Welcome to my very first ever blog post! I was excited and intimidated all at the same time making this giant step (for me at least) into the 21st century & (semi) interactive social media. I say this and yet my whole life has been one big blog if you happened to speak with my friends and colleagues. But to move forward, sometimes you have to start with the past. Here goes:

I received an unexpected email invitation via LinkedIn a few weeks ago from a PR person I used to know/hang with occasionally way back in the days of the General Hospital in Calgary. This created a flood of memories from that period of my life about who was in it, what was I doing/feeling then…?

Ahhhh, but the General Hospital was where I cut my teeth on honing my comedic skills that would serve me well. And SAVE ME from insanity many, many times over the coming years. I was a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed recent returnee from the Caribbean where I had spent three very enlightening, exhausting and exhilarating years as a brand new Emergency Nurse in the St Croix Hospital Emergency Room. (I will never work that hard again). I’m sure there will be lots of stories about those experiences interjected into future blogs, but for now I’ll just say that after that sojourn to a different culture and being totally on my own for the first time, I was fairly fearless in terms of what I could do, what I could say, what I could get ‘away with’. Time and experience has a way of tempering that.

In 1988, The Calgary General Hospital was the designated Trauma Center for the city. The Emergency Staff worked closely with the Calgary Police Service who had a vested interest ensuring we had the most up-to-date equipment seems how if one of them was shot or run over, we would be caring for them. The PR department decided to hire me as the entertainer of the fundraiser evening to be held at the police service’s private club. It was my very first PAID gig – I got $100! A great step but one with incredible pressure attached. My colleagues and bosses would be there, as would the trauma surgeons, ER doctors and all of the police officers I worked so closely with. In short, if I wasn’t funny, I would have to leave town.

I don’t think anyone saw my knees shaking as I tackled any & all issues on stage, including parody of attending police officers (who, incidentally, were armed). I survived that particular trauma not only intact, but stoked in my penchant for making people laugh by inviting them to see how I view the world. And that’s what I intend to do with my weekly ramblings.
I hope you will join me on my Blog Journey. Thank you for reading.