Done

Finely done. The graduation was fantastic. I fortunately have a two week vacation! Myself and one of my best buds are going on a Hot Springs road trip in Northern Cali. I leave tomorrow and come back Tuesday. My first day of work is May 17. The first 13 weeks on the job I am with a Field Training Officer. I've been told that the 13 weeks of Field Training are intense. During the 13 week training I am critiqued and scored by my performance. It's 13 weeks of real life scenarios. Fun! I can't wait. 

I've had request to keep up my blog. I wasn't planning on keeping it up past my academy but I will try my best to share what I can.  

My first cup of coffee in uniform. 

48 hour count down

Graduation is coming closer! Yesterday I gave my interpretive presentation and did fantastic! I had a lot of fun presenting. It was kinda like American Idol. I presented in front of my classmates and a panel of four evaluators. At the end of the presentation the evaluators critiqued my performance. They only had wonderful things to say. They loved my presentation. It's such a relieve to be done. Today and tomorrow all I have to do is listen to my fellow classmates present there interpretive programs. 

Five Days

Only 5 more days till graduation! 

Today was the last written test! I passed. 

On Sunday I have to put on a 20 minute presentation. I have chose to talk about Rip Currents. The past few days I've been doing a little research and writing out an outline. 

I can't wait to be done. Finally! 

I've also been busy putting together a slide show for the graduation. I had volunteered to put one together. Boy, it's been a piece of work. I have looked at over 1,000 pictures. I hope it will turn out okay for graduation. A lot of people will be watching. 

Closer to the End

I am ready to go home. My nerves are at the bitter end. Im not depressed or angry just frustrated about being here. I want my own life back. I want to be able to workout again, travel, read a good book, eat some peanuts at a ball game, take a hot bath, have In n Out Burger, have a coffee with my sister, sit in a house full of my family, have a beer at Dukes, wash my car, bodysurf, free dive, sleep in a bed where I don't feel springs, I want to be anywhere but here. The time in class feels longer and longer everyday. I don't even pay attention any more. I'm just going through the motions. I have no idea what the instructors have been talking about. All I know is that the last three days have been about the environment. In other words, a bunch of hippies have been lecturing me. I say that out of respect, I do care about hippies and the environment. Unfortunately, I'm just too drained to really care. It's funny, the last two days the instructors took all the cadets on a tour of Asilomar. I have lived here, at Asilomar, for 6 months. The last thing I want to do is walk around this place, especially when there are 40 mph winds. I hate to complain, but I'm ready for this academy to come to an end. I know it's only 10 days, but everyday feels like 10 days. During class, I imagine I'm on a tropical beach, sitting next to a gorgeous man and drinking a Mai Tai. When I'm not daydreaming I'm writing Haiku's or drawing nonsense pictures. The lectures are boring and I feel like I am going crazy. I've talked to some of the other cadets and they have similar feelings. We're all ready to be done. I feel bad for the instructors, the vibe in the classroom is pretty low. We all want to care, we're just to tired. 

Apologies for the negativity. 

I just want to go home and go vacation.

Snow

Last week was a bore. Not much to share. It's a shame that everyday felt like a waste of time. I'm hoping for some improvement next week. The weeks feel longer because I am near the end. 

Luckily, I had a little inspiration that got me through the long days last week. The inspiration was Lake Tahoe!! I went to Tahoe with one of my friends in the academy. He works ski patrol up there so myself and another cadet went up with him to get out of Monterey and relax. It was an amazing and beautiful weekend. Lots of fun and full of rejuvenation.

Lunch with a view!

Butterflies

If you didn't already know I am in the city of Pacific Grove. Pacific Grove is home of the Monarch Butterflies. This weekend it was beautiful, there where butterflies everywhere, in a lame way I found them to be a bit symbolic. In five months 42 of the cadets have been trained to be peace officers. We started off as caterpillars struggling to survive the transformation. Every test, every scenario butterflies fluttered around in out tummies.

Finally we made it to our last five weeks.

The past five months I have been going through the Police Officer Standardized Training (POST). I've taken about 30 written exams in the past 23 weeks, had over 13 scenarios, learned defensive tactics, how to drive in an emergency and much, much more. It's been a long journey. Monday was my last POST test. I passed! POST is done. Thank God. Being done with POST is a weight off the shoulders.

So, you might ask, why I'm still here? For the next five weeks I'm learning about the high standards, the expectations, the qualities and the responsibilities of wearing the "Stetson". Not only am I a law enforcer but I am also an educator, a naturalist and best of all a lifeguard. This means, for the next five weeks, I'll be learning all about the State Parks rules and regulations, how to give an interpretive talk and how to better protect our natural resources.

