It's 5:58 in the morning right now. I just got home from work--dropped the gun belt, stripped off the vest, yanked off the combat boots--and I am now trying to stay awake another couple of hours (after working a weekend of night shift.) Last week I offered to lead the PT for the academy this morning since the staff out there is a bit short-handed today--and I didn't have to offer twice. That offer got snapped up fast! What the hell--I've gone running after working all night before, and this way I'll have done my cardio for the day and have the rest of the day free (for sleep!)

There are times when work is painfully boring, and other times when it just totally rocks and is a complete blast. Saturday night was painfully boring. Last night totally rocked! We stayed busy most of the night with miscellany, and then just as it started to slow down around 1am, another deputy got into a pursuit with some subjects who then bailed the (stolen) vehicle they were in and ran. We set up a perimeter, and snagged them (with another pursuit!) after they'd stolen yet another vehicle and were trying to make their punk-ass way back to New Orleans. Extremely satisfying for the entire team, especially since it was obvious from evidence in the vehicles that they'd come over to Slidell to do vehicle burglaries. They all had rap sheets, and they're all looking at some serious time. Gotta love it!

To add to my ever growing list of completely useless skills: I finally, after almost 35 years of life, have learned how to snap my gum. I was never much of a gum chewer in my younger days (Mom disapproved) and somehow I missed that secret meeting where all the Cool Stuff is taught. But now I tend to chew gum late at night to help me stay awake and also trick my appetite, and when I had the partner the other night he explained to me how one pops one's gum.

Hey, 12 hours is a long time to spend in a car with someone. You have to do something to pass the time!

The furniture was delivered with minimal incident on Friday. About the only snag was that it started pouring down rain about five minutes after the delivery truck showed up. Of course then I had to go out and buy a new Bed In A Bag set for the new queen-sized mattress. This bed is a lot higher than my old bed; I almost feel like I need steps to get in the thing, and my poor dog has to actually jump to get up on the bed. (The first time he tried to jump up, he miscalculated the height and fell back down!) But, the whole set looks terrific, and it fits pretty nicely in my tiny little bedroom. There's not a whole lot of extra space in there, but it does fit! And the mattress is insanely comfortable. (I'm hearing that bed calling to me from the bedroom now... I am working hard to ignore the call! Just a couple more hours!)

And finally, I started my dance classes this week, and had an absolute blast. I'm taking a jazz dance class and a ballet class. It's all adults in the classes, and no Ultra-Serious dancers--just a bunch of women ranging in age from mid 20s to mid 50s who want to move around in a somewhat more coordinated fashion. The ballet class was terrific and challenging, and I was relieved to discover that bits and pieces of the ballet that I took in my younger days are still somewhere in muscle memory. (The flexibility isn't there anymore, but I kinda remember proper body position and stuff.)