Jake’s Life

Sandro and I finished moving on Sunday to our new place. It feels great to be out of the old one and here with each other. We made a last minute switch in new apartments from the 2BR to a 1BR down the street, and we’re so much happier with it. The apartment we moved into is less than two years old, everything is new, we’re on the 3rd floor (which makes it easier to be a day sleeper), and we find things everyday why we love the place even more.

On moving day Sandro’s parents decided that we have a moving truck and can get their new 63” TV from the store for them. By the time we got it to their place and to the floor it was to be on, we got their 52” TV for our new place!

Here’s Sandro on move-in day…we still have a few things on the shopping list…

Our bath tub, which I can actually fit in!

We have pretty high ceilings, so here’s something short to give you an idea how high they are.

Our fireplace.

Closet.

Kitty found an issue…the ledges are skinny…

It’s getting to freezing temperatures around here at night now, which means turtleneck time!

Busy lately…Sandro and I are moving into our own place at the end of the month! That’s about the most exciting piece of news I have at the time. We’re moving into a nice 2BR, 2BA on December 1st that’s not too far away from where I live now. It’s within a few blocks from both his work and school, and now that I have a take-home patrol car it won’t make much difference in gas price for me.

Speaking of my take-home patrol car, it’s so nice to be able to go straight from your driveway to the area you work in without always having to go to one place first. It’s also nice knowing that when you start your shift you won’t be sharing a car with someone else when you’re off, which saves a lot of time and affords a lot of little things that make it worthwhile: I have my iPod mounted on the console which is a huge thing for me. Music makes work go by so much quicker.

I’ve got some plans for it, mainly kitting up the lights a bit more with grille lights and getting a TA for the back deck (which it why I left a few bays on the console open to accommodate the control pack).

Here is the model of light bar I currently have on my car.

Well, a work day that is.

I get in the car and put on my mean, yet empathetic friend who is here to help, face.

I drive around, answer calls, see what’s going on.

Then I drive around some more.

There’s always at least one, “Huh, good,” moment.

Darkness falls, and I’m still going.

Close to the end of my shift I’m tired and at times a bit loopy.

By the way, I picked up my new badge last week. We used to have a seven pointed upside down star, which we still have, just inside a large shield now.

Sorry about not blogging in a while! Things have been definitely hectic. I had to fill some larger boots at work for a few weeks with my supervisor being gone, and picked up some overtime shifts in the process. The new 4/4 shifts are going great so far, but I am concerned over Sandro for my shift rotation on weekdays off. He insists he’ll be fine with it and we’re working out a system where he’ll still spend the night at my house during the week when I’m off. Mostly he’s happy that dinner will be made, his laundry will be done, and everything else will be taken care of while he’s at work and school.

Now that we’re on the topic of domestication, we’re officially looking for a place together. We’re both saving up and remotely checking apartments out. I’m on the lease here until next Summer so when we decide it’s time I’ll have to find someone to take the lease over, but if worse comes to worse he can cover the new place for a month or two while I do that.

In saving money I decided to get back into some freelance web design gigs. Within the last week I’ve set up three different gigs totaling $2500. One I am 95% percent done with and the only thing left to do is hand over the files, but I worked too quickly on it and am still waiting for the deposit check. The other begins in a few days, and the third client I am meeting with next weekend (my ex introduced us). Also, if any readers out there are interested in web design work definitely let me know and I’ll give you a good price. My largest contract, bid at $4000 by another freelance designer in the area, I signed her for $1500. I’m trying to keep the mind set of charging what the work is worth, not how much I think I can get for it. Oh, and if you hook me up with someone who needs a web site I’ll give you 10% of the total cost on it as a commission.

The other night Sandro and I went to see Eartha Kitt live at a jazz club in downtown. We got down there early to avoid the Saturday night pilgrimage to downtown and got parking. We stopped by Gameworks and played some video games, grabbed a beer at their bar, then walked to get our tickets. We had reservations and it was still another hour to go, so we went to the Westin and grabbed a drink at their bar before heading back over to the jazz club and stood in line. I was not a fan of hers and was going mainly for Sandro, but I have to say she put on a hell of a show. We sat at the first table in the very front center of the stage.

I’ll try to keep you guys updated more often! I have plenty of pics on my Blackberry that I still need to post too.

Just wanted to post and say that my work schedule has changed, partly for the better and partly not. I’ve switched to four days on and four days off, so my days off will rotate.

Other than adjusting to that, not much else is going on. I’m taking pictures like mad wherever I go so I’ll have lots to post soon.

In the last few days I’ve been in a few sticky situations, both literally and figuratively. Literally speaking, Sandro would kill me for speaking of them. Figuratively is a free-for-all.

We all get into situations once in a while where when all is said and done, and even during the course of an event, a possible outcome is affecting you much more than the actual outcome. It didn’t happen, but the mere possibility that it could have happened is what bothers you most.

Thursday evening I was parked inside an apartment complex doing some paperwork. I constantly check my rearview mirror when parked out of habit for safety. Well, mid-paperwork I look up and see something I didn’t really expect to in the form of a younger male about 20 yards from the back of my car walking horizontally across my mirror. What tripped me out? He had what looked like an M-16 against his shoulder and was aiming it at something.

