Today was Take Your Kids to Work Day at the crime lab. I was on casework so I didn't get to play with the kids but they got to do all kinds of cool stuff. My work set up a mock crime scene across the street in the park. Somebody murdered SpongeBob.
ho no!!!
So little yellow sponge bits were strewn around the park as a staged crime. They also got to play with fingerprint powder, make latex glove balloons, play with the lights and sirens on our Crime Scene vans, and generally wreak havoc on all the cops. Oh, and there was face painting.
The kids also got to see the Bomb Squad robot. He's the guy we send in when we don't want to blow up.
And the Equestrian NYPD made an appearance so that the kids could see the horses. Strange that we have these animals roaming the city with police on their back like it's 1840. But I approve. It'd be a cooler detail than the bike patrol.
I can't wait to have kids so I can show em all the cool stuff in this world.
You know you're working too hard when your belly ring pops out in the middle of a case.
Worked a 9-hour Saturday overtime shift today and had an hour-long talk with my boss. He made me feel better about a lot of things.
Until tonight, I hadn't eaten a meal since Thursday. No one at work knows that of course, just Jason.
Strive on, tirelessly.
Subpoenaed for Manhattan Supreme Court. Woo boy. I volunteer for the court cases at Evidence Control because I'm masochistic like that and no one else wants them. I just like the field trips around the city.
spring
Most certainly one of the most beautiful times to be in the city. We've hit 90 degrees so far, but most days are 65-75 degrees. Here are some photos of my neighborhood and the blocks surrounding my apartment that I walk everyday.
A favorite place of mine down the street from my apartment, where I am often found reading in the sun.
The perpetual chess game in the park. These men NEVER leave unless it's pouring rain or nighttime. I can't remember a single nice day in the past 4 years when they have not been there.
A block from our apartment, one of several neighborhood theaters within walking distance. I pass underneath its marquee everyday on my way to the subway.
He's in my favorite reading spot. Amusing karma: I took this picture of the guy reading here, and today when I was sitting in this very spot a man took a photo of me reading here. Pass on the creepy.
My link to everything and the reason I haven't paid for gas in 4 years.
recommendation for non-newyorkers
If you're ever going to visit, come in May or September. Best weather ever. Midsummer gets pretty hot with all this cement, but spring and fall months are the best.
Well I suppose I picked a good week to be MIA from work with this luminary weather and all. My surgery was switched last minute from Lasik to PRK due to motherfuckery in my left eye, thus increasing healing time significantly. I was planning on only being out of work for two days last week, until an hour before surgery when they pulled the switcheroo on me. PRK takes about a week to heal but of course I'm stubborn and went back to work anyway. I had a big alprazolam case due in court and I don't like that pressure hanging over my head so I donned some sunglasses and made it happen.
For like two hours.
My eyes got pissed and I looked like Michael Jackson in a labcoat so I finished the reports and went home before lunch (Please note: I got subpoenaed for court the day after surgery of course, but our court liaison is awesome and texted me throughout the day that she took care of it) and so I spent the rest of the week out. But ughhhhh, I have a new appreciation for blind people, there were some rough moments last week. Despite the healing time, the surgery works. I have not worn glasses or contacts since last Monday, since the eradication of my corneal epithelia.
Yes, I watched as a spinning blade scraped away the top of my eye. Then I stared while a flat blade scraped away more cells, and finally focused on an orange laser that made an electrical zapping not unlike a Frankenstein movie pulsing into the center of my eye. Everything faded into white and I saw nothing except an orange dot. And when I sat up nearsightedness had evaporated.
In less than 10 minutes, I became free of you for the first time since childhood.
With no science at work to busy myself with, I turned to science in the kitchen.
I'm a big tofu fan since moving to NY. Who would have guessed?
Other things we've been up to:
NY Knicks vs. Detroit Pistons @ Madison Square Garden
Not sure how many of these games we've been to over the years but I do believe it's the first time we've actually seen the Knicks beat the Pistons.
Two Gentlemen of Lebowski
An off-Broadway play in the East Village of the movie the Big Lebowski, except that it's written as if Shakespeare had written the script. The Knave abideth.
