Did you know I am a firefighter? When people find out that I am a firefighter I get all kinds of questions. When are you going to quit being a FF and become a full-time artist? (I am a full-time artist; with my schedule I am able to do both!) What’s it like working with all those guys? (See below) What is the craziest thing you have seen? (That is not something I can talk about here) Do you actually get to sleep? (Sometimes) Is it really like the show Chicago Fire? (Not nearly as glamorous, and things do not explode so often)

I have the crazy schedule of working 24 on and 72 off. (See…that’s where I am able to have the time to paint!) We never know what those 24 hours will bring, we definitely stay busy…but some days we do have some down time. I will say working 24 hour shifts you really get to know your crew. Other than making runs together, you live together, work together, train together, cook together, eat together, clean together…you get the picture. We basically become everyone’s second family. I would sum it up by saying it’s like having a bunch of big (or little) brothers and sisters. And if you never grew up with siblings (esp. brothers), its sweet and endearing and gross and annoying all rolled up into one. Firefighters, just like brothers, love to pull pranks and gags on one another. They can come in all shapes and sizes, the firefighters and the pranks!

I have been on both ends of the game… the one who gets pranked and the one who pulls the prank. There are the old staples like asking the probie to “push start” the K-12, the “endless” dishes, setting up the spray nozzle at the kitchen sink to get the next unsuspecting victim (I do not recommend this if you work at a station with a chief), double mattressing the new guy, the list goes on and on. But in addition to these oldies but goodies, firefighters tend to be very creative. They are always coming up with new ways for everyone to laugh.

My absolute favorite prank of all time happened to be one that was done on me…. It was Thanksgiving 2018. We were on shift on Thanksgiving Day and the crew had decided to fry a Turkey for our big Thanksgiving meal. Well, I am not sure if you are familiar with how you fry a turkey, but you use peanut oil…and it just so happens that I am allergic to peanuts. They boys did know this…and since they are very sweet and caring they also cooked another turkey in the oven. I mean, we were cooking 2 turkeys anyway since we had the crew, some family, and a few other guests to dinner. But it was kind of them to make sure I could eat one of them without resorting to an epi pen as my dessert!

Justin and Omar were the two Turkeys in charge of cooking the turkeys…which is very fitting if you ask me! These boys are “good people”, but jokesters through and through!! Once they started cooking, it seemed like every time I saw them, they were giggling like little schoolgirls. Now if you know these two…they are always up to something, so I did not think too much of it. At one point I saw some yellow caution tape across the back door going out of the kitchen where they were frying the turkey…and I’m not sure if the caffeine from my coffee had not kicked in yet, or I was just pre-occupied with whatever project I happened to be working on at the time, but I didn’t even think twice about why that was there. Heck, now that I think about it, I tend to overlook and not question many things at the fire station!!

I must have gotten busy making a few runs or maybe I had a safety nap (these are very important!), that part is a blur. Either way, a little bit of time passed before I made it back into the kitchen. But when I did walk back in, I was greeted with this scene:

There was caution tape strung from the cabinet to the sink… to a drawer… to the microwave. The area cordoned off had the fried turkey sitting smack dab in the middle. I noticed some sort of glass with writing on it just on the edge of the danger zone. I thought what in the world is going on here…. then I looked at the two boys…they had smiles plastered across their face. I couldn’t hold it in any longer and busted out laughing. The rest of the crew might have been lurking around…waiting to see my reaction and laughing along with the rest of us. Omar and Justin commenced to make sure I stayed clear of the peanut infested turkey, then handed me the glass jar…and I got to see it up close….

They made me an Emergency Kit. The sign said “In case of Peanut Emergency BREAK GLASS or Twist Top with an arrow…and inside was an emergency kit with Epi, a syringe, and a sucker (the sucker was a dumb-dumb…was that for me or them??). I actually still have this emergency kit! It stayed in my locker until I transferred from this station…now it sits in my art studio on a shelf. And it makes me laugh every time I look at it!

I’m not sure how long it took them to come up with this, or if it just came to them in a flash. But I definitely give them props for coming up with this.

Being a firefighter can be hard at times, the things we see, the things we must do, being away from our families for 24 hours at a time, working any holiday or weekend. Laughing and joking around, the pranks and the gags help relieve tension and build camaraderie. It doesn't matter the day, or the weather, or whatever else is going on, we show up. We show up together as a crew and a family, most of the time with a friendly smile on our face!

Do you work somewhere with a bunch of jokers? What is your favorite joke someone has pulled on you? Or that you pulled on someone else??