how to clean the grease stain from the rug. I am excited, but then again, I have come to like my coworkers at the office, they are so much easier to converse with and they have accepted me into their darkness. Its going to be a whole lot harder now, they even invited me to a get together at a coworkers hour for the staff (not a "party" as she said. Because their parties tend to bring the cops around) but I am still uncomfortable with people drinking aroumd me so I didnt go, although she made it clear I was welcomed.

Anyho gotta catch the bus.