Not for the Faint of Heart
People never cease to amaze/disappoint me.
Last night I attended my first ever Hudson function. (For those of you who don't know. Hudson is the employment agency that I am currently temping for.) It was their mid-winter Hudson Party meant to celebrate everybody's hardwork and support for the Hudson Co. There were platters of meats and olives and mushrooms and cheese (um, YUM-EEE!)... and platters of mini pot pies and quiches and mini samosas.... PLUS FREE BEER AND WINE!!!
And to think, I almost didn't go because I had gotten very little sleep the night before (about 3 hours). But I felt pretty good so decided to attend anyways and take it easy with my friend Mel and other temps that I had worked with at Kiwibank/wank.
As the night wore on I met a girl from Canada. Cool! She was from Calgary, and just like me, this was her first real trip out of the country, and her first time travelling alone. As soon as the "free alcohol period" was over, party really thinned out. But my new Canadian friend wasn't feeling well. She ran to the bathroom. Too much wine... but she was lucid and she was drinking water and was planning to get a cab home. When I went to check up on her however there was ANOTHER girl face down in a toilet in MUCH worse state. There were 2-3 Hudson Consultants (supervisors/bosses of the temp community) trying to watch over her. She was not lucid. She barely made sense.... And they were going to put her in a cab by herself!!
They offered this other girl a taxi chit and I asked them if the other Canadian could have one too. I wanted to make sure she made it home safe.
Low and behold, Canada and the girl from Prague (?) lived only a few blocks away from each other! Why not just give them one chit to share?!?! :D
OH MY.
Oh... and Crystal, would you mind taking them for us?
um.
WHAT?
I was kind of buzzed that night but I was pretty sober at this point. I was intent on getting Canada home ok, so I agreed. Especially seeing as how everybody else there "didn't want to miss their train."
Prague had a large plastic bag grasped in her hands, and two consultants (one on each arm) guided her down the stairs to the parking lot.
I firmly told the consultants that I was no longer comfortable with taking them home. I was not capable of carrying an incapacitated girl into a house and I was fairly uncertain of putting myself in a potentially risky situation. They're response.... "oh, the cab driver will help you."
Upon reflection on this situation, I realise now they probably should have been calling an ambulance, not a cab for this poor girl from Prague. She had come to the party alone. She couldn't name any of her friends. She couldn't tell us her roommates' names. She asked us what we had done to her. The consultants kept telling her that she did it to herself... that she had done the drinking. I now wonder if maybe there was something else she had ingested that night, and whether she was aware of it or not.
We managed to get what we thought was her address from Prague. I reluctantly took on the duty of getting them home, believing that they were going to be abandoned or else go with me.
Canada was still feeling ill, but was not given a plastic bag. This we realised was a big mistake all too late. The address we had gotten from Prague was 101. After driving around the neighbourhood, we quickly realised that 101 did not exist. Between 95 and 111 there was a school. By this time it was too late and the soil charge would be added to the fare.
At this point I was so glad we were in a van and that they were in the back and I was in the front.
Canada got dropped off finally. The cab driver made sure she got into the house which I was a little uncertain about, but gave in to as I knew Canada was lucid enough to WALK TALK and LAUGH (at my joke about her poor shoes). I stayed with P in the cab and tried to get more clues about the whereabouts of her house.
"It's above a dairy"
"Yellow house"
"Not by the school"
Above a dairy (cornershop).... She lived at #1.... not #101. I had her keys from her purse and luckily the cab driver walked her up the stairs. At this point she was coming around A LITTLE BIT. She went straight into the bathroom. I started knocking on doors in her flat, and found a roommate home. Another foreign traveller, but from Asia. He had broken English, but he understood what was going on. I was very serious and asked him if he could make sure she would be alright. I didn't know either one of them from a hole in the wall but that's that. I didn't know what else to do. At least by this point she was able to carry almost all of her weight alone and she was using full sentences. She was also aware of her belongings and made sure they were in her possession. Before I left I used her cellphone to dial my own number, so now I have her contact info saved.
