The answer is ALWAYS chocolate cake..now what was the question?

Well I am not back in the dating scene yet, but I am definitely making efforts. I am back on the dating website and J. and I have planned a few "single girls on the prowl" events for the next few weeks that should keep us amused at the very least!

I did meet with one prospect on Tuesday for lunch. We have been chatting via email for the past two weeks and decided to see if there was anything more. On initial meeting he was actually cuter that his photos had indicated (always a good thing!) and what I had thought was going to be an hour lunch max stretched into 3 hours, and I could quite seriously have sat and chatted longer. He was indeed good company, said all the right things, couldn't understand why I am still single (awww bless him!) and said my photos didn't do me justice (OK - who paid off this fella to boost my ego?) It was a great first meeting...except...and you know there is a "but" coming in here somewhere...there was no ZING for me. He hasn't said as much but I have noticed that since our meeting we haven't been emailing with quite the same enthusiasm and neither of us has made any suggestion of getting together again. I don't want to just "settle" like I did last time, and by the same token time waits for no man - or woman, so I am not going to wait around and wait for Mr Perfect (or Andy) to come knocking at my door.

In other news...
The Boy and his girlfriend just got back from their 2 day romantic getaway to Niagara Falls ...Le Cirque was fantastic apparently...and a mix up in the tickets meant they got bumped from $40 tickets to $70 ones - so needless to say they were thrilled.

I took advantage of his being away last night to try out a new Indian restaurant that just opened near me. Although the boy is slowly getting more adventurous in his tastes...he isn't quite ready for the wonders of tandoori I fear. Now I may be independant and have no issues doing a number of things alone (movies, outings etc), but eating alone in a restuarant still strikes me as a very sad thing to do - so I got it to go! Very nice, not quite as good as the Indian food I remember from back home - but not bad!

Today was back to work...4am came far far too early. Work was busy but I found it passed quickly. There was one call in particular that I felt the need to followup on. An elderly (80's) female called from Orange County, California, quite concerned for the welfare of her 70's sister who lives here. Apparently she hadn't been answering her phone in over two weeks, her health isn't great and frankly this poor woman was in tears on the phone, she was so concerned.

Normally I would have just thrown a "Check address" type call up on the dispatcher's screen and been done with it; but I recognised the sister's name - Beulah...and I remember having seen it recently when I was working the midnight shift - and noting the calltaker at that time had spelt it Bewla...which I thought was amusing. So I quickly put her on hold whilst I gave a colleague over at the ambulance department a call. There had been many calls to her apartment lately, a lot of calls for neighbours, even a few for Beulah herself, but nothing "recent" that we could find to explain why she wasn't answering her phone. Fearing the worst, I assured the sister in California that we would have an officer check on her sister and call her back with the results as soon as we could.

She was incredibly grateful but after I had let her go, it still bothered me. So I hopped on the line with ambulance again and we managed to figure out a reoccurring phone number from all the other calls to the building that seemed to come from a support worker. I gave the number a call and discovered Beulah lives in a supported housing apartment and a support worker checks in on her 3-4 times a day as her health isn't good. They had last checked on her this morning and she was alive and kicking! I gave the sister in California a call back with the good news and was able to pass along the support worker's phone number, so that she can call direct if there is ever a concern again in the future. She was so happy, crying with relief adding that it was her birthday, and this was the first time Beulah had not called to wish her a happy birthday.

The satisfaction I got in helping this woman is indescribable. I guess that's why I do the job I do.

On another happy note, as I was leaving for the day (I stayed behind to call Beulah's sister back) I was informed by our admin dept. that they had received an awards recommendation for me from the officers in 54 division for a teamwork award following a call for armed robberies back in June. I had been dispatching that day and matched up the descriptions of the suspects with a similar event several hours later in another part of the city. I called the detective office at the station to share my suspicions and sure enough they were able to connect the events resulting in the arrest of 2 young offenders and the recovery of a firearm.

To me it had just been another day - we do this kind of stuff all the time, but very rarely get any kind of recognition for it. In fact I had to read through the paperwork just to figure out what I was being commended on. I had no recollection of the event. They all just meld together into one after a while. Just another day "on the job". LOL What a day!!

Tonight I decided to celebrate and baked a chocolate cake covered in fresh strawberries and frosting. Yes, I am a wild party animal - I know!