What an awesome 3 days to fill ya’ll in on; easily my favorite weekend out here! I finally caught a glimpse of a “college experience” Friday night, even though I went to college for four years. There was no running home right after class to be home for work, just hanging out with some future rangers, aka my new brothers & sisters, doing none school stuff. I overcame two fears/nervous situations of my own and had a great time in doing so. One more week down, another week and a half to go before a day off…YAY!
Order in the Court
So I was hoping my back would be 100% by today and I could run around like a turd in PT…it wasn’t. I was furious! It probably didn’t help that I took my meds without eating; Franklin the Polar Bear Visits PT…my first book title haha. The class got to run on a sidewalk for 300 meters, being careful to dodge truck beds, trailer hitches, and hippy students along the way, and then run ¾ of a mile. AAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! Stop being a bitch back! They had like 45 minutes to lift after that…what the crap?!?! I may not have been able to lift (I snuck some reps in here & there) but my leadership/ coaching skills kicked in…BIG TIME! A lot of my brothers & sisters are preoccupied with passing the PEB test, specifically the bench press portion. Two students, 1 male & 1 female, in particular have been having near panic attacks over it since we took our pre-test. I didn’t do much for the male aside from cheering him on and giving him a few pointers. He increased his weight and when he did a set he got off the bench and hugged me…awwww hahaha. The female has been busting her ass all program long but I haven’t had a chance to see her tackle her biggest “obstacle”, so I figured it was time to see what she had. She didn’t have to bench that much and I knew she could do it. Her partner had her try to do one rep real fast while he spotted her the entire time; she looked concerned when she was done. Repping the weight is not how we get tested on the PEB so I stepped in and put this little post-pretest test into action. She got back down on the bench and I showed her some breathing and focusing techniques and she calmed herself down. When she looked ready her partner & I moved the barbell to the starting position (just above her chest), she counted to 3 and pushed up. She struggled a little bit but neither of us helped and she was able to lock her elbows out and finish the press. Had this been the actual test, she would have just past. It was the first time she completed the exercise and she still has 6 weeks to improve. I was so happy!
Our dreaded court appearances were just over an hour away and I was so nervous. I was so nervous that I hardly ate lunch. Nick & I picked up Arkansas and headed for the US Magistrate. A Federal Court…whoa. The class met up out in the parking lot then processed inside and through the metal detectors. It was pretty cool seeing the US Marshals working as security officers. We walked into the courtroom and I was shocked to see how small it was. One cool thing our training today - there was no judge present, just our class and 2 of our instructors who were real prosecutors & defense attorneys. Everybody started looking over their case notes as we had a tiny delayed start. Some of us were talking amongst ourselves. I remained quiet and stared at the floor; partially because of nerves, partially mentally preparing my statements, but mostly because one of my group mates was making me absolutely nuts because she was even more worked up than I was so she kept overanalyzing every aspect of our case. I couldn’t help but come to the realization that I just had to make it to 3o’clock without them calling on us and I’d be okay. Court was actually in session at 3 and we got to stay and watch some Federal proceedings…COOL! My partner wouldn’t have it.
Arkansas’ group went first because they were the biggest and had probably the most significant case, a domestic violence suit. Arkansas was the first to take the stand and just as our “prosecutor” hinted we would the day before, she talked calmly and professionally (minus the gum chewing…Jeez!) with the prosecutor but when the defense attorney took cross examined her, the ball game changed. The defense attorney was instructor I referred to as the most boring one of the program…that was in the classroom. This dude was awesome in the court room. He hit Arkansas from all sorts of angles and I hear everybody’s thoughts “Oh F_ck! This just got real! I hope I don’t have to go.” The defense attorney made me laugh because his questions almost couldn’t be answered but we would always throw one final one out there, cut off our responses with “no further questions” and then walk away chuckling to some of us that were sitting by his little table. He picked everybody apart in the first group and everybody’s time concluded with feedback from the prosecutor & the defense.
