Last night I went on a Ride-Along with the Carlsbad Police Department. Those guys are a ton of fun, and I'd gladly do it again.. Although next time I plan on going on a Friday or Saturday night downtown so I can see some of the more crazy action.

When I first got to the station, I arrived just in time to sit in on a report made by this teenager who was beaten the crap out of for his iPod. A big gang jumped him, and one of the perps even stomped on his head! Ouch! The poor kid was struggling to give an accurate description of what happened, but it was obvious that he was really fuzzy headed from being bashed around so much. The officers wanted everything taken care of as soon as possible so they could get a warrant to get the guys.

Then I got in a car with one of the officers to go out on patrol. The first thing we come across is this SUV trying to turn around in the middle of a busy street, but not doing a very good job of it. Finally the vehicle got turned around, and started traveling all over the road, really slow. So we pull him over. The minute the SUV parks, the guy behind the wheel GETS OUT OF HIS CAR and starts walking towards the patrol car. The officer yelled at him to get his ass back in the car, and at first the guy didn't seem to understand what she was saying. When she pulled out the gun he scrambled back into his seat. Turns out he was from Germany, spoke VERY little English, and was completely lost. Idiot.

After that we go to a supermarket where another officer is taking a shoplifting report and reprimanding the girl who did it. She was a complete wreck, crying so hard she couldn't even speak. The store manager let her off easy, telling her she was welcome back in the store only if she started paying for stuff instead of stealing it. It was pretty obvious that she had a serious eating disorder. She was skinnier than Calista Flockhart - complete skin and bones (AND TALLER THAN ME). Her jeans were barely hanging off of her, it was so sad. The officers were trying to convince her to get some help if she couldn't help but steal stuff all the time. When both of the officers and I left the grocery store, I explained to them that she probably was a binge-and-purger, judging by the size of her body and all the candy and fatty snacks that were stuffed in her purse. Then I told them what would happen to her body if she continued. They turned a little green on that one lol.

Then we responded to a theft call at a restaurant. A Marine who had just returned from Iraq walked out from having dinner to discover that his brand-spanking new motorcycle was NOT parked where he left it. That has to really suck. Hopefully they'll find it in one piece.

After that it was random stuff like speeding, registration issues, noise complaints, yadda yadda. Oh, and we also made a recruit walk into a grocery store in full uniform and buy us some Peeps (those sugar-covered marshmallow easter things) just for the heck of it. Someone else had some Jelly Bellys, so we were feeding random flavors to other officers and watching their reactions. Hard work, huh?

All in all I had a really great time. The people in the department are all really cool and FAR from uptight, which is always a plus. I highly recommend anyone to go on a ride-along, even if it's just for fun. Very entertaining stuff.

My best friend, Cami, came down from Seattle to visit Cecillia and I for the weekend. MAN that chica has got to move down here SOON, because we have WAY too much fun. Cecillia has a 4 month old baby boy named Corban, whom we like to call our nephew. Everywhere we went it was like the Three Hot Chick Amigas and The Baby. I liked seeing people try to puzzle out which of the hotties was the mama.

On Friday night, Cami and I got all decked out and went downtown San Diego to go clubbing. We ended up going to Deco's. For the first hour or so we were just chillin' and drinking double rum and cokes. We were being pretty mean to the poor boys though... every time a guy or two came up to try a pass at us or dance with us, we totally blew them off. Some of them we would give a song to, just to let them have their fun, but a single song was just about all we could take with them... Seriously.. GUYS: LEARN TO DANCE CLUB-STYLE so we do not laugh at you. This one guy walked up to me and just wouldn't shut the hell up. He kept babbling something about Huskies. I eventually stopped smiling and nodding and resorted to the completely blank thousand-yard stare to get rid of him. GUYS: Don't talk yourself into the ground. We will grind our heels on you while you're down there... After all of this went on for a while, these two really hot guys (who had been observing all of this from the corner) came up and politely asked if they could have a go (they really *were* watching!). GUYS: When you dance with a girl in a club, SHUT THE HELL UP and DANCE! This isn't a damn date. It's dancing, and it's way better when you don't say a word. This is also a good safeguard against making yourself sound like a complete moron.

We ended up dancing with them for the next 3 hours. Now THAT is how guys should dance... really well without dancing like you're Woody Woodpecker drilling a hole in her leg/thigh/ass/whatever.

Cami and I finally made it back to Cecillia's, and the next day we all went to the San Diego Zoo. I think we walked about 20 miles or something in the six something hours we were there, but it all went by so fast. We got some great pics too. I got a shot of this big giant male Orangutan holding a piece of cardboard over his head with both hands and glowering at the crowd while sticking his lower lip out. Another one was standing up on his legs and hunching over with his back turned to the crowd like he wasn't going to do anything, and then quickly chucking a small tree branch way up over his head, trying to get it over the top of the enclosure and into the crowd. He would do it over and over again, only looking up over his shoulder once each toss and then looking away as if he thought he could get away with it. Later on down the path, we came across a handler who was taking a giant Indian Porcupine for a walk.....

Yeah, that's right, the damn thing had its own harness and leash and was being taken on a WALK. It was the size of a full-grown Golden Retreiver. Do NOT stand behind that thing when it backs up. They should have alarms on crap like that.

Sunday, we all went to Pacific Beach to lie in the sun and play in the water. These itty bitty Marine boys (looked like they just got out of Boot Camp... either that or high school) were trying really hard to get our attention by tossing a football back and forth only a few feet in front of our towels. It would have been amusing, except for the fact that all three of us girls were glaring at them because they dared to throw an object around close enough to possibly hit Corban, if they missed catching it.... At one point we were all lying down and I hear this "HEADS UP!!" and I shoot up just in time to see this damn football crash into the sand only two feet from the baby's carrier and a prepubescent Marine land in a fully stretched position (missing catching the football, of course). The guy just looks at me and says "Almost had it!!" and then stayed in that position, reaching out for the football, for a good 10 seconds (as if I would give him a medal or something), before getting his ass out of our way and out of range of my weapon-worthy umbrella.

After that episode, I'm checking out guys walking by. I see this one guy coming by in one of those shirts that strongly hint of the color PINK (as if there is a guy's version of PINK or something). I turn to Cami and say "Holy shit I hate tho-..... OH MY GOD... ZEB?!!?" The guy stops and looks at me and takes off his sunglasses and goes "Holy shit, Erica?" Yep, small ass world we have here. Zeb was a longtime bouncer at the bar I always played pool at while going to school at WSU - in Washington State.

So there you have it. A weekend with wild club dancing, super hot dancing guys, Orangutans that fling branches instead of poo, Marine Jarheads, and the legendary Small World Experience. I'd say it was a pretty complete and fun-filled weekend.

Oh. And I got a tan.

So I went into my storage unit on Saturday to find a pair of shoes to go dancing in Hollywood in.... This particular storage unit is where every single thing I own is stored, including antique (very valuable) furniture, all my clothes, books, photos, you name it.

.... The entire back end flooded. Most of my cardboard boxes were completely saturated. All of my books got SO WET that they DISINTEGRATED when I picked them up. Big soggy pulpy messes. I AM SO UPSET!

The worst part was that my very special giant photo album full of baby pictures was soaked. I am picking it apart now trying to salvage all my baby photos. Most of the older pictures are completely ruined, because the ink lifted completely off the photo papers.

THIS SUCKS!!!!