I am here! I am sitting at a table with cool women I just met! It starts any minute!!!
I wrote this post while waiting at the airport last night. Forgive the time warp. I will have more updates later on today.
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Well, I am checked in for my flight. I am feeling slightly less awesome than I otherwise might because my flight is delayed for 3 hours. Apparently there is some Weather in Chicago. I didn’t bring nearly enough entertainment and of course I checked my power cord. Oh well.
I am feeling very sad however, because my dear friend T is going to have her baby this weekend and I am going to miss it. I wanted to be there so badly. She doesn’t need me, though. She is going to be such a rockstar. I suppose I could be wrong, but I doubt it. Bloody show + diarrhea = baby very soon. I don’t think she will still be pregnant when I get home on Sunday. I am SO selfishly upset!
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My baby sister, the fuzz.
My little sister graduated from the Police Academy today. I wish that I could write in any kind of organized fashion about my feelings surrounding this, but I don’t think I can.
Today was the first time I have seen her in her uniform. It was just so weird. My sister’s head and baby face atop this Kevlar clad, multi weapon-ed, COP. I didn’t realize how unsettling it was all day until afterwards at dinner when she had changed her clothes.
It started with this militaristic marching business that was a little hard for me to take. I was having a hard time reconciling my liberal’s healthy disdain for law enforcement with the special day and the fact that fucking A, my sister is a badass.
God. It was just such an emotional day. I was swinging from pride, to eye rolling, to FEAR. I am so afraid something bad will happen to her. There were two especially difficult moments. I was standing next to my mom during this bell ringing ceremony. Officer Sister had just gotten some physical fitness award. All of a sudden it all just seemed like too much and I couldn’t stop myself from asking. ‘How long do you think she will do this?’ My mom said, ‘I don’t know, why?’ and I could barely choke out, ‘Because I am really worried about her,’ before my mom and I were blubbering all over ourselves.
The other brutal moment was when my Dad and I were sitting alone, waiting for something to start, watching the cops pass by. My dad said, ‘they all walk like they have a stick up their butts’. We theorized it probably had to do with the Kevlar and all that gear. Then I confessed my secret disloyal thoughts, and my Dad, a man of very few words said, “In my opinion, this is a very sad day.” I managed to hold in the tears, and mumbled, ‘me too’.
One of her instructors gave a small talk for the families about how to deal with the changes that will result from this job, the possible paranoia, jadedness, and preference to always hang out with other cops. While some of this information was difficult to hear, I enjoyed his speech. He made a few jokes and made it seem a little more human.
After that, we watched a video of the stuff they did in the Academy and it blew my freaking mind. Firstly, it must be noted that Officer Sister has never been a talker. Getting any details out of her is like pulling teeth. The video showed all kinds of crazy shit, and my mom and I just kept gaping at each other in shock. There she was, getting sprayed in the face with mace, lying on the ground shooting a gun, practicing getting attacked by a big fucking scary dog, diving to the bottom of a 20 foot pool to pull someone out of a submerged car. You would think if say, you spent the day doing any of those fucked up things, you might mention it! How was your day, Officer Sister? Fine, she would say.
I guess I knew she was doing stuff like that, but to see it on screen was just so shocking. Like I said, it was an emotional day.
All of this being said, I am trying to get over myself. This is her thing, it is what she wants to do, and I should really just be proud of her. There is no point focusing on the negative aspects of her job. I should instead just think about what a badass she is. It must be hard for her to see the fear in our eyes and know that her family is not entirely supportive.
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Anyway, it has been a really long day. The festivities started at 7:30 this morning, so I have been up since 5:15. Then there was all that turmoil, then saying goodbye to SB, and now the flight delay. I am trying to get back the giddiness I was feeling in my last post. I am sure my next post will contain my usual overuse of caps and exclamation points, don’t worry.