Lost Bar v. 2.0
We were tipped off to a new Lost Bar in Astoria. It's at the new beer garden (aka Studio Square). Bonus: They play Lost trivia during the commercial breaks. So Jason and I and some criminalists from the PD threw together a team and of course scored first place in the bar. We earned ourselves free shots, a free pitcher of beer, and front row (cushy) seats for the next week's episode. Scored 3rd place the following week, earning ourselves only free shots. Pfft, slackers. Heading out there again tomorrow with the coworkers. Oh, and because it's not like it hasn't been said enough: That Richard Alpert episode was awesomesauce!
I never would have made it through that surgery and post-op without Jason. Holy crap. Navigating the subway with blurry flashes of men with assault rifles everywhere because of the Moscow subway bombing. It's all a confusing blur getting home yesterday.
Looking outside makes me want to crumple into the fetal position. And yes I'm wearing sunglasses to type this. I look rad.
Eyes look perfectly fine though. And I can see. Amazing.
Ah, so these have been posted on Facebook and Flickr 4E, but I neglected to do my linky here for some time. Allons-y!
My AAFS conference badge for admission to forensic heaven.
Distance determination for various shotgun wounds in my Gunshot Residue workshop.
Drinking coffee from the original Starbucks on Pike's Place. Pictures of the inside are in the series.
Freaky bastard of a fish.
Seattle Aquarium
Live octopus. Dead fish head sticking out.
Love. ly.
Top of the Seattle Space Needle.
Quintessential.
I found my favorite tree.
C'mon Tryson, check out my favorite tree.
Desecrating nature.
Nerdlust galore.
Seattle SciFi Museum
From one of our trips to the bikini barista coffee shacks sprinkled around Seattle. It's basically a shed with women in bikinis serving you coffee. Ironically, I was always the one making us go. This one was called T&A Latte. Ha!
I'm back to reading and eating in the park with the arrival of this nice spring weather in the city this week. I already have a bit of color on my arms and face. No leaves on the trees yet but I'm quite content in my tank top.
Can't wait for some Central Park action and Coney Island action and maybe even some nudie beach action in the Rockaways again this summer. The gay Hispanic men can't have all the fun.
Tattoo is nearing the end of the itchy peely stage. Mostly healed now, just a few bits left.
Work is good, planning a big spring party. Gonna find a new dress for it. My bosses amuse me.
Had some interesting cases these last few weeks. Khat plants, animal tranquilizers (ketamine), and of course the pharmaceuticals. People love their pharms. Had some testosterone the other day. Gym candy, as we call it. They come in these glass ampules (from Pakistan) that I couldn't bust open for the life of me. I guess you have to be on testosterone to open the damn things. So I go find my favorite boss and tell him I need some manliness, so he comes over and freaking shatters the thing with a pair of scissors. It was lulz.
I feel bad when cops arrest people for white powders or tablets that turn out to be aspirin or non-controlled epilepsy drugs, HIV drugs (which are rather popular), or various antipsychotics. I'm sure they're doing things with them they're not supposed to, but they're not let out of jail until I write my report.
I'm subpoenaed to testify against a 14-year-old in April. I'm gonna feel like a dick up there on the stand testifying against a kid.
Jason's been cooking a lot. Between that and his usual cleaning and laundry, he takes very good care of our place. He's a good wife. Except when he screams at the State games. I thought he was going to die today.
hello seattle
Haven't had a chance to get my SLR out, so these are all crappy Blackberry photos. Hooray!
Enroute, over Washington state.
Chris, Stashia, and Tryson, our exceedingly gracious hosts. They're giving us their bed (no really, their own bed), one of their cars so I can drive myself to the conference everyday, treated us to dinner, donuts for breakfast, and like every other possible household item I could ever need. Indebted much?
Went to Scuttlebutt last night for some seriously delicious fish and chips.
PS: Your liver must die.
Jason's Scuttlebutt Sampler. Liver necrosis in 3, 2, ...
