Cops are funny...

So today on my way to school I had a cop try and intimidate me.  At least that is the only explanation I can come up with for his behavior.  I'm driving along and a light turns yellow so I stop and next to me in the other lane is a cop car.  I want to say that he pulled up after I stopped but I can't be 100% positive.  Regardless I look over to see who my fellow commuter is and I make eye contact with him.  He had kind of a stern look on his face, I felt like I had done something wrong which I hadn't.  If anything the cop should have gone after the car that barely slipped past the yellow-red light that I was following.  I broke eye contact and desperately ignored the impulse to look back over at the cop to see what he was doing.  After what felt like an eternity dragging its feet passed the light turned green and I was sure that was going to be the end of my cop buddy.

Alas I was mistaken and instead of him speeding away as I had hoped he would, He stayed with me.  In fact he was going slightly under the speed limit.  He was deliberately messing with my head.  I drove like I normally do which means I was obeying the traffic laws and the guy was still pacing me.  It was weird.  We cam to another light and I was sure that he would pass on through and that would be the end of it but again I was wrong.  Instead as I stopped at the light he stopped with his front bumper and the midway point of my car.  What the heck was he doing this for?  I don't speed, I rarely even go through a yellow light.  My car is in working order.  Why me?  Why the law abiding individual instead of the other speedsters around me?  I sat wondering what was going on waiting for the green and wondering what the cop would do after the green light.  Well the light turned green and the cop left me in the dust.  In fact he was one of those speedsters.  Why he thought I deserved that treatment I have absolutely no idea.

I've been told this behavior was typical for the police in the area.  I really hope not.  Then again I also saw a cop flick on his lights so he didn't have to wait at a red light.  I've seen that a couple of times around here actually.  I never saw that at home, doesn't mean it didn't happen of course but I've defiantly seen it happen here a few times.

While I had a cop try and intimidate me I do understand they aren't all like that but I don't like it.  Oh well.  I do like cops.  I have a few buddies that are headed that direction career wise.

Dreaming of home...

I feel fortunate enough to be able to have another place I call home.  Not only does home refer to the US, but for me Scotland.  I sort of adopted it.  My wife is from there and the first time I flew over there I fell in love with Scotland.  There is a song about leaving one's heart in San Fransisco, I left mine in Scotland.  At least a part of my heart anyway.  I honestly cannot describe, or even give reason to the feelings I have for the place but I truly love the place.  The fresh air, the culture, the people, the food.  The feeling is so tangible for me I can literally feel it in the air the moment I step off the plane.  Though my wife would probably disagree I think I get just as excited to visit Scotland as she does.  I've tried telling her that Scotland is as much my home as it is her's, but she claims it on seniority rights having lived there for 19 years of her life.

It is my plan and hope that as soon as I get my business up and running that we'll be able to visit at least once a year.  All my in-laws are in Scotland and I do truly miss them.  My wife and I had the pleasure of hosting Christmas for one of her older brother's and his girlfriend.  We didn't realize who much we would miss them until after they left.  My wife looks forward to the day where we can get most of her family over for Christmas.  It would actually be a cheap visit for most of them seeing as the American dollar is so weak in comparison.

Of course the inspiration of this posting comes from a dream I had last night.  The wife and I were getting ready to visit Scotland.  It was the final stages of of packing as well.  I know this because we were gather all our loose change and paper money to have it changed into pounds (British money) at the airport.  We actually had quiet a bit of change from there as well. about 25 pounds worth.  Sadly I awoke to no such vacation and a longing to once again go "home."  Currently it is covered in snow.  I saw a satellite image of it and it blended in with the clouds.  Sadly we won't have the means to get to Scotland anytime too soon but when we do go I think it is time for another summer visit.  Or perhaps spring as I have never been there in the spring time...

School and goals

Chiropractic school is back in full swing again.  I love my classes. I have a ton of great professors and I am looking forward to learning from them.  Sadly along with the greats you end up with duds but that is life.  I have one professor that takes fifteen minutes to do a two hour lecture.  Needless to say (But I'll say it anyways) the class is utterly lost in confusion.  Also a separate teacher demands respect but gives none thus creating and maintaining an atmosphere of disharmony.  It is wearing thin even for me.  Just as an example of what is going on during role call (yeah we still do that in professional school) an individual the professor was about to call called out "Here" before the proff called his name.  The proff then tore off a piece of masking tape, I think, handed it over to the student and forced him to put the tape on his mouth.  The proff refused to continue with class until the student did so.  The list of offenses is quiet long as well.  I do have to admit the incident I just referred to was fun albeit embarrassing to the student involved. On a more positive note I have a great group of students I'm going through my courses with.  I look forward to seeing them all succeed in the future.

I've been keeping up with my goals for the year.  I'm even ahead of the curve on reading the bible all the way through.  The language constructs used can make for a vary difficult read.  I sometimes feel as if I am in a whirlpool of words where the same idea or phrases even continue to twirl about my head.  What a very dizzy dance of words but I'm trudging along through it and I will persevere.

I know it may not seem like it with my track record but I really do enjoy reading and writing.  The power to take lines to form words to convey a message, or to take words to paint a landscape never before seen, is awe inspiring.  I do want to get better at the art of language so I truly am trying to get better at this blogging craze.  I do write short stories from time to time as well.  I think they are pretty good but I like keeping them among my close family and friends.  I usually share a rough draft with them and fail to polish the thing up to a point where I feel comfortable sharing with the rest of the world.  Oddly enough though I have this lifetime goal to end up with a published work.  Guess I better start working on the polish to get to that point...

welcome to 2010

Finally made it to the year 2010 and in some ways I am really disappointed.  I mean I remember growing up watching the TV and they had all sorts of cool things we'd be doing in 2010.  Where are the hover cars?  Laser pistols? What about the colony on the moon and faster than light travel.  Aside from that though 2010 isn't that bad I suppose.  On a more serious note I've decided to make some goals for myself this year instead of the usual  new years resolutions that don't even last 24 hours for me before I miss them.  While the list is still a work in progress I have a few ready to go.

