Post #82: Thoughts from a Police Explorer

In the wake of five line of duty deaths in Dallas, TX, there has been a lot of words like 'senseless' and 'tragedy' in the media. And this was a tragedy that I personally believe should be classified as a hate crime and an act of terrorism. There is so much out there about what happened and videos and people's thoughts and prayers for the officers and their families, as well as the Dallas Police Department and DART. I am heartbroken for all of those affected by this violence.
As someone who looks to have a career in law enforcement, these deaths hit me particularly hard. I can only imagine the tremendous feelings of loss felt by the men and women of Dallas PD and DART.
There is a line in our Police Explorer Policy about fraternizing with the officers. Essentially, if we aren't at the station or approved event, we shouldn't be 'fraternizing' with the officers. It makes things seem very cut and dry in terms of the relationships we can have with the officers, and to an extent it does. The policy is meant to prevent inappropriate relationships, and it's a good policy to have. But what it doesn't cover or prevent is the professional relationships that come from spending 12 hours in a car with someone, or seeing them on a regular basis. It doesn't cover the fondness I have for the men and women of the 12s (The weekend shifts, which is usually when I do ride-alongs). I will have been an explorer for a year, as of tomorrow. I have spent a lot of time with these officers, and they occupied the majority of my thoughts last night. I would be devastated if anything happened to anyone in my department. And I am not even a real cop. I'm an explorer who spends probably a grand total of 55 hours per month with the department whether for ride alongs or explorer meetings or whatever (an average officer spends 212 hours, not counting overtime) . But that time is still spent, and I am still forging professional relationships with these men and women.
I'm particularly fond of the SWAT team, not just because I want to be a SWAT officer, eventually, but because even though I am just an explorer and the only time I really interact with the SWAT team is at regional training events when they need role players, I still feel welcomed and valued by the Officers on the SWAT team, which is something I can't always say for anything else I do. One officer never fails to call me by name, say 'what's up' and give me a fist bump. Another officer and I joke around, and most of the officers smile and wave, because even though they might not know my name, they know my face and they know I am always willing to learn and help.
My sister says I must have a radar implanted in my brain, because I can hear sirens a good half mile out and sense emergency service vehicles in close proximity to myself. One of the rules in my car is that if we see a cop, everyone has to wave. I always throw up a peace sign or wave when I see anyone in a cop car or a fire truck. I try to show respect and gratitude as much as possible, because I have seen first hand that this is often a hard path to walk.  As I watched the news unfold last night, I felt angry and sad and sick, but the most overwhelming feeling I had was a desire to go out and be the best cop I could possibly be. I want to make those who have come before me proud. I want to make the officers that I work with proud. I want to honor the memories of the officers who laid down their lives protecting their communities. I got to a point last night where I just could not bear to watch and listen to the same things repeated over and over about what had happened in Dallas on nearly every channel, and because my normal Thursday TV show had been interrupted for news coverage, I decided to (finally) watch the Chicago Fire season finale (more thoughts on that later). I was touched by something one of the characters said following the death of a minor character. She said "Sacrifice is the hardest of all human actions, but anyone who puts on a uniform to help others knows that it's also the most important." Chicago Fire is generally a show I put in the fluffy guilty pleasure box, but sometimes there are moments where I am caught off guard by the poignancy of the show. Sacrifice is a hard action, but when made for the right reasons, it is one that often makes things better, in the long run.
Please, please be safe out there.
"If I get murdered in the city, don't go revenging in my name. One person dead from such is plenty, no need to go get locked away." - Murder In The City, The Avett Brothers
-D.