Our instructor asked which group wanted to go next; my hyper group mate got mad because she was the only one in our group to raise her hand…I got an earful for that. The second group went and basically followed the same pattern with a very entertaining modification. Some of us were talking in PT that morning about how nervous we were. Some of us were saying there was nothing to be worried about as it was just a learning experience. One of the members of the 2nd group completely downplayed the whole event. He was the photographer for his group so he didn’t think he would be questioned too much in the courtroom. Wrong! He got grilled the worst of anybody in the group, I loved it. You couldn’t plan for anything the DA was throwing our way. It was 2:35, almost there! During the 2nd group’s debrief my other group mate interrupted the instructors and asked if we could go next. JERK! 1.) Don’t speak out of turn 2.) JERK! I didn’t want to go…even though I knew I would get a lot out of the experience. It was our turn to go.
We all leave the court room and they start with present us 1 at a time, starting with the officers (contact, then cover), then the more important evidence guy (me), and finally…the last guy. Hyper group mate is inside; I’m outside with Nick & Texas. I could feel how pale I must’ve looked haha. Some of my classmates came outside to use the bathroom and were grateful they didn’t have to go; they kept saying how nervous they were as well and tried to calm me down. I went into the bathroom and when I returned Nick was gone. I was left outside with our class’s version of “That Guy”, and he wouldn’t stop talking. He talked about any and everything. Nothing related to what we were doing. I wanted to scream at him. Everybody involved in the real court proceedings that followed our training were gathering in the lobby with us and some of the officials were making their way into the court room. GREAT! “That Guy”, or Texas, kept on jabbering…I was actually relieved to be summoned into the court room but my nerves were no better. I walked up to our student acting clerk to be sworn in and then headed to the stand but not before cracking a joke to some of my class mates that were sitting right next to the witness stand.
I was just as nervous with the prosecutor (on my team) as I was with the DA. The real court uses the microphones that were right in front of us, I kept talking into them when I responded…they weren’t turned on. My newly discovered nervous reaction, dry mouth coupled with difficulty in speaking. It stuck with me the entire time I was being examined. If I felt my responses couldn’t be heard, I leaned in closer to the powerless microphones hahahahahaha. I was smart last night. I had a feeling I’d be asked about the type of camera I used to take the crime scene photos, I just thought the DA would ask me not the prosecutor. At any rate, I made sure to look up the specs of the camera before going to bed. We were taught a basic introduction in class the day before and most of the class used the same information in their responses, I changed it up a little bit. The prosecutor was done with me and then it was time for Mr. DA. I kept the same demeanor so that’s a plus, but when he started questioning me I got locked in with some serious tunnel vision. He focused on 3 pictures, a foot print in the snow, the bottom of the suspect’s foot, and a picture of the suspect. (below)
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| Follow the Tracks |
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| Boot |
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| Suspect |
The only thing he could hammer me on was there was no measuring instrument next to the footprint…but he kept digging on me. He focused on the picture of the suspect, a 20 year old girl…who I couldn’t tell was a girl until the end of the day of our scenarios (I had a total of 20seconds of contact with her). She smiled in the picture; he asked if I said something to make her laugh because he felt that she should be sad in such an event. The picture was from her torso up; he asked if I took it that way instead of just a headshot because I thought she was a cute girl. I didn’t think I could say I thought she was a boy hahahahaha. He kept harping on these two points and he got me a little rattled, admittedly. He pulled his “no further questions” bit but this time he looked back at me and we laughed at each other. Damn I’m glad that’s over. Everybody from real court came in and we had to shift around so all of the essential people could be where they needed to be. I made my way over to the DA and shook his hand, we had a laugh, and he said he’d explain later. Later never came because court went on so long.
It was pretty interesting seeing what happens at Federal Court. We witnessed 4 hearings and every suspect was escorted in by US Marshals; cuffed at the wrist, waist, & ankles. I sat or stood next to the family of the suspects, that was interesting. One dude was 19 years old. I forget exactly what he did but it involved breaking in & staying in a residence and something with a knife. It was 2 charges, if convicted (it was his preliminary hearing) he could face up to 21 years! WHOA! It was hard to make out what the other 3 guys did. One of them got a “sweet deal” according to our prosecutor instructor but his family was hysterical….AWKWARD to be standing next to all of that. I looked like I was working security when I was standing at the courtroom door haha. One of the cases involved 2 FBI agents being cross examined the same way we were. They got jammed up a lot by the DA just as we did so that made me feel better. In that particular case they were trying a man whose criminal record was longer than a baseball season; he was arrested for public intoxication alone over 110 times. His parents were sitting next to us. His dad couldn’t function on his own in his wheel chair and his mom couldn’t breathe on her own; at one point I held the door while they exited the room to change her oxygen tank. That really sucks to have such a scumbag for a son.
