911, Where is your emergency?

I don't know how many people are aware, but I have begun working as dispatch at University Police here on campus. So far, I have really enjoyed it! It's been fun to learn about how much they do for the safety of the students. I like all the people I work with, including the other dispatchers, the supervisors, and yes - even the officers.

At first, all the officers were nothing but a number (a badge number) to me. "Northwest to 808," was all the contact I had with them. Soon after, however, I was able to spend some time with each of them in the office and get to know them. They are all completely unique and despite their professional, powerful, no-nonsense image they present - are all quite funny at times. I suppose that the best way to relieve the stress of being an officer is laughing, and these people are good at it!

I worked my first 8-hour shift on Friday night. I know, right? Friday night in a college town, 6 inches of snow, and I'm working dispatch. I got to experience 2 separate fire alarms. The first was for my benefit and was an office building in which everyone had gone home for the night. An officer pulled the alarm so I could practice what to do in that situation. Approximately an hour later, another one went off in one of the residence halls. It turned out to be a girl singed her hair with a straightener (the alarms are sensitive sometimes) but it was enough to register 5% smoke in the room, so who knows..

One of the most requested and least favorite jobs of the officers is jump-starts. People call in when their cars won't start. First of all, everyone should have some jumper cables, just in case. If not, they should at least know someone who does. I can think of 4 off the top of my head who I know have a set and would come help me whenever I called. Gotta love friends! Sometimes I have to tell people that we cannot help them because either the battery pack is not charged (due to so much use), the officer(s) are busy, or they are out of our area - yeah, people from across town have called wanting a jump-start when we are the University Police, not affiliated with the city.

Funny thing about our officers - they have more jurisdiction than Maryville's police. They are state certified and can not only chase you off campus, but across the city, the county and sure, even the state. That's a common misconception of campus officers.

I was able to volunteer for an active shooter training drill put on by the University for the officers of all local law enforcement divisions. I got to be a civilian and sometimes a casualty. It was cool to see how quick and efficient the 4-man team was at clearing rooms and taking out threats using any means necessary. We would set up different scenarios every time for the officers and then, BOOM! The AR-15 filled with blanks would go off in the hands of the 'bad guy' dressed in camo. They would then have to navigate the building, searching, helping and asking questions of us civilians until they found the threat. I really enjoyed that.

Impromptu and Unplanned (and Possibly Redundant)

I have had a very productive week! The search for housing has begun in Maryville. Yep, the housing rut is in full-swing up here at Northwest. It started earlier this year than ever before, according to all the landlords around. That being said, Alex and I have decided not to repeat what we did last year. It went a little something like this: having no plan, whatsoever. At first, we were considering living off campus, and had scouted a few options around town. When those plans fell through, mostly because we didn't realize the speed at which open houses fill up, we decided maybe we'd just live on campus one more year. There was one problem, however - the 09-10 housing had already taken place on campus. That left us homeless. We were put on a waiting list for the residential halls here on campus and finally got a message in the summer that we had been assigned to a room. Stress was unnecessary and could have been avoided. So, I told that story to tell this story. This year we have already toured 2 duplexes, which we liked. We learned today that the one we liked the best had already been claimed. We now have scheduled 2 more tours for tomorrow afternoon, so hopefully we will find a winner there.

Now that we will be living off campus, our routines will change slightly, not to mention we will have to provide our own furniture, decorations (which will most likely be minimal and limited to only outdoorsy, masculine items and colors ha) and FOOD! We have tried our hand at the whole cooking thing, and so far it's working out well. We purchased a skillet, some Crisco, and a whole lot of napkins and have fried deer loin, catfish, and yes, even the squirrels made famous by the previous post.

I have taken 2 tests, which I am confident I did well on, although the results are not back yet. I also wrote 2 papers in the last 2 days.

For the Superbowl (resulting in a Saints win, with which I am pleased), a bunch of people, including myself, showed up at the BSU to watch it on the projector screen. It was a great time. Free snacks. We even played a form of fantasy football, where everyone drew a players name when they arrived and whenever that player did something note-worthy, a certain, predetermined number of points were awarded. For every 10 points, you could add your name to the prize drawing, which took place at the end of each quarter. Alison won a Nerf gun, so that means I won a Nerf gun (thanks AL!).

Yesterday I went home on a surprise visit for mom's birthday. It worked out perfectly. She was in the shower when I arrived, so she didn't hear me come in. I was sitting at the kitchen table when she came out and she was excited to see me. It was nice to spend a few hours at home too, since I haven't been there in a couple weeks.

Our Intermural basketball team, The Tune Squad, won our second game tonight. We are now 2-0.

I finished training for my new job working dispatch for University Police here on campus. After a few more hours of supervised work, I will be working the night shift (12am-8am) one night per week and possibly one night of the weekend, which doesn't usually get a good reaction, but remember - we're in college, we can handle the late nights (especially just one a week). I have some time during the day to nap too, before and after work, so that will help. I am really enjoying the job and am excited to continue working and getting paid too, of course.

Like I said, busy week. But it's been a 'good' busy.

Nine in the Afternoon

This weekend was the BSU's January Retreat at God's Mountain camp in Rushville, MO. The Northwest Bearcat BSU was joined by the Griffons of Missouri Western, Truman State Bulldogs and NCMC Pirates' BSUs as well. We arrived about 6 pm Friday evening, and got a game of floor hockey in before the first session. Speaker of the weekend was John Hill from somewhere in Ohio, I believe. He did a very good job and spoke on Apologetics - Why do we believe what we believe? He referenced a book, "I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist", which I have read and thought was a really cool book, explaining why after weighing the facts, it would take more faith to believe there is no god that to believe in the one true God. It was a good weekend, and it's always fun to meet new friends from different places. Especially friends who share an interest and love of God.

4pm Saturday afternoon, Alex and I arrived at my house. There was just enough daylight left to head out and shoot the newest addition to the Wright's arsenal - a .44 caliber stainless steel black powder pistol!

Sunday, 3pm: Alex and I had just arrived at my favorite squirrel hunting location and literally been there 2 minutes before we saw 2 squirrels. Of course, if you are familiar with the hunting tradition of myself or Alex, you will understand that these 2 squirrels had about a 1% chance of living after having been spotted by us. We traveled farther in the timber and managed to bring out another in a short time. By then we had to get back to Maryville for some meetings and what-not. Another good weekend, accomplished.