so, i use verizon and i hear they just bought out unicell. does that mean everyone who once had unicell will now be verizon members or are they still going to keep them at two different companies? im hoping they merge them because lots of my friends here in town have/had unicell and we text a lot. but i have unlimited to only verizon members and 500 to other networks. so basically my question is:

can i text my unicell peeps and have those under the 'unlimited' category or are they gonna go under my '500' category??

i suppose i could call verizon but i dont wanna be on hold and this way i get points. hehe.

Last night i did a ride along with officer b. we go to a 'noise complaint' where the person on the top floor is stomping around his apartment and annoying the people below. first, we park outside the apartment complex so we can sneak up the second floor and catch the noise-maker in the act. we can hear a guy cursing pretty loudly so b knocks on the door and says its the police dept and we need to talk to you. a younger guy answers the door drunk off his skunk and lets us come in. turns out b knows the guy so for about 7 whole minutes, she is talking to him trying to calm him down when all of a sudden its like he finally sees me standing next to her. he goes "who is she?" and b says "this is joie, she's my ride along" then he leans in a little, squints at me and goes "shes fckin fine!" and b is like "hey, hey, she doesnt need to hear that." meanwhile im trying my damndest to not laugh my butt off, they started talking again and then he randomly goes "how old are you?" i looked at b, then looked at him and said "21" and he stares at me all dumbfounded and goes "so...you're of age?" "yeah" "you're fckin fine!" and b's like "hey! what did i just tell you?" and then they started talking again. he lays down on the couch and he's telling b "i dont have anyone, i only have you." then he looks at me and goes "and her! she's fckin fine!" (and by now, i dont think its that funny anymore) then he has the liquid courage to say "you know, my wife's gone." well by all means let me just strip off my clothes and we can get it on right now! lol. (and for some reason i just couldnt fathom why his wife was gone...) so after we were there for 15 mins or so, we're trying to walk out the door and then he asks "where does she come from?" (i kinda wanted to blurt out 'my mom's uterus' but didnt know how well that would fly) but b spoke up first and said "washington" the he goes "me too!" im thinkin, 'oh, thats great.' lol.

we finally get back into the car and the first thing she says to me is "he off limits or you're grounded." haha! my response, "don't worry!"

Ok, here's another story from one of my ride alongs. its a pretty good one, too.

Im on a night ride with officer cuteness (im just gonna call him that cuz he is ). i hadnt done one with him yet but i had met him once and he seemed like a pretty cool guy. so i go over to the pd before it was time to go on patrol and officer c(uteness) and officer z are the two that are patrolling for the night. but their shift hasnt started yet so they were just kind of waiting around for the big hand to hit the 12. well, apparently those two are quite the movie fanatics! they were reciting lines back and forth to each other from the Princess Bride movie! i was effin rollin on the floor laughing so hard! those two are a freakin riot! haha

so the night shift officers have some daily duties. they have to lock up the park bathrooms, the cemetery, and do the dark house list. i asked cuteness if we could do the cemetery and park and give z the dark house list. he was fine with that so when it came time, we drove out to the cemetery and we get to the first gate and he goes "ok. see those trees over there?" "yeah" "ok, you go walk that way and i'll meet you on the other side." im thinking "holy crap! i dont think thats rutine procedure. z didnt make me do that last time i was here" so i just looked at him and said "are you serious?" he goes "yeah." then he started laughing and said no. haha. im so glad he was kidding because it was dark and those trees were like two football fields away! plus, the other gate to lock was to the left, nowhere near the trees!

so we go driving through and he tells me that those bushes that are shaped like a heart is where all the little kids are buried. we drove over there and got out to go look since i hadnt ever seen it before. when we walked to the other side of the bushes, there is a big vacant field and i was shining my flashlight into it and i see this reflection in the light. i was like "dude! look! do you see those eyes?!" he saw them and the thing started moving but it wasnt coming towards us. he's like, "well, if its a cougar itll come closer because they tend to be curious." it dissappeared so we shut off our lights and walked a little ways back then whipped around real quick to see if we could see it again. we saw the eyes again, but we couldnt see the body at all. we just declared it a chupacabra and went about our business. lol.

next came the mausoleum (its like a tomb if you arent familiar with the term). there is a big tree right outside of it and cuteness goes "so what would you do right now if a big vampire thing came jumping out of the tree, hissed and bared its teeth, then flew off?" (what a wierd question) "uh, call in Mulder and Scully?" haha. so then we walked up to the door, he grabs the knob and its unlocked and he goes "you know, i was really hoping this thing was locked." lmao! so we went inside and there are no lights so its pretty creepy. these people who are in there arent under the ground, they are pretty much just stacked up on top of one another so they go up high, about two stories or so. at the far end we noticed something had spilled on the floor and there was some kind of strap lying in it. i think it went to a bag or something. but there was a closet next to it and cuteness thinks this looks a little suspicious. so he pulls out his gun and opens the closet, extremely prepared, and there was some kind of pantry looking thing in there too so he opened that just in case as well. no one was there, but it was kind of an intense moment. of all the rides i've done (9 total) no one had to pull any kind of weapon (be it oc spray, asp, or gun)! but after that we decided it was time to be on our merry way before our imaginations started to get the best of us. lol.

later when we caught up with z, i told her all about our chupacabra. she's like "you know there is a little fox that is living out there, right?" fine. whatever. throw ants on my picnic, blow up my parade floats, why dontcha just punch me in the gut while your at it? lol. ah well, it was fun while it lasted

so thats my cool story. i had one of the best times on the ride along! next wednesday or thursday im going with another officer i havent ridden with yet. z tells me she's one of the funnest because she absolutely loves her job and she's really funny to boot! i cant wait