There was talk of a post-court Diablo Burger visit (the organic burger joint I mentioned waaay back in my post about the pre-academy meet & greet that I couldn’t eat at…because I ate at the meet & greet) but that quickly got 86’d due to their cash only policy. Rangers don’t carry cash apparently. Curtis has been hyping up this place called Big Foot BBQ ever since I’ve known him so we decided to give it a whirl. Big Foot BBQ is a local favorite so that’s cool but there’s just something odd about having to walk around a gift shop then down the stairs into the basement to get to it. Even odder, it’s in a female clothing store. Want even stranger? There’s a kids’ corner that has toys and crap in it. The kid’s corner also has a Spongebob Squarepants television set. The TV was locked on the stock market channel! They start the kids out early here in Flagstaff. There were normal options on the menu but they also said strange things, namely alligator. Ranger DuB opted for the wings. They my favorite eating out side dish, sweet potato fries. COOL! They top them with sugar…GROSS! My sister dumps sugar on her food as a trick she learned to help prevent overeating…what is up with this place!?!?
When we were done eating we all headed upstairs and I checked out the little gift shop. There were all kinds of cool stuff in the mini mall we were in and I thought, “hey I need to come back here sometime.” The courthouse was located downtown and there was so much around that I hadn’t seen yet. On ride home, 2 of the Laurens wanted to figure out something to do seeing as it was Friday night. Some people were talking about going to see Rango but we just missed the next earliest show time and the next one didn’t start until 10…TOO LATE. They mentioned something about FREE art walk around the downtown area…whoa I was just saying that I wanted to come back and walk around there. Nick & I had enough time to spread the word, get changed, and head right back out the door. We picked up Travis & headed to the meeting spot.
I’ve been by downtown Flagstaff on a weekend night but never through it; it was awesome! Nick summarized it as a college town with an old time feel to it…or something. There were college kids and adults everywhere, if that makes sense. The college kids were bar hopping and the adults were shop hopping. There were street performers juggling, some dude had a telescope set up and was letting people look up at Orion’s Belt through it. If you’re into art then I highly recommend you head over to Flagstaff. They have a bunch of art galleries to check out. That was basically the “art walk”, walk around town and stop in the various galleries…drink their liquor or coffee and eat their Chex mix while the artists try selling you their work. I was getting all culturized and I immediately thought of my boy Nic, the what is it artist, back east. I texted him and told him his stuff should be up there. Some of the galleries had live music and I thought my boy Sean Cox should be there playing, or at 1 of the 209424 bars in the area, but I didn’t tell him that because he never answers my texts about coming out here & playing.
We hit a few places and saw some great work. If I won the lottery I’d buy a bunch of this stuff and display it all over my mansion. In the meantime, I can’t afford your $900 painting of a red rock mountain. Some of us grew bored and Nick, the nondrinker of all people, suggested we go somewhere for a drink. Don’t worry he stayed strong, no drinkie for him. We went to this place called Maloney’s because I thought it was an Irish pub…it wasn’t but it was still cool. They had 2 for 1 drinks on just about everything and Owen appreciated the staff’s uniforms. Six of us crammed into a half shell looking booth but none of us cared. We all looked relieved to be acting like normal people or something. We were going to just have one drink and be on our way since the waitress asked if we wanted a tab or to close out when she brought us our drinks…mine being the wrong one but whatever. I would’ve loved to walk around some more, there’s a lot more to see but most of the places were closed. The one drink would’ve planned if Travis wasn’t so observant and super nice.
