I was taking in the moment of being with her, of feeling accepted by her. Her. The one I look up to, respect, and admire. She is the one we all wanted to be working with when all hell broke loose in our county. My goal as a 911 dispatcher was to become as good as her.
Jean was driving us down the road in her old two toned blue, Ford pickup. We were delivering a bed to a new co-worker who had moved here from Oregon. It was the first time out with Jean, alone and away from the occasionally chaotic dispatch center.
“So, Missy, tell me about that 10-80 you had last night,” Jean inquired as she puffed on her cigarette. She always sounded chipper and had a pleasant if not goofy tone to her voice. I knew I had messed up on that high speed chase the night before, I just didn’t know she knew I had. I began explaining to her the events of the previous night. The neighboring county had called in about a pursuit that was entering our area. I honestly don’t recall too much about the pursuit now, other than a trooper who I was responsible for, had ended up badly injuring his hand when deploying his spikes to end the chase. My mistake, as I recall, was a minor one, and had nothing to do with the trooper’s injury. Still, it was one I shouldn’t have made in the first place.
After I finished my story Jean calmly leaned back in the driver’s seat and asked “and what do you think you could have done differently?” I proceeded to tell her I knew exactly where I went wrong and it was obvious to me as soon as the incident was over. Jean seemed satisfied with my response and changed the subject.
She was not my boss or even my supervisor; she treated me as her equal, although I wouldn’t feel that way for quite sometime. She was someone who cared about me, the job, and the officers we served. She wanted to better me and help me grow.
See, the trick is that after you start the blog and write that first post, you write another, and perhaps another.
So that those of us who have bookmarked the site can return and find something new.
Posted by: CV Rick | March 29, 2008 at 06:11 PM
Maybe that's all she remembers. =)
Posted by: Success Warrior | March 30, 2008 at 09:19 AM
could be.
Posted by: CV Rick | March 31, 2008 at 12:18 AM
She's going to be away from a computer for a few days but maybe when she gets back, she'll favor us with another story.
Posted by: Success Warrior | April 01, 2008 at 10:00 PM
You weren't kidding about the few days, were you?
Posted by: CV Rick | April 13, 2008 at 07:26 AM
I think this is the week she's going to start regular updates. Not daily but maybe a couple times a week.
Posted by: Success Warrior | April 13, 2008 at 06:45 PM
Does she know that you talk about her on her blog as if she's not here?
Posted by: CV Rick | April 15, 2008 at 05:17 PM
Not yet. =)
Posted by: Success Warrior | April 15, 2008 at 05:57 PM
Let Tia have a chance at the computer once in a while, Alan... Sheesh! She needs to have at least one more story on this blog!
And Rick...Considering the state of your blog lately... should you really be talking about the frequency of posts? Your manager is getting pissed!
Posted by: Cherise | August 07, 2008 at 05:53 PM
Actually, she may start having time to update this blog in the near future.
Posted by: Success Warrior | August 08, 2008 at 11:54 AM
Hey Tia!!
It's been awhile since you updated this blog so I hope you get this! I have been trying to figure out what happened to you and thanks to the magic of google, I found your husband's blog and he had a link to your blog and lo and behold, there you are!!
You have to remember me. We went to high school together, palled around a bit. Tracy Allen. Everytime I go to Utah(I am in PA now), I hope I see you and it turns out, you aren't even in Utah.
Anyway, if you see this send me an email!
tallenngu@gmail.com
I hope I hear from you soon, I am beyond excited that I found your blog!! :)
Tracy
Posted by: Tracy | October 22, 2008 at 07:07 PM