By that point, I was completely sober and starting to take in the situation. I was, and still am, entirely frusterated that this kind of responsibility was dropped on me. Hudson Consultants threw the party and they knew I didn't know these two girls. They didn't want to take responsibility themselves and allowed me, a volunteer by absolute necessity, to take over.
Around 10 pm, both girls home, I asked the cab driver to take a detour on the way to my house, to the opposite side of the city, where Ryan lives (just charge it all to Hudson!). He also stopped at a service station to clean up a bit. (By the way, the next time you use one of those wipers to clean your windshield at a gas station... Remember that cabbies sometimes stop in the middle of the night to clean out unwanted fluids from the insides of their cars with it. Nice.)
I instructed the cab driver to keep the metre going (though I'm pretty sure he intended to anyways) and I ran inside. Before I could get two sentences out to tell Ryan where I had been, I broke into tears. The fatigue and the stress of the whole situation was just too overwhelming. (I'd been up for 19 hours on 3 hours sleep. woot.)
Ryan offered to take me home from there so I went out to sign the chit for the taxi driver. (A taxi chit is like a voucher that allows a company with a setup account to be charged for a fare.) The driver added a $150.00 soil charge the fare (heck ya!), and it was the first time I'd laughed since I'd gotten in the cab. Add on the actual fare of $50.10 and you suddenly don't feel quite as bad for the cabby. He was not in the best mood, but I thanked him sincerely and gave him wishes for his evening to get better. His reply, "Thanks, I'm gonna go do some cleaning now." haha.
This lack of regard and total indifference shown by the consultants towards the well-being of these two girls was unbelievable! That nobody else was willing to take care of two woman who were obviously unable to do it themselves.... mind-blowing.
I'm glad I was there, sickened that I had to be there, and angry at the whole situation.
I'll call P in a bit. Don't want to wake her too early. I really hope she is okay.
Last night I attended my first ever Hudson function. (For those of you who don't know. Hudson is the employment agency that I am currently temping for.) It was their mid-winter Hudson Party meant to celebrate everybody's hardwork and support for the Hudson Co. There were platters of meats and olives and mushrooms and cheese (um, YUM-EEE!)... and platters of mini pot pies and quiches and mini samosas.... PLUS FREE BEER AND WINE!!!
And to think, I almost didn't go because I had gotten very little sleep the night before (about 3 hours). But I felt pretty good so decided to attend anyways and take it easy with my friend Mel and other temps that I had worked with at Kiwibank/wank.
As the night wore on I met a girl from Canada. Cool! She was from Calgary, and just like me, this was her first real trip out of the country, and her first time travelling alone. As soon as the "free alcohol period" was over, party really thinned out. But my new Canadian friend wasn't feeling well. She ran to the bathroom. Too much wine... but she was lucid and she was drinking water and was planning to get a cab home. When I went to check up on her however there was ANOTHER girl face down in a toilet in MUCH worse state. There were 2-3 Hudson Consultants (supervisors/bosses of the temp community) trying to watch over her. She was not lucid. She barely made sense.... And they were going to put her in a cab by herself!!
They offered this other girl a taxi chit and I asked them if the other Canadian could have one too. I wanted to make sure she made it home safe.
Low and behold, Canada and the girl from Prague (?) lived only a few blocks away from each other! Why not just give them one chit to share?!?! :D
OH MY.
Oh... and Crystal, would you mind taking them for us?
um.
WHAT?
I was kind of buzzed that night but I was pretty sober at this point. I was intent on getting Canada home ok, so I agreed. Especially seeing as how everybody else there "didn't want to miss their train."
Prague had a large plastic bag grasped in her hands, and two consultants (one on each arm) guided her down the stairs to the parking lot.
