A couple from our class at church are both police officers. I’ve never had cop friends before, not because I dislike law enforcement but because I just never had the opportunity. Cops always made me nervous. Anytime I saw one, especially while driving, I wondered if I was doing something bad. But after getting to know our cop friends, I’m more comfortable around them. I even went on a ride-along with the guy cop this weekend and had a blast! He (we?) arrested two guys and went on lots of calls – reports of guys hanging out with guns in the parking lot, a burglarized pickup, fireworks in an apartment complex, a domestic violence call, a burglar alarm at a business, a fight, a drunk driver, and a runaway, all in one night. They use an in-car computer system to get information from dispatch and update their status. We were so busy that we didn’t even have time to pull anyone over.

A strange job, law enforcement – everyone you see is a potential criminal, every call you get involves some bad thing that has happened, and you see the ugly side of society that your average person doesn’t. We went to apartment complexes that I would never visit on my own, partly out of fear, partly because the people I hang out with don’t live in “those kind” of apartments. The socioeconomic classes of our society, whose existence we don’t always like to think about or admit, were apparent as we answered the calls. Those who lack money and status seem more likely to be involved in crime than the wealthy or even the middle-class people. Why? I’ll leave that debate for another day.

In other news, we’ve been busy! We had dinner at Lisa’s Sunday night. Monday night we went to the house and worked on the rose bushes (stupid black spot!). Tuesday I had lunch with my friend Scott from high school. He’s now a PhD student in Biblical studies at Boston College, and we had an interesting discussion about the Bible and the modern church. Jenny and I got dinner from a great West African restaurant in Irving Mall of all places. The food is delicious and reasonably priced, but since it’s so different and not very visible in the food court, I’m not sure it’ll be around long, so go try it soon! Afterward we saw Live Free or Die Hard (awesome). Wednesday night I played tennis with some of Jenny’s coworkers. I’ve started tinkering with a two-handed backhand instead of my traditional one-hander. That is all.