The First of the Year

Cleaned up at Goodwill yesterday.  Am pretty excited because I fit into a lot of pants that are the next size down from what I was wearing. 

I wasn't planning on shopping at all, but I took a good hard look at my closet and realized I probably should:  2 pairs of my favorite jeans recently ripped in unfixable places, and the jeans I was wearing on Saturday are now so big that I swim in them.  And not the cute "her jeans are a size too big" big, but more like "she looks like a clown in those jeans" big.  Plus, I'm down to 4 pairs of work pants, 3 of which the waist sags because they are no longer the right size. 

My Goodwill loot:  5 long sleeve shirts, 2 sweaters, 9 pairs of work pants, 1 pair of Born shoes, and 2 pairs of jeans...

Can you tell what my favorite colors to wear are...???

My favorite deal of the day...a new pair of pants from the Limited with their original tags on...

I feel bad talking about my Goodwill good luck when crap is happening elsewhere though:

One of my friends is fairly verbal on the subject of police officer safety, and posts all officers killed from the Officer Down Memorial Page.  (If you ever want to be humbled or read something sad - go to ODMP.org and read the posts and the reflections.)

On January 1st at 6:30 am, my friend posted:  "We ended 2011 with 163 law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty, an increase from 2010. We start 2012 with a blank slate. Each New Year presents an exciting possibility that memorial services can go on hiatus for the entire year. But in such times of discourse, misunderstanding, wariness, and training budgets being cut, I know it's just a matter of time before we put the black bands over our badges.


Love your police officers, deputies and troopers. You may not always see eye to eye, but they're keepers at the gate separating you from evil."

Just 4 HOURS later, he writes: "It didn't take long... New Year's Day isn't half over and already two law enforcement officers are dead. Keep their friends and families in your thoughts and prayers."

One officer is from my state; no, I didn't work with her, but I know people who did.  This is her ODMP page.

You want to know the part of my job that gets me? Its this.  I can deal with the crying callers, listening to people scream in the background of collisions, officers yelling over the radio.  I can compartamentalize that until it no longer affects me as much as it once did.  But this is what I worry about - hearing someone's last words on the radio.  Knowing that they will never able to sign out of service again.  And to tell you the truth, its probably the biggest fear of all dispatchers:  we want our "guys" to come home safely at the end of every night. 

So, if you want to pray for people you haven't met, pray for the men and women in law enforcement.  Pray for their families, whose daily worry is so much greater than my own. 
 
* Climbs off soap box *
 
One resolution I have made, and try always to keep, is this: To rise above the little things.
~ John Burroughs