Around here we call ourself the "Generalist." We wear many hats. Who could ask for a better job. Lifeguard, law-enforcer, interpreter, maintenance.... you name it. What fun!

Today I am off to the Monterey Aquarium and Point Lobos for some interpretive instruction.

Mini Road Trip

After all the testing and stress of last week I decided to take a break from Monterey and go up into the city of San Francisco. It was a last minute decision and I have a friend that lives downtown that let me use her couch. I had never been to San Fran and I haven't picked up my camera in months. My plan was to walk the streets and get some pictures. San Francisco was not a disappointment. Everywhere I went it smelled like a mixture of marijuana and a dirty homeless man. The people there are trendy and beautiful (besides those on the streets). I saw some very attractive men (I could  live in San Fran)! The roads were confusing and I didn't care for the tourist. The shopping was excellent and I loved all the art. 

Friday night my friend took me into Oakland to a hip, artistic warehouse to see her friend sing. The place was a hidden joint behind a dark trashy alley. It was an odd place and I was a little concerned about where she was taking me. Inside the warehouse there was weird psychedelic music playing and art was hung on the walls. The whole place was it's own culture. There were about 40-50 people there and I was introduced to most. The warehouse had a second story. Upstairs there was a living room, a kitchen and more art hanging on the walls.  I later learned that this warehouse was someone's home. It was a lot of fun and very interesting. Later that night we met up with some other people at a small dive bar. You couldn't see a thing in the bar because it only had red lights. It was a entertaining night and the people I met were real nice and fun to talk with. 

The rest of the weekend I got lost in San Fran. It was so much fun. I got around by bus and never really knew where I was. I did some vintage shopping, went to the California Academy of Science, the Fisherman's Wharf and of course I saw the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a fun weekend and I can't wait to go back. Sunday I took my time driving back to Monterey and made a few stops off  Highway 1. 

I may try to go back to San Fran next weekend to take some more pictures and do some more vintage shopping! I great weekend that was well deserved. 

Only six more weeks! 

Scenario Test are Done!

Finally, all my scenario test are done. 

I had four test today and was real nervous about all of them. I had Ambush, Mentally Disabled, Building Search and Use of Force. Another nerve racking day is over. 

The best part, I was one of seven cadets to get %100 on all my scenarios! I'm so glad it's over. 

Simunitions

Last week we also had Simunitions. The Simunitions were set up scenarios of a person pulling a gun out at you. It was kind of like paint balling only we used the same guns we carry out in the field. The rounds in the guns were little pellets with paint and they hurt when they hit. I ended the day with a few bruises. 

All the cadets put in some cash to have a BBQ for lunch. I introduced the cadets and instructors to the famous Hookha-pa-luka! Most of the cadets and instructors tried it and those who did loved it.  

Remember the protection cup I had to buy? Fortunately I didn't have to wear it. The ladies got a flattering "eve-leaf" for protection. Thank God I had one on....

All I see are Orange Cones

I was really looking forward to EVOC week. I thought to myself, "how hard could it be to drive a car?" Let me tell you, it's hard when you are taking turns at unbelievable speeds, have other cars coming at you and the big scary word "test" is on your mind. Also, cones are everywhere, all you see are cones, it's difficult to figure out what is and isn't the course. If you hit a cone, it's a fail. Fear, fear, fear lingered on all week and you only get two shots to pass a test. If you don't pass you're packing up your bags. Driving the car fast was a whole lot of fun. But passing the test were a bit challenging.

The first day was the most stressful. There were four different courses. The first one was driving foward and backwards with small sharp angles I had to maneuver in and out of. The second course was a small narrow course with drive-ways I had to drive in, out and around in. Both the courses had a certain amount of time I had to complete it in. The third test was parallel parking. I couldn't believe this was the test I had to remediate! I'm good at parallel parking, during practice I nailed it every time. When it was time to test I ended up being to f

ar from the curb or "cones." It was embarrassing because I'm an experienced parallel parker. My remediation went well, but it caused nerves for the rest of the week. The last test was the skid-car test. We had a skid car, which is a vehicle with training wheels. It took me awhile to figure out the skid-car. It was fun because you get to skid all around an empty parking lot. The way it skids is the instructor in the car is able to control the front and back tire positioning. He is able to get the car to fishtail and I have to be able to gain control of the car. 