Post #81: Hiatus

Hi reader. I'm not sure what happened, but my blog just really has not been a priority lately, with school and the large amounts of time I have been spending working with my Police Explorers post. But I'm going to try and do better! I'm going to do some more blogging!
That being said, I think this week is a great week to share some thoughts on some fun stuff that I love right now.
First: The new Elvis album with The Royal Philharmonic is the coolest thing ever oh my gosh. Some of the songs are really dumb, but "Burning Love" and "If I Can Dream" (which is also the album title) are amazing. It's everything I never knew I needed. "Fever" features my favorite celebrity husband Michael Buble and it's just so great. You can listen to "Burning Love" here.
Second: The weather where I am has been so nice. The sun makes me so happy. It seems like I'm the only one, but I actually really like Daylight Savings. It's lighter longer, which makes me feel like I have more time to be productive. It doesn't mean I spend that time productively, but whatever. It's the thought that counts. And it means more BBQ time. My mom's husband is a magic grill master and it's great. BBQ is in my top ten favorite food types. It's solidly in the 8 spot.
Third: Lilo and Stitch and The Princess and the Frog. Ok so I admit I'm a little biased, I love Disney, but I recently revisted these two, and I had forgotten how wonderful they were. Lilo and Stitch has some of the most wonderful messages and themes about family. The idea that families aren't always cookie cutter perfect, and sometimes we don't get along but that doesn't mean we don't love each other, and that sometimes you find your family as you go along are so wonderful. We watched it for family movie night with my Mom's new husband (at that time he was the fiance) becuase I felt it perfectly covered the theme of finding your family. I watched The Princess and the Frog on my own time last week and realized how awesome it was! When I saw it the first time shortly after it came out, I brushed it off as being kind of cute, but now with some time between that viewing and this one, I realized how poignant it really was. I get working hard for one's dreams a lot more now, which made the movie that much better. And the idea of working for your dream is important, but so is stepping back and making sure you're enjoying the journey, too.

"Don't worry. She likes your butt and fancy hair. I know. I read her diary." - Lilo, Lilo and Stitch
-D.

Post #80: The Holidays, Finals, and Decorated Trees

So it's December, which means holiday time! I've got my christmas music out, and I bought some wrapping paper and everything awesome! I like the holidays because it seems like more people live in my fluffy marshmallow Disney world of color. There are lights and everything is shiny and I love it. Everything is cheerful. And there's christmas music playing everywhere. Yay! And I get to wrap presents which is one of my favorite activities. I love wrapping things, especially square things. Tape and scissors and this year I bought penguin wrapping paper and it's so cute!
December also brings finals for those of us in school. Somehow I ended up with only two finals out of my six classes. And they're both criminal justice, so that's really awesome. I'm not questioning how this happened, I'm just accepting it. This semester went by really quickly, which is both awesome and not so awesome. The only class I wish I wasn't done with is CRJ 211, Policing in America. It was my favorite class this semester. It was so interesting, and everything I learned is ueful, practical information. Everything else was just whatever.
A quick thought on the movie Victor Frankenstein: Don't go see it. Don't be enticed by the great actors. It was awful. Even Harry Potter and Mr. Tumnus couldn't save this trainwreck. In a stroke of irony, this movie was a horrible mashup of different parts of the original novel by Mary Shelley and all of the Frankenstein movies, a franken-frankenstien movie, if you will. And the writing was not great. Just don't go.
So this year I have decided to put a tree up in my room, mostly because I am not allowed to decorate the tree in the living room with police stuff. So I found a pink tinsel tree (not the barbie tree, sadly.) and I'm going to decorate it with police stuff! My mom found me some CSI tape, platic toy handcuffs, and a cute little police officer ornament.

Ta-da!

Happy Holidays!

-D.

