All Because Seagull Hair Got Lost

Saturday was a quiet night on the 4th floor of Jewett. Partyers’ were elsewhere and I was left tangled over an armchair waiting for a bowl of ‘EasyMac’ to solidify. Then the hallway door flew open and a stocky EMS guy with seagull blond hair ran past. I sat up. He stopped in front of a door at the end of the hall, knocked and barked “EMS, EMS”. I took out my cell phone to tap a text message and make it look like I wasn’t watching him.

Nobody opened the door. The EMS guy knocked again, and spit into his walkie-talkie “Can I get a conformation on that room number?” A rice-krispie voice said back “Josselyn, Rm#__, on the left side of the building.” Oops.

I waited for him to jog/flop (remember the seagull hair?) back down the hallway. But, he knocked again, this time opening the door. I assume no one was in the room because he stood there, halfway inside, while he consulted with the snap-krackle-pop voice again. All I heard was “10-4!” and then he was tumbling away from me repeating “Josselyn, Josselyn”. I debated calling out directions.

At any rate while this 5-minute long fiasco was amusing it also makes me wonder about the competency of Vassar’s EMS employees’. How could a non-freshman (I assumed) Vassar student confuse Jewett and Josselyn? Ok they both start with ‘J’ but for god sakes I was able to decipher “Josselyn” on the walkie-talkie and I was sitting 20ft away. Maybe the guy was new to the job (he did look particularly sweaty) but if you can’t handle pressure then don’t sign up EMS. Regardless of why the EMS guy was so confused the fact is that there was a possibly passed out (or close to it), sick or injured kid on the 4th floor of Josselyn who went without medical attention for longer than he/she needed to because seagull hair got lost.

mockingbird