It's 1:21 AM and I am on vacation, dammit. Got out of work early this morning, and am taking Monday, Tuesday (Mardi Gras), and Friday of next week off (and since I already have the weekend off as well as next Wednesday and Thursday, that gives me a week and a day off!)

I've been really looking forward to taking this time off. I'm really burned out on some shit at work--a combination of conflicts with teammates and too much time as a training officer (that shit gets seriously draining after a while!) as well as some other frustrations. I'll be fine if I can just get a little time away from it all.

But work in general is going pretty darn well. I realized when I was deciding what to write in this entry that I forgot to mention a kinda big deal that happened at work. I think I'd mentioned a few times about how the detective division was courting me to come work for them in investigations. Well, after a great deal of serious thought and a great many long talks with people whom I respect and admire in the field, I went ahead and submitted my official letter of application for investigations. Had my interview with the Captain of Detectives over lunch, and a couple of days later I heard that I'd been accepted.

Yes, I am going to be a Dick. I am staying on the road for a few more weeks due to manpower shortages, but as soon as I get back from school in Miami in March, I'll report to "the back."

So I'm trying very hard to not let the sniping on the team get to me too much since I'll be getting away from it all soon enough.

In other really excellent news, we had the sentencing hearing yesterday for the asshole who shot at another deputy and tried to shoot me. He has previous major felony convictions so he was sentenced under the "career criminal" code (which can double sentences.) The judge went on for a while about how the entire scenario of the shooting and the subsequent chase and standoff made the entire situation all that more heinous, and finally handed down a sentence of...

100 YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(No probation, No parole)

Ahhhh....That's a beautiful thing.

So, J and I are going... somewhere and doing... something this coming week. I can't be more specific because he won't fucking tell me what the plan is. I asked him yesterday where we were going so I could have some vague idea of what to pack, and he replied, "None of your business!"

Hmmf!!