The CSO (community service officer) was trying to talk me into letting her pepper spray me. I said no. then later we were talking with officer H and the subject got brought back up again and officer H was trying to talk me into letting the CSO spray me. i still said no. then i went home and pondered for a while and i eventually made up my mind that i would let her do it. So the next morning i informed her she had my permission, but we had to be prepared. I needed to take out my contacts and we needed to have an unlimited amount of water available for me. She got very happy! haha

So we said we would do it at 2:30 yesterday after i took the truck in for an oil change, well right as im leaving she texts me and says "the chief wants to talk to you before we do it" so i said ok and i was on my way back. when i got there i talked to the chief and he just looked at me like i had 3 heads. lol. i said "what? do you want me to sign a release first?" and i was joking, then he goes "kinda" and im like "oh snap!" haha. he informed me that the stuff they use is over 2x more potent than the regular stuff, but it has a quicker recovery time. and he wants us to do it over by the fire station where the medics are, just in case.

So here's my dilemma, I told the CSO i would let her do it and i dont want to back on my word (besides i kind of want to see what its like. i have seen some utube vids and it looks like it sucks, but when you're a police officer, someone could spray you and you have to know how your body reacts and you need to fight through it).

CSO also said that she would spray into a bucket and just stick my face in it rather than squirting me (oh, how thoughtful of her. lol).

But also, when you go to the academy, you get squirted when you first go in and again before you leave. you also get squirted before you go on duty with the pd. so thats a total of 3 times i HAVE to be squirted. Should i go ahead and make her day (and the rest of those saddistic officers who want to watch) and endure the unnecessary and unpleasantness of pepper spray??

please give me your thoughts...

On July 21st, i saw my first dead body. ever.

i used to think it was no big deal, especially if i didnt know them. its a natural occurance and everyone is going to die one day or another. i've seen horrible pictures (check out rotten.com) and watch CSI and im not queezy at all when it comes to that stuff. my cousin and i actually caught a fish, gutted it, and i held its still beating heart on the tip of my finger without having any saddening thoughts. but on monday, it was a whole new ball game.

our CSO (community service officer) at the pd was determined to let me and my stepmom see the body (my stepmom is the evidence technician, so she needed to know how to extract the urine and blood anyway) even though the M.E. couldnt get to it until later. she made arrangements for us to get a tour of the funeral home/morgue and we were on our way. i told my dad what we were doing and he have me some mint tobacco thingys that are in what look like miniature tea bags to stick up my nose for the smell, so i brought them along. i was actually kind of excited at first, a whole new experience for me and i would be able to test myself to see if i could handle it in real life. we went into the autopsy room and the mortician and our CSO were showing us the tools and stuff they use, etc. and i was totally fine with it. then he went to the back room to bring out the body. i kinda started to get nervous a little bit, then when he opened the door and was wheeling the body out on the gurney, i was like "no freaking way." i could make out the outline of the body and i kept thinking to myself "oh my god, there's a dead person in there" over and over again. i was so rattled on the inside i cant even describe it. i realized no amount of CSI or SVU or ER or any of those acronymed shows could prepare you for what i was about to see. the mortician unzipped the first body bag, then a second and holy crap. i kinda wanted to run out of the room but my feet wouldnt move. my eyes were pryed open and it would be a safe bet i was as white as a ghost.

(due to confidentiality reasons, i cant tell you what the gender was, what their condition was, how it smelled, etc) but i can tell you it was graphic, quite horrifying, and i should have used something stronger than mint tobacco! our CSO gave us some advice before hand, she said its best not to look at the face if you can help it, and if you need to look at the face, dont look at it in the eyes. thank god the mortician went easy on us, he only unzipped the bag down to the belly button. i really didnt want to see the whole body. i just saw from the middle of the nose down. and i think what got me the most was when the mortician was unzipping it, he made the body move. not the whole thing, but just part of the cheek and the nose. the little movements you can control when you are alive. to this day i cant get the picture of the movements out of my head. when i visualize it, thats all i see.

it was a weird few minutes for me. i wanted to run away, be held/comforted and investigate the body all at the same time. of course i just stood there like my feet were cemented to the floor and just stared all bug-eyed at the body and tried not to breath in too deeply.

he finally zipped the body back up and put it away and we left after a few more minutes of chit chat. the CSO and my stepmom were talking about it the whole way back and im sitting in the middle of them keeping my mouth shut and then the CSO says "joie, are you okay?" i just looked at her and said "yeah." i didnt know what to say to her. i didnt know what to say to anybody. i didnt know how to express what i was feeling. i didnt want to seem like a wimp, but later we all talked to the chief and he said he would be worried if i didnt feel something. so guess what guys, im normal. lol.

so that was my first experience with a deceased person. i kinda never want to have the experience again, but going into policing, i know i will. and seeing as i didnt barf or scream, i think it will get easier as i have more experience. but until then, i will revel in not seeing dead people.

and to give you guys an idea of how frazzled i was while he was about to bring the body in, here's a funny little exerpt between me and my stepmom...

Her: "hey, do you have anymore of those little mint things?"

Me: "yeah."

Her: "Can I have one to put in my mouth so i dont taste anything bad?"

I offer one to her already in my hand

Her: "dude. Did you already stick that in your nose?"

Me: "yeah."

Her: "then can I have another one?"

Me: "oh. Right."

lol.

well, i will say so far it has definitely been a summer to remember!