18 and life to go

On the Thursday following my trip to Denver, I had planned to take Nicole, a girl I worked with, disc golfing for her 18th birthday. Nicole is a very sweet person whom, I believe, understands much that people simply do not understand around here in terms of helping others and the simple concept that being pleasant towards others goes light years beyond the alternative. At the same time, I do worry about her. But who doesn't worry about the future of someone they care about?

Much of our trip was typical and uneventful. We went shopping (I bought a few new cds...new Norah Jones...AWESOME!); we ate dinner at an Applebees--I had an oriental wrap). The real excitement came, however, at the disc golf course. There is a rather quaint looking red house in the middle of this disc golf course. For years I've played this course never seeing anyone on this property. The only signs of life consisted of a general upkeep of the place and two dogs running around a fenced in yard. This day was much different. On walking toward the first tee box, we encountered no fewer than seven police cars and one swat van with what seemed like an infinitude of police officers strewn across the property, each with full armor and weapons. "Yikes," I thought, "there must be some sort of drug bust." I soon realized that the officers seemed to be chatting with no major concern for their safety. Come to find out: one of the officers lived there and-I'm assuming-they had just gotten back from some sort of major arrest. The oddest part was still to come. After making par on the first hole (oh yeah!), I approached the beginning of the second hole only to find my path on a collision course with two heavily armed police officers. I don't care if you've done absolutely nothing wrong in the entirety of your life, heavily armored men with giant guns coming your way, the prototypical soldier look, is bound to give you slight cause for panic and concern and, from the perspective of most of America, be very surreal. After some brief banter with the two officers, I invited them the throw a disc or two. They played hole two with us and were good. Not exactly what I expected when I awoke that morning. Then again, I never expected to move to Eastern Europe either. I love life!

Peace, Love, and Happiness,
Brian