I am utterly exhausted. I have been trying to pack up my apartment, while working 50 hrs a week, and juggling wedding preparations, and oh! family, trying to spend time with them. Laundry is piling up, friends have been neglected. Sleep? What is that?
This weekend I am moving out of my apartment that is close to work, and moving back in with my mother and sis for the next 2 months till the wedding. Half my stuff is still at my mom's anyway, I'm just consolidating,,, and saving money on rent. I'm glad that it will give me some more time w/mom and sis before I leave too. I have been able to part out most of my furniture that I wasn't going to take with me. That will save some garage space for now. It's all the little stuff that takes forever to pack in boxes. Who knew I could accumulate so much stuff? I am finding papers and things from years ago that wasn't even important then. Some of it is fun to run across though. I found my Special Box! Mom covered a cardboard box with contact paper, and that's where we saved all the things that were important to us as kids. It's fun and interesting to look back on what was so important to me then.
WK arrives on Thurs! Just in time to help me move! Wahoo.
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Close Call
I think I may have prevented a rape, or something worse today. I am ashamed to say I was really annoyed with the call before we knew what actually happened. I took a call from a male I'll call Jack. He said his friend Jill had called him on his cell and said someone was in her house. Great. He has absolutely no information. Immediately I get annoyed. WHY do people call their family and friends when they are in trouble and not the police - the ones that can actually help them? It is beyond frustrating to be talking to Aunt Suzy in Wisconsin about a domestic assault in progress in our city. Relatives don't have answers to the questions that are imperative to our response to the situation. Grrrrrr. Call 911, THEN your friends people! But I will soon eat my words,,, keep reading.
He informed me that he was going over there to see if she was ok. I asked him what he planned to do if he found someone in the house and he said he didn't know. Well, maybe you should wait outside and let the police handle it, I suggested. (Another pet peeve: Joe Citizen thinking he is the Lone Ranger. So instead of one person in danger, now we have 2 to rescue, or they get in a fight with the suspect or end up antagonizing the suspect and making it worse.) I asked that he stay in his car, and we would send officers over. At least he knew her address, so I put a burglary in progress call for service in and we would send someone out to check on her.
I hung up with him and called the house number that Jack had for Jill. No answer. I was about to hang up, and thought.. she is probably home and she doesn't want to answer the phone for whatever reason, so I will leave her a message telling her that the police were notified and if she was ok and got freaked out by a cat or something maybe she would call us back and say she was ok... and I could cancel the call out. So I did, I left a message, more out of annoyance I am ashamed to say, rather than actual concern for her. "This is ** police department, if you are there Jill pick up the phone. [pause] If you don't answer we will send police to your house to check on you to make sure you are ok."
I called Jack back, tell him there is no answer. THEN he tells me that she was actually calling from a cell phone. I try that number too, no answer, left same message. Meanwhile, we had a burglary just occurred in a not-so-nice part of town. The loss- 6 guns. The caller said she heard her back door slam when she came in the front door. So yes, some yahoo is running down the street in a bad neighborhood carrying 6 loaded weapons. Due to manpower issues ( a whole post in itself) officers responded to that call before my damsel in distress call.
Ten minutes go by, amid answering other 911 calls, and I try to call Jill back. This time she answers, crying. Crap. I told her it was the police and asked what was going on. She stated that as she was getting out of the shower a male came up behind her, took her towel and wrapped it around her head and neck. He drug her backwards into the living room with the towel and threw her on the ground. At that precise moment, my voice was audible on the answering machine saying that we were going to send police to the house since she didn't answer the phone. He took that as his cue to leave, and bailed out the back door. Her dog apparently got a good piece of him because there was a blood trail leading to the back fence. 2 points for Fido. As I'm trying to get a description of the suspect I hear a voice in the background. Oh yes, Sir Jack is trying to ask her the same thing so that he can go hunt him down himself. Fantastic. Needless to say, officers were diverted from the burglary to this call, but she had only a generic description of the suspect.