 

Post #79: Chicago Fire, Minimalism, and Lethal Weapon

OH MY GOSH CHICAGO FIRE STARTED AND THE NEW CANDIDATE IS STEVE MCQUEEN'S GRANDSON AND EVERYTHING IS WONDERFUL. In case you weren't aware, I love Chicago Fire. The new season is bringing the heat (sorry) in both people's personal lives and their work lives! It's so dumb it's awesome.
I also managed to watch all four Lethal Weapon movies, and they were all great. And I think Mel Gibson is the worst. But the Lethal Weapon movies were awesome. I thought they were going to get progressively worse, but they didn't. The only one that wasn't quite as good was the fourth. But it was still entertaining.
So I've been going through stuff and whatnot, and in an attempt to get myself together, I've been looking at pinterest for inspiration. Pinterest was not helpful at all. Organizing seems to mean the same thing as minimalism to the people on pinterest, and minimalism makes me want to die.
DISCLAIMER: If you're into minimalism, that's cool! I'm not. But If it works for you, that's great for you.
I understand it's important to keep your stuff under control. That's why I was on pinterest looking for organization tips in the first place. But minimalism just doesn't work for me. I really like my stuff. I like my books and action figures and my stuff. The blankness of minimalism makes me so uncomfortable. You could be using all that blank space to hang posters and store stuff! That's the best part of my stuff, is that it tells you who I am! Minimalism tells me nothing about you. So if you're a supersecret agent who's never home, I guess that would work.  But I'm not! I'm loud and I love a lot of things and I live in what my sister calls a "fluffy marshmallow disney world of color". I like being surrounded by things that I love. If it doesn't match and my room has no apparent theme, that's fine. Because I know it has a theme. It's the "D Really Likes Things and These Things Make Her Happy" theme. Themes are for birthday parties and TV shows. 

"In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different." - Coco Chanel

-D. 

Post #78: It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

It's Fall TV Time, my  most favoritest time of the year. Mild Spoilers ahead.

OH MAN I LOVE TELEVSION SO MUCH.
Gotham came back Monday, and it was awesome. I'm not too keen on the season titles thing ('Rise of the Villains') but otherwise everything was awesome. Everybody bes crazy!!!! And also I love Ben McKenzie. I'm glad Bruce found a proto-Batcave.
Gotham was followed by newcomer Minority Report, based off the movie of the same name. It was pretty entertaining. Futuristic, woo *wiggles fingers furturistically*.  It has a good premise, and I am curious to see where it goes.
Tuesday saw the premiere of The Muppets. It was not funny and I will not continue to watch. It also conflicts with The Flash, which returns next month.
Wednesday was The Goldbergs, which is on a precarious ledge. Adam is no longer cute and small, which puts the show at a place that could either work out just fine or topple the show over the cliff of non-entertaining bad television.
Wednesday was also the premiere of the (dear god) seventeenth season of Law & Order: SVU. It was essentially part four of last season's crossover episode with the Chicagos. The show's only saving grace is Peter Scanavino as Carisi. He's cuter than the whole cast combined, and he's a pretty decent character on an overall terrible show. Entertaining, yes, but terrible.
Thursday night saw the premiere of Heroes Reborn, which was a little convoluted, but I think that might have had something to do with the two hour premiere. The Player followed Heroes and was enormously entertaining. The premise is probably not one you should do too much hard thinking about, but if you take the show for the shiny action packed hour that it is, it's a great escape!
There is nothing good on Friday nights. And even if there was, I would have missed it because I got to see Duran Duran!!!!!!!!!! There are not enough exclamtion points to describe how awesome it was or illustrate my excitement. Their new album is not half bad.
Sunday was the premiere of Indian Summers on Masterpiece. It was a really interesting premiere, and I think the series as a whole has a lot of potential. Indian Summers was followed by the season finale of Vicious. It was absolutely hilarious until the very end and then it was just really heartbreaking.
I am so glad TV is back.
"Find something you're passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it." -  Julia Child
-D.