The hard part of the week were remediation. Remediation is not fun and they're difficult to watch. It's hard on all the cadets when someone has to remediate and unfortunately there were quite a few. I can't watch people remediating because the moment someone fails I would just start crying. We have all come so far and to lose someone this far in the game would be awful. 

The next two days weren't as difficult as I thought. Stressful for sure but not as difficult. There was a large course set up for us to maneuver around in. One of the test was code three driving and the other high pursuit. It was fun driving fast and I am relieved I passed all my test and the week is over.

This isn't me driving, but it's a non testing course we got to have some fun with...
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This is me backing up. I got up to 51mph in reverse...
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I wish I took more video during EVOC. There were a lot of stuff I would had liked to share but I was just too busy. I had a lot to take care of being C.I.C and trying to stay focus on passing.

The EVOC training was at the Marina Airport. At the airport there is a skydiving school. On Friday the pilot and some other guy from the school came down to watch all the cadets race and speed around. They both started placing bets on the cadets. It was so much fun racing! I spun out once right at the end of one of the races I was winning. When we were done racing the pilot mentioned we should skydive sometime. I thought that would be fun so, one of the other cadets and I spontaneously went skydiving today. It was my second time diving and my buddies first. It was so much fun. My instructor and I did a couple back flips when we jumped out of the plane. Seeing all of Monterey and all across the valley was awesome. Scary thing while we were there was one guy broke his leg and another person made it to the ground with the reserve parachute. It was crazy, a few of us saw in the far distance a loose parachute slowly floating down from the sky, scary thing to see when know bodies are connected. As a beginner diver you tandem with someone else. The girl that came down with a reserve chute said she had know idea that her chute didn't open. Luckily she got filmed during her jump. It'll be a great video. The video will be her instructor pulling the cord to release the chute and nothing coming out and she'll be there happy as a clam. 

Short Friday

Finally another week done. This morning I only had one written test and enjoyed the rainy afternoon. In two weeks I will complete my last three scenario test.

Next week I have EVOC (emergency vehicle operator course), basically, I get to speed around and play in a patrol car! Also, I am the C.I.C (cadet in charge) this week. It should be a fun week. 

Happy Friday!

thursday: the real test

Scenario test today. Domestic Violence, Robbery, Use of Deadly Force, Pedestrian Stop and Suspicious Person.

Class started at 8am and we didn't get done testing till 6:30pm. It was a long quite day. All the cadets sat in a room unable to talk for 10 hours. 

The worst part of the day was waiting around to find out if you had to remediate a test. The saying "no news is good news" applied for the day. All the cadets anxiously waited hoping for no new. The bad thing about remediating is you only get one more shot. If you fail you're packing up your bags. 

I don't know how I got through all the test without having to remediate. Toward the end of the day the only thoughts going through my head were the mistakes I made. I was tired, anxious and the constant doubt and uncertainty laid on my mind all day long. 

Thank God, I passed all five scenarios on the first try. Only three more big scenarios to go!

tuesday: high risk vehicle pullover

It rained most the day today for testing and I forgot my camera.  I passed the test fine and felt pretty good about it. 

The highlight of the day for me was at the end of the day. One of the instructors I have a lot of respect for came up and talked to me. He said something along the lines of  "be more confident in the knowledge you know." He also wished me good luck in the field and mentioned a few other things to motivate me. It meant a lot when he talked to me, he is the type of person you want to impress. He saw my weakness and straight up told me to work on it. He did it in a way where it pushed my desire. I know I am confident, but there is a fear I have of whether or not I am right. I want to be right and I want to be good in what I do. I had an opportunity to do practice scenarios with this guy yesterday. I loved his style of teaching. He used to work in Huntington and he had a lot of personality traits that reminded me of some other people I admire most. He is an inspirational person and I will probably never forget the day he took me aside and said "good luck." 