Some guys sat down at the table next to us and when one of them took their jacket off, his wallet fell out. Travis brought it to the guys attention and sat back down. Their waitress came by 5 minutes later and asked what drink he was drinking. It was hard to hear her question and he responded that he was okay and we’d be leaving. She told him the wallet guy wanted to buy him a drink and he obliged. The drink she was referring to was actually Owen’s and it was in the biggest beer mug I’ve ever seen. We’re not going anywhere at this rate. We apparently got to Maloney’s at the right time because it soon got packed…and then the music started pumping. We hung there for about two hours watching Spurs/Heat game, listening to music, talking about the class, and getting confessions that girls actually fart. It was a good change..being social and all. When we left they had bouncers in place and a small line to get in. JEEZ! Regardless, we all loved that place and if we had to have a normal spot to hang out...that’d be it.
Getting up tomorrow might be rough. Six o’clock comes early. Our first weekend shooting! I was so excited that I couldn’t sleep so I put on Machete…thank you Netflix.
Good Night
Pound the Potato
Saturday & Sunday were both very fun days. Very long fun days. Nick or I drive a carpool any time we do something, if you haven’t figured that out already. We were a little delayed in getting over to pick up Travis, he wasn’t ready either. Then we got John, after driving around his complex to find his apartment, and headed to meet the rest of class on campus. Everybody was dragging ass and the instructors were not happy. The parade left 15 minutes later than we were supposed to and the instructors floored it, losing everybody at a red light. Great, our first time going out here and our leaders just bounced.
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| Home on the Range |
The range is in beautiful Sedona. We eventually found it; an all outdoor range on a converted parking lot that you need to almost go off-roading to find. Setting everything up took awhile, which also pissed off our instructors, but they were very cool after that. They are very cool period. We recapped everything we did in class and during that indoor extra session when our first shooting weekend got snowed out and then we moved to the live stuff. Our head instructor created these mini targets that are the size of our scoring zone for qualifiers that are camouflaged so you don’t see where the shots go, 1 on top of the other for you & your partner. I’m no sharpshooter but I nailed my target perfectly every time. Typically classes use these “subtargets” the entire first day. We were supposedly so good that we moved on to the real targets just after lunch.
Someone broke out a Frisbee during lunch; I joined in after taking some pictures of our surroundings, calling Laura, and spotting a few lizards. Our instructor’s dog, Scout, loved chasing the lizards into hiding all day long. Very funny to watch. Lunch was the only time we got a chance to sit for more than a minute or two which was killer on my back and legs which made the day seem longer.
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| This is Scout, those marks are so I can align my hands for my grip |
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| Scout on the prowl... |
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| ...trying to catch 1 of these lil buggers |
We wrapped up shooting around 3 so we could clean up the range and then learned how to clean our guns. That’s quite the process. We headed home but not before stopping at a space themed diner in the heart of tourist trap Sedona. I felt like I was vacation myself. It was 71 degrees and sunny outside. We all had some fresh sunburn coming in and there were tourists all over the place. The red rocks of Sedona are amazing and there are several creeks and small waterfalls all over the place. People wanted to try the movie again so that meant Nick & I had time to get home to shower, change, and pick up our “fares” hahaha. It looked like everybody in Flagstaff had the same idea, the place was the most packed I’d ever seen it and I forgot my “season pass cup”, CRAP! Rango was sold out so us rangers adapted quickly and we went with Hall Pass….THANK GOODNESS WE DID!
Yes, the plot of Hall Pass is extremely predictable but they throw so many shock value curveballs at you along the way that keep you laughing throughout the entire movie. Jason Sudeikis tried too hard to be funny but has plenty of great lines in it. It was cool seeing Christina Applegate acting again and I’m willing to bet that Nicky Whelan will blow up like Megan Fox did after the first Transformers…despite being older. I love when I see movies and you can pick out people and remember other movies and things that you’ve seen them before; this movie has plenty of them but I’ll let you play “I Spy” on your own. It’s only a matter of time before everyone you know starts saying “pound the potato” and trying to recite the “Dublin” pick-up line. I wonder how many relationships will be affected by this movie haha.