Sightseeing all day today, this city is very beautiful. Lots of pine trees and their apartment is right on Puget Sound.
storytime
Today during my lunch hour I went to Subway and was sitting there reading my beloved Wired Magazine minding my own business when I noticed a young black teenager maybe about 20 years old asking some people a few tables over for what I assumed was money. I see beggars, drug addicts, and homeless everyday -- I see so many that I'm more or less numb to it. We even have nicknames for the ones we see most often. Anyway, I noticed this kid approaching my direction so I went back to my magazine and hoped he wouldn't bother me. After asking the people at the table in front of me, the man at the table outstretched his arms and blocked the woman from the kid saying something like, "Hey Hey! We're having a conversation here!" Or something like that. At another table, a woman simply shakes her head and turns away. Finally he gets to my table and I get a close up of him. Just like most of the others, mouth crusty white, talks quietly with an earnest tone, always in a hurry, and I can't tell if he needs soap or lotion more urgently. "Miss, can I have a dollar for a donut?" I usually shake my head at these people and they move on. But for some reason because he mentioned the food, and I was sitting there with my loaded turkey sandwich and drink and magazine and a wallet in my pocket I didn't ignore him. I asked him if he was hungry and he said yes. So I told him to go pick out something and I would buy it for him. "Okthankyoumiss". Always in a hurry. He scurried up to the Dunkin Donuts counter (also in the Subway restaurant) and ordered something, I don't even know what it was, a donut or two. I came up and he asked me if he could get something to drink too. Sure. He asked for Hawaiian Punch. It was as if for a second, I only had a child with a sweet tooth. The cashier told him the amount, and he said "She's got it." I paid and he said "Thankyoumiss" and ran off with his donuts and Hawaiian Punch.
Just one of those moments.
Tonight after work Jason and I went to Broadway to see Race with James Spader and David Alan Grier. I really enjoyed it. The first bit of it I had a hard time getting into but I soon was locked in. There was a lot of humor, a lot of swearing, and a good deal of material that made you think about race in our country. It had a good mixture of it all. I only wish it had lasted longer.
I stuck around after the play as I'm prone to do when I go to Broadway. The actors always leave through the stage door and a small (sometimes not-so-small) group of people gather to get pictures, autographs, or watch them hurry into their limo.
And I caught James Spader for a picture. Boston Legal / Secretary spanking scene HOLLAAAAA! So OF COURSE I had to go and make him uncomfortable. He stood a few feet away and I said quietly, "Hey James..."
"Yes?"
::creepy tone:: "Are you married?"
He stuttered...and stammered, and then, "Uh, yeah, no, uh, I have a girlfriend and we have a kid." And I just started laughing, I couldn't help it, because he was just so whaaa. I told Jason that if Spader had said he was single, my next question would have been if he wanted to get a drink. So Jason says to me, so if Spader wasn't in a relationship you would have hooked up with him? Me: Well, I would have called you first and told you not to wait up.
^ I didn't ask David Alan Grier if he was married. Figured I'd embarrass only one celebrity per night. Also note: background creeper.
With that mission accomplished, I ordered a latte and wandered through Times Square for a bit. Freezing and crowded and alive, surrounded by a crowd that never dies, it's one of the most pulsating places on the planet. Oh yeah, and there was this giant heart thing made of ice just chillin there (har har).
While heading for the subway at Rockefeller, I saw a fairly large crowd around another stage door. The play was A View From the Bridge starring Liev Schreiber and Scarlett Johansson. I saw Liev Schreiber amidst a creaming crowd of women and snapped a photo from across the street. He's that blurry guy. No, the other blurry guy.
So now I'm back in Queens, and just spent the last however long packing for the flight out tomorrow. We leave for the airport in, ohhh, 9 hours from now -- Seattle-bound for the American Academy of Forensic Science conference and our Seattle friends we're staying with. I have next week off from work and I think tonight kicked off a pretty damn good start to the vacation.
So excited for some forensic learnin', a new city to explore, and old friends to see. :)
It's been almost a year since the murder. I can't believe it's been that long.
The day is still vivid, the moment I found out it was a homicide, the moment the criminalists on the late shift were told the news, the moment evidence was collected from the room I worked in, the moment the fear set in, it's all there.
