Filed under: General
Well I’m certainly making up for that lack of posting earlier, huh?
Right now I’m sitting here at the VIM’s. I’m on one side of the dining room table with my laptop and a glass of wine and he’s on the other side with his guitar and lyrics book. He’s singing the Kinks, the cats are playing with the little furry toy mice they got at the recent vet appointment, and I’m blogging. Aren’t we just Norman Rockwellian? Did I mention that there is a pot roast in the fridge waiting for dinner tomorrow night?
- I can’t remember the last day that I have walked from the parking garage to the building where I work when I haven’t passed at least one person riding a motorized scooter.
- I got my long hair chopped off earlier this month, and I haven’t missed it at all.
- I have come to the realization that I look like a cross between the pictures I have seen of Kathy Howe and Keri. (I know I don’t have any pictures to prove or disprove that, but the few readers who know me in real life can verify {or say I’m totally wrong, that I REALLY look like a cross between Roseann Barr and Britney Spears post-haircut})
- My boss calls a single parenthesis a “parens”. As in “in the final draft, please put a parens before the word “the” and one after the word fence.”
- My new job has had a VERY long learning curve.
- I’ve started Weight Watchers again and I am 1 pound away from being in the healthy weight range for my height *parens* according to BMI charts *parens*
Earlier in the month, the VIM and I did indeed go to Pittsburgh for a quick weekend roadtrip. There was rain. There was singing. There was a 7 ft tall preying mantis. And as we left the next morning, the early-summer sunshine was soft and a little tentative after the heavy rain the night before. Every time we leave I wish we could stay just a little longer.
The next weekend we went backpacking. The VIM called it a little “cheat of a trip” because we didn’t go TOO far. On the way up (yes, UP. UP THE VERY BIG HILL) I was calling it things a little more colorful than a “cheat of a trip.” I would have cursed the VIM, too, for convincing me that carrying 30 lbs worth of clothes, food, a propane burner and other necessities UP A VERY BIG HILL would be fun, but I didn’t have the extra breath.
(Actually, I hate to admit it, but I had an amazing time. Damn that fresh air and exercise!)
Ok, so I never asked the VIM if he had read any of my blog after I gave him the web address. I guess that might seem strange, but it also seems a little strange to write a public journal to start with, so whatever.
Last night as the VIM was getting into bed and I sleepily said goodnight, he yawned and said, “Yeah, the VIM is tired.”
It took me a second. I know I call him the VIM. YOU know I call him the VIM, but I never told him that I call him the VIM.
“So you read the website, huh?”
“Yeah, some of it.”
“I haven’t written anything for awhile. I need to update it.”
“I know. You haven’t written anything since the 8th. I’m getting tired of reading the same shit.”
Filed under: Daily
While I was going about my business yesterday at work I heard something that sounded like a man talking through a bullhorn. My first thought was that maybe the man on the bullhorn was telling us to get out of the building because it was collapsing. I know that sounds sort of over-the-top-Drama-Queeny, but I work in a really old building and for a few weeks this winter they had the sidewalk roped off because things were falling off the building. Apparently not structurally *important* things, but things that could definitely Hurt You if they landed on your head from seven stories up.
Anyhow.
My co-worker and I walked to the front door to see if there was indeed a man on a bullhorn. We rounded the corner around the receptionist desk and looked out…
…at three police officers standing in the road on the far side of a car parked directly in front of our office with their guns drawn and pointed…
…at us. I almost crapped my pants.
Ok, they weren’t actually pointed at *us*. They were pointed at the gentleman in front of us, getting out of the passenger side of the car. Somewhere there *was* a man on a loudspeaker / bullhorn type thingy suggesting that the gentleman Put His Hands. On. The. Car. NOW.
This, my friends, comes scant weeks after a totally amazing and eye-opening experience I had when I was given the opportunity to ride along with an officer for a few hours. Although it was extremely quiet and uneventful for most of the time, there was one incident where the officer said to me before he got out of the car, “If there’s shooting or anything, get down.” (not a problem!).
So in the past few weeks I’ve had an upclose behind-the-scenes look at an officer’s view *and* a behind-the-scenes (literally) peek from an alleged law breaker’s view.
My Law Enforcement Circle of Life is complete.