Post #77: Some Thoughts on Patriotism and Respect

Last night was both my third favorite and least favorite holiday of the year. My third favorite (behind Thanksgiving and Halloween) because Patriotism and America and I am blessed and proud to live in this country and Fireworks and Hot Dogs! Yay! My least favorite because it seems to bring out the most disrespectful people into the greater public. Me and my peoples have gone up to a church parking lot up on a hill with a great view of the fireworks for quite a few years now. We have never had a bad experience there in all the years we have been going, until last night.
To the owner of the maroon Jeep with license plate "PYIT4WD" and 'Coexist' tire cover and your friends: It's sad that you couldn't 'pay forward'  some respect last night. I am disgusted by your blatant disrespect to your nation, the national anthem, and the families around you trying to enjoy The Fourth of July. To drop F-bombs and have a water bottle fight complete with screaming and obscenities while everyone around you tried to observe a moment of silence for our men and women in uniform and then listen/sing along as our national anthem was played shows that you don't live by the words on your license plate. You live only for yourselves. You and your friends demonstrated no gratitude whatsoever, certainly not for the men and women who fought and died to protect your freedom to act like such assholes.
There is no good karma coming to those who feel it is acceptable to act in such a way.
Barring those people, I had a fun time last night! My best friend and I had a dance-off with the kids in the house behind the parking lot who were sitting on their deck. I think they were making fun of us, but we caught them and then it just turned into a dance-off. I did a couple of Herkies (sort of) and had a fun time being with people I loved and being grateful for the freedom to do these things. And I only cried a little when they played "God Bless The USA".

I Tried.

"Sure I wave the American flag. Do you know a better flag to wave? Sure I love my country with all her faults. I'm not ashamed of that, never have been, never will be." - John Wayne
-D.

Post #76: Television, Television, and Steve McQueen

Lo and behold summer has returned and holy triple digits, Batman it is roasty. But hey, Summer TV is on, so at least there's that. Aquarius is still great, and I'm trying to finish Last Ship so I can watch the new season, Graceland is back and Dominion starts next week! Yay! And Dominion has thirteen episodes this season and not six, so it should carry me right into the fall TV season. And on one of my wacky rabbit ear sub-channels, Police Surgeon is on every night! It is honestly the worst show ever made and only got four seasons because Palmolive-Colgate wanted an entire show for just their commenrcials and it's my favorite! Dr. Locke is so handsome and the plot is so corny and it's Canadian and it's awesome. It's perfect for trying to eat a popscicle before it melts and there is nothing else on. The ridiculous plots are so fun and so mindless. Last night this guy was trying to sell an entire attache case of heroin and then on the other episode a guy was in deep with some loan sharks who had the most seventies-tastic mustaches.
Poldark stared on Masterpeice last week, and it's got the exceptionally attractive Aiden Turner as the titular character and there is nothing else on so it's great. Crimson Field, which is on after Poldark is legitemately fantastic, and it's got some Downton peeps and Hermione Norris from MI-5, and some cute doctors. But it is really good, even if there is nothing else on.
Since there is nothing on TV (besides Police Surgeon) I've been watching Route 66. I scored the first two seasons on Ebay for $25 (yay!) and I love it. Martin Milner and George Maharis are swell, as Tod and Buz, repectively. The trouble those two boys get into in that Corvette is so entertaining, and sometimes still really relevant and poignant. There's even an episode set in Reno, NV ("Like a Motherless Child", S1Ep20). It Features the Mapes Casino, located at N. Virginia st and First Street, which was demolished in 2000. Someday I'm going to do an ultimate road trip and visit all the cities Tod and Buz (and later Linc, played by Glenn Corbett) visited. Probably not in a Corvette, but that's ok.
This week, my new favorite thing ever is Steve McQueen. I watched Bullitt and The Blob, and I've got six more of his movies sitting in my stack. I know this is a total cliche, but that man is cool. Super dead, but still super cool. I have never seen a man look so good in a cardigan as he does in the red one in Bullitt. I'm going to make one for myself. It's beautiful, even in that wacky burgundy red color. And The Blob is the greatest, shlockiest movie I have ever seen. And I love that even at 27, he looked like a teenager, and his girlfriend looked 35.  Everything about that movie is magic.
"Time starts now" - Bullitt
-D.