I firmly told the consultants that I was no longer comfortable with taking them home. I was not capable of carrying an incapacitated girl into a house and I was fairly uncertain of putting myself in a potentially risky situation. They're response.... "oh, the cab driver will help you."
Upon reflection on this situation, I realise now they probably should have been calling an ambulance, not a cab for this poor girl from Prague. She had come to the party alone. She couldn't name any of her friends. She couldn't tell us her roommates' names. She asked us what we had done to her. The consultants kept telling her that she did it to herself... that she had done the drinking. I now wonder if maybe there was something else she had ingested that night, and whether she was aware of it or not.
We managed to get what we thought was her address from Prague. I reluctantly took on the duty of getting them home, believing that they were going to be abandoned or else go with me.
Canada was still feeling ill, but was not given a plastic bag. This we realised was a big mistake all too late. The address we had gotten from Prague was 101. After driving around the neighbourhood, we quickly realised that 101 did not exist. Between 95 and 111 there was a school. By this time it was too late and the soil charge would be added to the fare.
At this point I was so glad we were in a van and that they were in the back and I was in the front.
Canada got dropped off finally. The cab driver made sure she got into the house which I was a little uncertain about, but gave in to as I knew Canada was lucid enough to WALK TALK and LAUGH (at my joke about her poor shoes). I stayed with P in the cab and tried to get more clues about the whereabouts of her house.
"It's above a dairy"
"Yellow house"
"Not by the school"
Above a dairy (cornershop).... She lived at #1.... not #101. I had her keys from her purse and luckily the cab driver walked her up the stairs. At this point she was coming around A LITTLE BIT. She went straight into the bathroom. I started knocking on doors in her flat, and found a roommate home. Another foreign traveller, but from Asia. He had broken English, but he understood what was going on. I was very serious and asked him if he could make sure she would be alright. I didn't know either one of them from a hole in the wall but that's that. I didn't know what else to do. At least by this point she was able to carry almost all of her weight alone and she was using full sentences. She was also aware of her belongings and made sure they were in her possession. Before I left I used her cellphone to dial my own number, so now I have her contact info saved.
By that point, I was completely sober and starting to take in the situation. I was, and still am, entirely frusterated that this kind of responsibility was dropped on me. Hudson Consultants threw the party and they knew I didn't know these two girls. They didn't want to take responsibility themselves and allowed me, a volunteer by absolute necessity, to take over.
Around 10 pm, both girls home, I asked the cab driver to take a detour on the way to my house, to the opposite side of the city, where Ryan lives (just charge it all to Hudson!). He also stopped at a service station to clean up a bit. (By the way, the next time you use one of those wipers to clean your windshield at a gas station... Remember that cabbies sometimes stop in the middle of the night to clean out unwanted fluids from the insides of their cars with it. Nice.)
I instructed the cab driver to keep the metre going (though I'm pretty sure he intended to anyways) and I ran inside. Before I could get two sentences out to tell Ryan where I had been, I broke into tears. The fatigue and the stress of the whole situation was just too overwhelming. (I'd been up for 19 hours on 3 hours sleep. woot.)
Ryan offered to take me home from there so I went out to sign the chit for the taxi driver. (A taxi chit is like a voucher that allows a company with a setup account to be charged for a fare.) The driver added a $150.00 soil charge the fare (heck ya!), and it was the first time I'd laughed since I'd gotten in the cab. Add on the actual fare of $50.10 and you suddenly don't feel quite as bad for the cabby. He was not in the best mood, but I thanked him sincerely and gave him wishes for his evening to get better. His reply, "Thanks, I'm gonna go do some cleaning now." haha.
This lack of regard and total indifference shown by the consultants towards the well-being of these two girls was unbelievable! That nobody else was willing to take care of two woman who were obviously unable to do it themselves.... mind-blowing.
I'm glad I was there, sickened that I had to be there, and angry at the whole situation.
I'll call P in a bit. Don't want to wake her too early. I really hope she is okay.
so said Crys at 10:01 AM