I won’t go into the entire event and what happened, but to make a long story short he genuinely didn’t understand—and didn’t care—how close to getting hurt someone could have been. It was an airsoft rifle, full size, with the 2-inch orange tip painted black to match the rest of the rifle except for a centimeter or two of the very tip (which from twenty yards away is indistinguishable). To him it was okay to walk around with that, pointing it at cars and people, ducking behind things and aiming, all because it wasn’t “a real gun,”and the “tip is orange.”

I don’t have to go into what his parents are like when you know his view on the issue is that.

With all of the news stories about children having guns and killing others, and children getting killed for pointing realistic guns at people (Here’s a news flash kid…see the gun on my waist? I carry it in case someone points a gun at me.), you’d think someone would have a brain about them when they pick something like that up, see a fully marked two thousand pound piece of Ford Crown Vic 20 yards away, and begin pretending to inflict violence.

Part of the reason I am so pissed, and this is a personal character flaw of my own, is that he won’t understand the feeling of my heart jumping into my throat when I first saw him. He doesn’t get what was going through my mind as I was calling out on the radio what I was out with, and the mental preparation I was giving myself as I was making my way towards him on foot. It was funny to him, that I would make a mistake like that.

Silly me.

“I already knew one of your cars was totaled by a hit and run last night…who do you think was driving?!”

“I don’t give a fuck! Dat badge make you a tahget to me! We handle this next tahm ‘cuz I’m comin’ back! You see mah record from Cali?! I don’t have no pro’lim hittin’ one o’ y’all!”

“I miss laying next to you. I love falling asleep while you’re playing on your laptop and picking on me every other minute…”

“On the long arm of the law, we’re the middle finger.”

Well, last night was interesting. Most of my shift was boring. Not that there wasn’t anything to do, but just in the fact that it was small stuff. Boring calls. Around 11pm we got a call from an apartment resident saying that there was a burglary in progress in the vacant apartment above her. As my Lieutenant and I were about to leave where we were talking and fly down there smoke started billowing from his hood. We popped it and there was a slice on the underside of the radiator hose, something the shop just curiously cleaned that morning. Two others meet me at the call, and my Lt. shortly after taping up the hose. Well, to make a long story short, nobody was inside and the caller had a sign on her door that said “Psychic Readings Available.” Enough said.

I already had to pee pretty badly, and our usual spot is a gas station/convenience market in pretty much the center of our areas. I go up there, head inside, lock the deadbolt, and enjoy some real refreshment. Then, I turn the latch on the deadbolt…won’t engage the lock. I kid you not, I was locked inside. The following is what I remember from the conversations that followed:

(There are three others outside the gas station talking.)

Me: “Paul-4, Sam-2!”
P4: “Go ahead.”
Me: “[Name], get in here dude I need you.”
P4: “Uhhh…okay.”
Me: “I’m locked inside…the deadbolt’s not unlatching! It stinks in here!”
P4: “Okay I’ll be right in after everyone’s done laughing.”
Me: “Get in here!”
I can hear laughing as they walk inside…
P4: “Habib’s getting the keys should be here in a second.”
Habib arrives and find the keys aren’t working either. I figured I’d try to get the screws off the deadbolt with my pocketknife but he kept trying the key and spinning the knob.
Me: “Quit it! Just hold the deadbolt against the door so I can unscrew it!”
He fiddles with the key again.
Habib: “It’s not working boss! It’s stuck boss! What are you doing?!”
Me: “Stop it! Just hold the deadbolt against the door! Like a young, fresh goat on your honeymoon! Don’t let it move!”
Customer comes in and Habib abandons me.
P4: “Dude…you okay?”
Me: “It smells like piss and shit in here. Hold the deadbolt.”
P4: “I am but it keeps moving…”
Me: I’m getting the screws out of it, so hold it down! Harder [name], just ram it in here. Don’t be shy.”
Command Staff: Laughing…”This is being recorded you know, I’m gonna tell this story for weeks.”
Me: “Fuck you! If you’re not gonna help go away!”
After a few more minutes I got out and gave the cashier the deadbolt and walked outside to four others who were laughing at me.

And that’s what I have to deal with at work.

Me. I know, not very spectacular. 

Things have been going lately, definitely a lot differently than I thought. I’m not going to go into it very much but the break up was reversed. I’m not going to post to the entire world the details I know, but thank you to those who have expressed concern over the situation and listened to what I’ve had to say about what’s going on inside.  

On a different, yet similar note, I’m almost completely broke. The large contract job for the RMS I was working on is waiting for some other things to happen, and in the meantime it’s at an almost complete standstill. I am looking ot pick up other remote web work, so if you happen to know of any “odd jobs” or site redesigns that are needed, pass my information along.  

Wow it’s been busy lately. Life has been good, but there hasn’t been much time for it to be anything else. Sandro is still doing the school and work thing so it’s hard to spend the amount of time that I want to with him, and not living together makes it even more difficult to see him. We’re okay though because he understands my schedule working nights, and I know where he’s coming from working and going to school (it’s only been six months or so since I was doing the same thing). Blogging has obviously been lacking lately, and I apologize for it, but once things slow down it will happen more

Work is busy. Busy busy busy. The new RMS that I’m working on is going great to say the least, and I’m looking forward to its deployment (and payment from it!). I started this job with equal pay to my last and a lot less responsibility when it comes to overall operations, and with the introduction of a new supervisor that changed a bit. I’m one of three people with the same rank, but I am the go-to guy. I don’t mind it, as with the more responsibility I have the more purpose I feel, so it works out in the long run.

Here’s some lil’ diddies for you guys.