Yes, he got away. Could it have been a lot worse? Absolutely, but that doesn't make me feel any better. I didn't believe her. I was so hung up on not being able to have contact with her/the actual victim and get to ask all the routine questions we are trained to ask and make my call neat and detailed, that I completely missed the point that she might actually be in real trouble. Sure, I followed protocol and everything was done 'by the book', but my conscience pricked me. We get so used to people crying wolf over the silliest little things that when an actual crime occurs, it's hard to believe them. Scary. That was a wake up call. Lot of good it does me now that I'm leaving, but maybe someone can learn from it!
Btw, we puzzled over the time frame for awhile. Apparently she grabbed her cell of a table as she was being dragged, hit send, and it called the last person she talked to... Jack. All she had time to say was that someone was in her house, before the suspect hung up the phone. Egg on my face.
He informed me that he was going over there to see if she was ok. I asked him what he planned to do if he found someone in the house and he said he didn't know. Well, maybe you should wait outside and let the police handle it, I suggested. (Another pet peeve: Joe Citizen thinking he is the Lone Ranger. So instead of one person in danger, now we have 2 to rescue, or they get in a fight with the suspect or end up antagonizing the suspect and making it worse.) I asked that he stay in his car, and we would send officers over. At least he knew her address, so I put a burglary in progress call for service in and we would send someone out to check on her.
I hung up with him and called the house number that Jack had for Jill. No answer. I was about to hang up, and thought.. she is probably home and she doesn't want to answer the phone for whatever reason, so I will leave her a message telling her that the police were notified and if she was ok and got freaked out by a cat or something maybe she would call us back and say she was ok... and I could cancel the call out. So I did, I left a message, more out of annoyance I am ashamed to say, rather than actual concern for her. "This is ** police department, if you are there Jill pick up the phone. [pause] If you don't answer we will send police to your house to check on you to make sure you are ok."
I called Jack back, tell him there is no answer. THEN he tells me that she was actually calling from a cell phone. I try that number too, no answer, left same message. Meanwhile, we had a burglary just occurred in a not-so-nice part of town. The loss- 6 guns. The caller said she heard her back door slam when she came in the front door. So yes, some yahoo is running down the street in a bad neighborhood carrying 6 loaded weapons. Due to manpower issues ( a whole post in itself) officers responded to that call before my damsel in distress call.
Ten minutes go by, amid answering other 911 calls, and I try to call Jill back. This time she answers, crying. Crap. I told her it was the police and asked what was going on. She stated that as she was getting out of the shower a male came up behind her, took her towel and wrapped it around her head and neck. He drug her backwards into the living room with the towel and threw her on the ground. At that precise moment, my voice was audible on the answering machine saying that we were going to send police to the house since she didn't answer the phone. He took that as his cue to leave, and bailed out the back door. Her dog apparently got a good piece of him because there was a blood trail leading to the back fence. 2 points for Fido. As I'm trying to get a description of the suspect I hear a voice in the background. Oh yes, Sir Jack is trying to ask her the same thing so that he can go hunt him down himself. Fantastic. Needless to say, officers were diverted from the burglary to this call, but she had only a generic description of the suspect.
Yes, he got away. Could it have been a lot worse? Absolutely, but that doesn't make me feel any better. I didn't believe her. I was so hung up on not being able to have contact with her/the actual victim and get to ask all the routine questions we are trained to ask and make my call neat and detailed, that I completely missed the point that she might actually be in real trouble. Sure, I followed protocol and everything was done 'by the book', but my conscience pricked me. We get so used to people crying wolf over the silliest little things that when an actual crime occurs, it's hard to believe them. Scary. That was a wake up call. Lot of good it does me now that I'm leaving, but maybe someone can learn from it!
Btw, we puzzled over the time frame for awhile. Apparently she grabbed her cell of a table as she was being dragged, hit send, and it called the last person she talked to... Jack. All she had time to say was that someone was in her house, before the suspect hung up the phone. Egg on my face.
Saturday, November 11, 2006
One too many
Maybe it was because of the holiday, or we were overdue for our 'full moon' night, but we just had 5 DUI arrests in 2 hours. Weird.