monday:night time vehicle pull over

Four hours we spent practicing night time vehicle pull overs and high risk stops. It rained most the morning and was expected all day. Thankfully, by the afternoon the weather calmed and the sky's cleared. The wind was stormy and strong but it was nice not standing in the rain all day. Mid afternoon I saw a beautiful rainbow which put a smile on my face. It reminded me of my parents because they're enjoying hawaii this week. They have been kind enough to text me pictures of the beautiful island. In fact, when I got home this evening, I had FIVE text messages of pictures with my parents holding up snow cones and standing in front of waterfalls. I'm not sure if they're trying to hint that they're having a better time then me.  Or, maybe the envious pictures they're sending are ways of  encouragement, they're just reminding me of what my future will look like. It would be nice to be in Hawaii this week, but I'm here. Im here so in the future I can travel where ever I want. I just have to get through the testing. I did okay on my test this evening. We practiced for four hours doing vehicle stops. You would think I would be almost perfect with all the practice we had. I wish I could say it was so. I passed alright, but forgot some minor things. It was a bit stressful, all the evaluator wear bright yellow shirts, quietly take notes and stare at you. Before I started my test my instructor went over the patrol vehicle with me because I hadn't been in the one I was testing in. He showed me all the lights and explained that the spot light was on top of the car and not on the side of the doors. I thought it was so cool to have the spot light on the top and we talked about it for a little while. Guess what I forgot to turn on during my scenario... the spot light. Besides the light I felt okay about my performance.  It was a bit nerve racking because there were two other yellow shirts watching. At the end of my test I went back into the patrol unit and the yellow shirts all stood outside at the hood of the car looking down and writing. Sometimes they would look up at me and shake their head or smile. When they were done scoring one of the evaluators came back into the car and we drove back to the post in silence. The silence brought on the doubt and question of whether or not I passed. I waited two hours stressing.  Success...I passed. 

March Maiku

This blog entry is dedicated to my Uncle Mike. The haiku master. 

March Maiku

Testing all month long

No more Weekends to stay calm

Can't wait to be done

Chemical Agents

Thursday was the big day of Chemical Agents. I was exposed to CS Gas (a.k.a "Cough and Spit)  and OC (a.k.a "old chilly"). The day started at 7:40 am. My first exposer to OC was at 8:30 am. All the cadets lined up outside, we stuck out our right indexed finger, got a little spray to the finger and placed our finger to our cheek. I felt nothing... about 10 minutes went by and my check was on fire. The burning sensation stopped around 10 am. You can see below my red cheek. 

After the first exposure the cadets had a two hour lecture about different types of gases. 

We tried on gas masks for our afternoon outing to to the gas house. 

The gas house was at Point Sur. We all partnered up and stood in a circle in a medium sized room. In the middle of the room, was a small coffee like can, where the instructors dispersed the CS gas. Arm and arm with our partner we watched the instructor throw a small canister into the empty can on the floor. Smoke lifted, quickly filling up the ceiling and then the gas slowly floated back down. Once the whole room was darken by the CS gas we had to face our partner, take off our mask, say our name, agency and roster number.  When it was my turn I took my mask off and very quickly said, "Officer Bray, State Parks, 3307,"  cleared the gas out of my mask and walked out with my partner. The room below is the gas house before the CS was let out. 

Being in the gas house with the mask wasn't bad. The moment I took off my mask I felt my nose and lungs tingled only a little. The worst was walking through without the gas mask. My partner and I walked in, stood in front of an instructor and said aloud our name, agency and roster number. The moment my partner and I walked out of the gas house we started coughing. My lungs and eyes were on fire. I felt a little delusional and weak. It felt like someone reached down into my lungs and ripped the inside of them. My eyes watered up and I could hardly keep them open. It was awful, but lasted only for a short amount of time. All the cadets at the end stood in an empty field letting the wind blow away the CS gas. Below is my partner and I after being exposed without a mask.  

After walking through the gas house the instructors let us have some fun. They demonstrated a bunch of other forms of gas or "less-lethal" options we might see other agencies use. State Parks doesn't carry a lot of what they showed us. It was all shown to educate us . It was a lot of fun!

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The worst part of the day was the OC. All I have to say is it hurt. It hurt bad. I don't think I can even explain what it felt like. It was like someone cut up the hottest pepper and sprayed it in your eye, times 10. Or like a thousand pin needles puncturing your eye. It was a painful experience that gave me a sense of accomplishment when it was over. I wish I had some video footage for you all. This is how it all went down, briefly:

I stood with one hand over an eye, the instructor yelled out "gas, gas, gas" and sprayed me across the forehead. I grabbed my baton, hit a suit-patted guy three times yelling, "get on the ground, get on the ground." Ohhhhh, my whole face and eye burned and I had to keep going. I had to arrest someone. Barely being able to see, I ordered someone to the ground, and cuffed them. It felt like an eternity. As soon as I got him cuffed I went to decontaminate. During decontamination I was in my own world. Nothing around me matter, only the pain, I continued to breath and tell myself "it's not that bad," "there are worse things that could happen," "it's okay." I kept telling myself these things but the pain of the OC kept overruling my positive thoughts. My eyeball was swollen and I felt completely helpless. I could do nothing but wait out the pain. There were hoses set up and fans. I rinsed my face and eye and let the fan blow into my eye. The harsh burning sensation lasted for about 30 minutes. The first 30 minutes was the worst. Slowly it got better. Throughout the evening my face tingled and by the time I went to bed the pain was gone. I survived.  

