Welcome to the board Susie and welcome to dispatching as well! So do you work 911 then? I'm Dina, 38, married to my wonderful husband Jack for 12 years and we have a 3 year old son, Mason. I've been working here at the state police for 13 years at the end of this month. Prior to that I spent a couple years at a little police dept doing 911. So where are you in your wls journey? Still checking it out? Dina

Hey Lorrie - We are pretty close in job description then. For some reason I didn't realize you had Provincial police - just thought there were the Mounties for that level of law enforcement. Obviously I don't know a lot about the structure of your law enforcement up there! LOL! As for Oregon, Our state police are much like your Provincial police in that we do criminal as well as highway too (Kind of annoys me when someone asks if this is the Oregon Highway Patrol! ). Sounds like we have a lot in common! Dina

Hi Dina: Thanks for the welcome! ya its the same everywhere you go, understaffed, overworked, and a huge piece of territory to cover with no officers LOL. Pay is not bad...we got on with the officers union now...and they hiked up our pay really good over the last 3 years...now I can honestly say...."THEY DON'T PAY ME ENOUGH TO TAKE THIS SH*T" ahahhaah been doing 911-dispatching for Ontario Provincial Police now in my 6th year. (OPP is kinda like your version of state troopers, only we do regular policing as well as highway). Cant wait to get to know some of you more. Thanks, soon to be Loosing-In-London ~ Lorrie

Welcome to the board Lorrie! We're a bit slow around here but I try to remember to check in. So how is the world of dispatch up north? I wonder if you have the same types of issues we have down here...lack of staffing, massive overtime (sounds like it!), pay issues...? I'm thinking much of the issues are probably the same wherever you go. Dina

Well, if you cut your food up before you sit down to eat it, it helps. I had to actually sit down and have a break initially so I could chew chew chew though. Now I can sit and eat and apple without a problem. Each person and what they can do are different. Some people can't touch an apple with skin on, while I can eat it straight. Some have to chew extra long while others are pretty much like normal. I'm as close to normal as an RNY can get regarding eating at a normal pace and not having to chew things to death. You might try when you start back taking things like vienna sausages and other soft meats and protein sources so they don't take a lot of chewing. Dina