March 31, 2005

MEETING BIG SEXY

My wife pregnant, just finished the academy and looking for a job in law enforcement, how can it get any better. Well let me tell you, it's fucking hard to find a department that wants to hire a person fresh out of the academy. They all want someone with a few years behind them. Now I'm starting to worry a little. The part time job I took while in the academy isn't going to pay for Tamara, baby and me.
About three months after I finished the academy, while at work I met a man who was friends with a high ranking officer in a community not to far from where I lived. Long story short, I got hired...but, I had to work in the jail before I could work on the street, hey...I got my foot in the door.
On the first day my supervisor takes me on a tour of the jail, explains the duties and introduces me to the other officers. The first person I meet is a 6' 4", 340 lbs monster of a man. I thought to myself..."don't piss this one off, and if you do, pray you can out run him." Little did I know that this monster of a man would turn out to be one of my best friends and my partner throughout my current career. Later in our career someone coined him "Big Sexy", I don't call him that...it kind of grosses me out, I just call him Jr.
Before my short jail duty ends and I'm put on patrol, Tamara gives birth to our beautiful son. I've been employed only a short time, however they give me two weeks off to be at home with the newest member of the family. I never knew how awesome it would feel to become a dad, I smile now just thinking about it.
I got the promotion to Patrol and had to leave my partner Jr in the jail. Little did I know it wouldn't be to long before he join me. Jr put himself through the academy as I did and a little over a year he was put on the same shift as me. After some shift shuffles, our shifts changed and Jr's new shift and mine overlapped. So we worked about 5 hours together. About one or two weeks after he was out on his own (not having to ride with a Supervisor) Jr got a call for a suicidal subject. I was close by and called in as his back up and from the time I arrived to the end of the call was some of the most intense feelings a rookie can go through.

March 19, 2005

WHAT IS YOUR MAJOR MALFUNCTION ?

"What is fucking wrong with you? Are you fucking insane? Don't you think we should discuss this before you go and do it? Motorcycles, Bulls and now Police Officer, you have a death wish don''t you?"
You get the idea, my wife, Tamara was not happy. We have some friends that are police officers and they have told her about the high divorce rate, stress and the overall dangers of the job. However, when I told her this is what I wanted to do she understood and stood by me. She still was not pleased but she stayed. She helped me study and stay focused on my goal.
Toward the end of the academy, we were doing our driving lessons and the instructor, Bart was a real...Pain. The course was a mile and a half road course type track. I'm about the 4th person to take the track, a white Caprice with a LT1. I get in the car and Bart says, "You have to make 2 laps, at anytime I feel that you are going too fast into a corner I will slap the dash and tell you to brake. If at anytime you leave the track you will fail the course."
I took off, taking the first lap fast but not to fast. The second lap was a different story, no holds barred, balls to the walls. The back side of the track was a straight away and I got the Caprice up to 127 mph. At the end of the straight was a 90 degree right turn. As we start to get to the turn Bart slaps the dash and says brake, however I don't slow down at all. As we continue to approach the corner Bart is now pounding on the dash and screaming BRAKE! BRAKE! BRAKE! At the last second I pound on the brake and slide through the corner like a professional driver. We get back to the start / finish and Bart hits the stop watch and says "Shit...you had me worried,... by the way, you beat the all time track record by 1/10 of a second.
Now I'm thinking this is one of the best days of my life, how could it get any better? I get home to our tiny rented duplex and and tell Tamara about the great day I had. She said she knew I would do fine and told me she had a present for me and brings me a gift bag. I read the card and she had wrote a note inside telling me how proud she was of me and how much she loved me. Then a reached inside the bag and pulled out a book. A book on Fatherhood? I just kind of looked at it and told Tamara thank you. It just took a few seconds before I looked up at Tamara and the big smile on her face to realize she was pregnant.
:Writers Note: A special thanks to: thelastnail.blogspot.com for reading my blog and sharing it with their readers. Take some time to check it out.