Free Tuesday

I have the day off today because I had qualifications at the fire range Sunday and Monday. I am feeling a bit lazy so I'm going to keep this short. I wanted you all to know that I passed all my test with the handgun, shotgun and rifle. The two days of testing felt like a roller-coaster. There were a total of 10 test and I had many moments of unease. I started the tests shooting well, but, as the day went by my scores got worse and then they would get better. It was frustrating to go from good to bad. From feeling strong to weak. You would be amazed how one little round out of the barrel of the gun can change your whole attitude in a single moment. A bad shot can take your high into the depths of despair. I had moments when I was praising my gun and then cursing it. I have learned that you can't let that one bad shot ruin the rest of your shots. Once the trigger is pulled its over, let it go, the next one will be better (sometimes). I admit I love to shoot, but, I rather not be tested. 

Out on Patrol

Friday morning I patrolled Poppy Seed State Park. It is a fantastic park, it's right on the beach with overnight camping and beautiful trails to hike. This particular morning, while driving down the beach, a park visitor stopped me and told me about an aggressive dog in the camping area. I took down his number and got a description of the dog and the owners of the dog.

Before I approached the area I talked to another visitor regarding the aggressive dog and the dog owners. The man said the campers were up all night parting and the dog was snarling and running around freely. I thanked him and moved closer to the campsite.

Above, me on duty

You can see above, in the grassy area, a wild dog running around. The man I talked to earlier is the guy standing by the white R.V to the right. At a distance I watched the dog. The dog was clearly aggressive, so, I called up animal control and requested backup. When I pulled up to the campsite I didn't see the owners of the dog and figured they were asleep in the tent. I used my P.A to call out and a woman came out of the tent. I told her she needed to leash her dog or animal control will take the dog. Unfortunately, the woman didn't have a leash, so I offered up a rope I had in my unit. Below you can see the contact I made with the woman.

It's funny when you think everything is going well and it turns out bad. The woman ends up losing hold of the dog and it charges me. I drew my weapon and threatened to shoot the dog if she didn't take control. The dog kept charging, so I shot my gun, twice, and missed! The dog bites me in the torso and I shoot again only injuring the dog. I shot one more time and finally the dog lets go.

Eventually, my back up shows up. It turns out that there is another guy in the tent. My partner and I get him out of the tent and find he has a $50,000 warrant. My partner arrests him. Two other officers show up and an ambulance for me. I went off to the hospital and the other officers interviewed the woman and the arrested man. My partners end up finding 5 onces of marijuana and a bong in their campsite.

Above is the injured dog, the arrested man and my partners. Funny how a simple dog contact can turn out so outrageously wrong. I guess it was the luck of the dice on this crazy call. I hope the written report my partners and I put together will be efficient enough for our supervisor and the DA.

Practice Time

Hide and seek, guns, clowns, 

 larceny and deranged.

This week was rainy, interactive, challenging and a whole lot of fun. Monday was building searches at night. All I have to say about that is...creepy.  Just imagine what it would feel like searching for someone at night in these restrooms while it's pouring down rain...

 

SCARY

Tuesday we practiced a robbery in progress. Sorry, no pictures on that day. 

The scenarios practiced on Wednesday were, Ambush, Mentally Disabled, Use of Deadly Force and Suspicious person. The hardest one for me was the Mentally Disabled. My actor wanted to commit suicide and I had to carefully talk him out of it and handcuff him. I found it a bit difficult to gather the right words. Getting a person who wants to kill themselves to a point were I can cuff them is challenging. Out of all the scenarios, I thought the Mentally Disabled would be the easiest, mainly because I consider myself compassionate and a good communicator. The other scenarios weren't too bad and after three days of practice I feel confident that I will do fine when the real day of scenario testing comes up.

Here is my ambush

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Next couple of days... Report Writing! 

D.T's testing

This week I had more Defensive Tactics training. Friday was the final test! I passed it all. The pictures below are from testing day.

Hiding is The "Red Man" I got to fight 

Ready for a fight

Blocking a punch

striking

Blocking a kick

No compliance...pepper spray

Arrest

Critiquing