This month's issue of Cosmopolitan:
It was in national sources right after the murder, but the media's been pretty quiet about it since. The trial is later this year, so I guess that's why there's an uptick in interest. They love the story, a forensic scientist murdered. It sells, I guess.
It's a strange thing, seeing her in a magazine murder story. Like it's not real, just a repeat of a story I've seen a hundred times: 20-something girl murdered in NYC. Except this time I've seen the girl in the picture animated and alive, and there's a truth behind it all.
There was some filming going on today at a pizzeria a block from my apartment. I don't know if it was film or television but if you're ever flipping channels and see a girl in a shiny blue coat and fur trimmed hood walking past a window behind a couple seated at a table over some pizza, itsa me. :)
The amount of stuff filmed in this city is redonk.
I was at Evidence Control picking up some cases and there is this one cop in the back with this really awful hacking cough. I hear him back there periodically and it sounds pretty horrible. One day I said to another cop, in a joking-type manner, "He should really get that looked at." And the cop replied, "9/11."
And it made me very quiet. Because I forget that I'm surrounded by the guys who were there that day. And that they're still dying because of it.
I was reminded of this moment today because I saw some newly released aerial photos taken from the NYPD helicopter on 9/11. He was the only photographer allowed in the air that day. I can see my school in the photos, with a huge rolling cloud of dust boiling over it. Imagine being in the dorms that morning, sitting in the morning sun reading before class and seeing a cloud of hate rolling toward you. What an awful thing. The rest of the picture is pristine. What a beautiful day and what a horrible contrast it makes.
In other news, snow days don't exist for the NYPD. New York City got dumped on pretty good today. I'm even impressed. Took this from my lab bench today where I do my analysis:
Walking through the snow made me smile. I love the crunch.
Mike made a label for his homemade chili. Pretty much the best thing ever.
Jason REQUIRES a game of Tecmo Superbowl to be played every year at our Superbowl party. I'm amazed that an original NES game looks as good as it does on our 50'' flatscreen. I would have thought the ratios would be all f'ed since this technology didn't exist when NES came out. Kinda cool.
Amanda's cupcakes. Droolfest and sprinklefuck.
Mom bought me those drunk cupmarkers a few years ago.
Quite handy after a few rum n' cokes, indeed.
A perfunctory photo I took showing everyone stuffing their faces and/or staring intently.
As Jason said on FB, probably due to the E*Trade baby.
In the past 21 days, I've worked 18. Three days off in three weeks, including every weekend and a holiday. Overtime pay and comp time in the bank. Ready for our party in a few hours. Thankful for friends. Thankful for laughter.
There are so many things, so many aspects, I could write for a long time. There's good and there's bad. But I'm going to keep it in because that's what I do. It's what I've always done.
I will take it and grow. My only option is to grow. I will find a way someday. I don't know where or how. But I have to make an impact. I have to. I have yet to prove myself. Even I am doubtful.
I hope I live long enough. I hope it's not all taken away.
Do these dreams have any meaning?
No, I think it's more like a ghost
That's been following us both
Something vague that we're not seeing
Something more like a feeling
Heading to the LOST Bar tomorrow for the premiere. Read: insanity. If there are any New York Losties who want to join the troop of nerds heading out there tomorrow, let me know via Woohu | FB | BBM | YouTube | Gmail, and it'll get to me.
Here's the video I took a few years ago for the Season 4 finale to give people who haven't gone an idea of what it's like there. If you haven't found out who's in the coffin by now then this would be, um, a giant f'ing spoiler.
Thankful that he is my President.
That's all I will say about that.
Unfortunately, too many of our citizens have lost faith that our biggest institutions - our corporations, our media, and yes, our government - still reflect these same values. Each of these institutions are full of honorable men and women doing important work that helps our country prosper. But each time a CEO rewards himself for failure, or a banker puts the rest of us at risk for his own selfish gain, people's doubts grow. Each time lobbyists game the system or politicians tear each other down instead of lifting this country up, we lose faith. The more that TV pundits reduce serious debates into silly arguments, and big issues into sound bites, our citizens turn away.
No wonder there's so much cynicism out there.
No wonder there's so much disappointment.