The first of which I plan on writing more consistently on the blog.  I have a few to maintain but I don't maintain those well either.  This year I have decided I need to be better at this.  It feels odd writing about myself and what I do all day.  I didn't want to write anything boring so I didn't write at all. I was comparing myself to my wife's blog and I've decided to write for me and anyone who wants to read along is more than welcome

Secondly I have never read the bible from start to finish so I'm going to do that this year.  I figured out that if I read 5 pages a day I'll finish by the new year.  I just hope I make it past Genesis :S.

I had a third but I can't remember it right now... perhaps that should be a goal of mine...

Reflections

This probably has to be a first for me two blog posts in a single day.  I was taking the bins out to the road for pickup tomorrow morning.  I love this time of year.  There is a slight chill to the air and the smell of wood stoves fills the crisp-night air.  I just love it.  Living in CA means it doesn't get too terribly cold and I don't have to worry about the snow unlike my sisters.  They are still in Idaho finishing up school.

I love my family.  We are a close bunch and I think that is really important.  We have our share of conflicts but we stand by each other through thick and thin.  I was playing catan online with my sisters and during the post game chat they were talking about watching a movie together and one of them possibly staying the night with the other.  It was then I missed being there at school with them.  This is the first year I have been at school without any of my immediate family within a 15 minute walk from where I am.  I miss it.  I was thinking that if I was still there they would be with my wife and me watching a movie and staying the night at our place even though they probably shouldn't because we'd have homework to finish.  It then occurred to me that actually we wouldn't be doing that because if my wife and I were still in school we would have driven down to Utah Friday to be with my aunt and uncle and their family for thanksgiving.  It would have been the first time we did that.  We would have had a lot of fun.

It is amazing how much can change in so little time.  I'm not a parent but I suppose parents already know this with children that grow so quickly.  This is the time of year we get to reflect on what we are thankful for, what matters most to us, as well as the turkey dinner.  Here in the states we are lucky to have one more holiday for that sort of thing, not many other countries have a thanksgiving.  So remember to tell those people who are important in your life how much they mean to you.  I know I will be.

Death of the Chiropractor...

Blast it all I must really enjoy conflict or something.  I apologize for the dramatics of the title in advanced.  Most of you know I am a Mormon (which I am thankful no longer comes up in spell check as moron). Early in the history of the church there was loads of discrimination .  I really haven't had to deal with that much.  I recognize there are still those who do discriminate us but in general we aren't being thrown in jail for what we believe or being killed for it.  Segue to the next group I have aligned myself with, the chiropractor.

Chiropractics is a fairly young profession.  It was founded around 1890.  This makes us 100 years old but in comparison to medicine as we know it in the west we look to the Greeks for the foundation of medicine.  They are much older than we are and sometimes they push us around.  It reminds me of children at the playground, plenty of room to play yet we still can't play nice together.  As I go through chiropractic school we have some classes that go over the history of chiropractic and seminar speakers that sometimes speak about our history as well.  Some have even lived through it.  It wasn't so long ago that medicine was trying to obliterate us.

I know sometimes the way chiropractors speak we sounds about nutty and that has caused some major conflicts.  Regardless chiropractic does have its place.  We aren't back fixers or crunchers.  We are doctors of the nervous system. We make sure the nervous system is in peak performance so it can take care of the body.  We are real doctors too.  We take many of the same classes your typical doctor does.  Chiropractic is really cool.  It isn't the magic bullet to cure everything it will never replace medicine.  Just like you would not go to a podiatrist for a toothache.  We have our place in the world of health care.  I am really excited about this profession.

I know it will be a constant struggle for my rights as a chiropractor but life is a struggle.  At least the struggle lets me know we are still alive.

My Wife the Martian...

I don't know if you've seen the movie "Martian Child" but if you haven't you should. It is a really good flick. In the movie there is a scene where John Cusack is with the the little boy who is supposedly a Martian proving he is an alien by tasting colors. So John has the little boy close his eyes and eat different colored M&M's telling him which color he has eaten. The boy gets every color right. I'm not stupid, I know it was scripted. Shortly after watching that film the wife and I were at the movies and I of course had to try this out. She guess all of the colors correctly. I thought it was funny and remarkably against the odds. Well I did it again tonight with my wife having her eat different colored "Kissables" seeing as we lacked M&M's. I did this about seven times and she correctly named each color that was in her mouth. I'm blown away and now convinced that she is in fact a Martian.

I knew she was an alien, she is from outside the United States. I didn't know that she was indeed from mars though. Not surprising really. It explains a lot of things actually. She is totally impressive and I am now convinced she has super powers. What I thought were superb skills can actually be attributed to her powers. The way she can always find my lost whatever (mostly keys), keep the house clean without any real effort, lightning wits and so forth. I thought for the longest she was just hiding my keys so she could look impressive but it now appears that she truly is impressive and I was really losing my keys. And yes that is the closest I'll get to admitting I'm wrong. Well I'm off to bed and praying that now I've discovered her secret life she'll not develop a taste for brains or some other vital organ of mine. I'd hate to be dead, I've grown rather fond of her alien or no...