Preparations and Sadness
There never seems to be enough hours in the day, or days in the week. On my days off I have been scrambling around trying to get errands done, of which there seems to be a never ending list. Its hard to get things done when I sleep in, because I can't seem to get to sleep before 2 am because of my wacky schedule. Its really frustrating, I drag around tired all the time, all the while thinking of all the things I have to get done. It would be a lot easier if I could make my phone calls at 1 am. What's up with everyone sleeping during the night?
And yes, it finally hit me this week. I am moving 3000 miles away from my entire family. Ouch. It's worse at night when I'm trying to fall asleep, and I just lay there and think. I need a switch so I can turn off my brain at night. Its really depressing. I tear up just thinking about it. Our family has always been close. I will miss them so much it hurts. It feels like I'm dying, or everyone else is- like I'm starting to grieve the loss of my family. I moved my end date at work up a week, so I can spend so more time with family around the holidays and go to Burbank Confrnce. My mom and I scrap every now and then, but I will miss her terribly. She is always there to talk to. My sister and I have grown closer in the past few years. She blows me away with how smart she is, and yet she seems so quiet and unassuming. I worry about her a lot, that she takes too much on, and that I wish I could spare her knowing about all the horrible things out in the world. I will miss our trips together, and just getting to hang out, talk and do things together. It kills me to think of leaving my nephews too. Little C just lights up a room when he walks in with his big cheesy grin. I'll miss him calling me "Do" and "Nan" every other minute. His enthusiasm is infectious- it's so much fun to see him learn new words and concepts. I've grown closer to R lately, and she has been fun to talk to. I'll miss having my brother to talk to, he always seems like the one who has it all together. I like his sense of humor, I'll miss hearing him laugh. My grandparents too... I can't remember a time in my life when I didn't get to see my grandparents at least once a week. When mom had her accident, they moved into our house to look after us. They have taught me a lot over the years, and I enjoy their company. They have been a huge part of my life and I will miss them dearly. I know I can always pick up the phone, and family will always be family... but it's not the same. I'm missing out on the lives of the people who mean the world to me. What if something happens to one of them and I'm not there? What if they don't call me? Will I be forgotten when I'm gone?
And yes, it finally hit me this week. I am moving 3000 miles away from my entire family. Ouch. It's worse at night when I'm trying to fall asleep, and I just lay there and think. I need a switch so I can turn off my brain at night. Its really depressing. I tear up just thinking about it. Our family has always been close. I will miss them so much it hurts. It feels like I'm dying, or everyone else is- like I'm starting to grieve the loss of my family. I moved my end date at work up a week, so I can spend so more time with family around the holidays and go to Burbank Confrnce. My mom and I scrap every now and then, but I will miss her terribly. She is always there to talk to. My sister and I have grown closer in the past few years. She blows me away with how smart she is, and yet she seems so quiet and unassuming. I worry about her a lot, that she takes too much on, and that I wish I could spare her knowing about all the horrible things out in the world. I will miss our trips together, and just getting to hang out, talk and do things together. It kills me to think of leaving my nephews too. Little C just lights up a room when he walks in with his big cheesy grin. I'll miss him calling me "Do" and "Nan" every other minute. His enthusiasm is infectious- it's so much fun to see him learn new words and concepts. I've grown closer to R lately, and she has been fun to talk to. I'll miss having my brother to talk to, he always seems like the one who has it all together. I like his sense of humor, I'll miss hearing him laugh. My grandparents too... I can't remember a time in my life when I didn't get to see my grandparents at least once a week. When mom had her accident, they moved into our house to look after us. They have taught me a lot over the years, and I enjoy their company. They have been a huge part of my life and I will miss them dearly. I know I can always pick up the phone, and family will always be family... but it's not the same. I'm missing out on the lives of the people who mean the world to me. What if something happens to one of them and I'm not there? What if they don't call me? Will I be forgotten when I'm gone?
Monday, November 06, 2006
Family Picture
Here is the latest family picture!! They are doing very well, thank you all for your prayers.
"...Know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge... him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think...
unto Him be glory." Eph 3:19-21
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