We had to stop at the grocery store for lunch stuff but I was exhausted. Just as we were about to checkout I dropped a plastic bottle of Fuze Iced Tea. The cap shattered and the entire bottle poured out on the floor. These ladies, who I could best describe as White Trash Wildebeests, shot me this nasty look like I just dropped a dump on the floor, smuggled it into a package of brownies, and restocked the package on the shelf. It was an accident! We tried finding somebody to tell but it was late and there were like 3 people working. The ladies watched us walk all the way to the register until they heard our cashier announce the spill on the intercom. I guess they thought we were leaving the scene of the crime.
Got home and crashed nearly mid-goodnight text to La Stone
Shootie & The Blowfish
We had to get an earlier jump on today’s festivities so not to piss the instructors off & get more shooting in so I was up at 5:15. Put on more sunblock than yesterday, e-mailed an assignment to our director, and made sure everything was ready our journey. Nick was up around 6, we out the door 10 minutes earlier than usual but I wish I grabbed some breakfast before leaving. Dang.
We came out of the switchbacks and entered the main area of touristy Sedona and we could see several hot air balloons drifting pretty low to the ground. It was an awesome sight. I instantly thought of my mom, she loved those things. It was easier to find our way this morning, there was a group of our classmates waiting for us at the gate already. They camped out overnight in the area. How cool is that!?! Everybody was shocked to find out that I’ve never been camping before so now a couple people want to take me out somewhere. COOL!
Shooting started off kind of slow for me today, I guess I was still waking up. Our lead instructor recapped some points from yesterday including why some people shoot too low. My first two shots of the day, too low…almost wiener shots. He jokingly kicked me in the butt. My next two shots were dead center…he immediately came back and hugged me…told you they were cool. We got new partners today so I shot with John, one of our former Marines. From what I’ve seen the past two days, he’s easily the best shooter in the class. We’ve got plenty of other good shooters; I’m up there with some of the better ones when I remain focused. John was showing me something with my grip in between firing sessions and the rest of the line had their firearms holstered. The instructor asked if the line was ready and everybody kept saying no…I didn’t know why. Oh yeah it was because of me…derrrr.
The instructors kept saying that we were advancing faster than any other class they had…and that they don’t always say “oh you’re the best class we ever had”…but we were practicing the night scenario that we don’t do until the 4th night (I think) after just a day and a half of shooting. That’s cuz we’re unstoppable. Highlights of today - we did weak hand only & kneeling shooting and I got to step back into the ring against a 12guage shotgun. I squared off against our academy gun’s cousin down in Virginia back in September and put a slug through a roof of a target stand, sending hay & possibly a bird’s nest into Oblivion. When it came time to shooting at our own pace today, I was the first one squeezing shots off…vengeance was mine.
The taxi wanted to swing by Wendy’s on the way home. Can you believe Travis has never been to Wendy’s before in his life?!?! His newly experienced fast food joint is where I got some bad news regarding one of my brothers from my concert security days. His girlfriend & mother of his son passed away today. I don’t know the details, I’m sorry I can’t be there to give him my regards, but I’m thinking of him and his family.
I got to talk to Brother DuB briefly on Saturday night. I’ve been slacking a little bit with keeping in touch with the DuBs, understandably, but it was good to hear from him.
Remember when I mentioned Laura’s “Pursuit of Happyness” moment? Well that 1 day a week job may be turning into a full-time gig…if she wants it. Good News for her!
Back to the school routine tomorrow. Pray for my back because I’m putting myself through PT regardless of how it feels in the morning….I’ll keep you updated on how that works out.
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| The action shot would've been better than this pose like a goon real quick before we get yelled at shot but Brice is slow on the camera trigger |
Flagstaff Observation
We All Be Different This is more of a life observation that I first made back in my freshman year of college but I become more interested in how different everybody I know is. Taking music taste among my buddies out here. I can’t even classify Nick’s taste, classic rock or something? He hardly knows any of the popular songs on the radio these days. Travis who is a country music freak with a mix of Eminem and some of the mainstream harder type music, but he doesn’t know a lot of songs on the radio either. I didn’t think John liked music at all but it turns out he’s into country as well. It makes agreeing on songs to listen to on the ride to the shooting range very difficult but this is just a small scale on how...not to be corny…unique everybody is.
I have a million other comparisons going through my head right now but I’ll spare you.
MOUNT UP!!!
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