LET in Will Fly For Food

I arrived on Sunday afternoon. The Law Enforcement Academy is actually pretty neat. When you arrive into Pierre on US Highway 14 E it is set against the backdrop of rolling hills in all directions. I will have to get an actual photo of the Academy. The weather hasn't been great yet so I really don't care to venture out. It is different from normal life. Much more structured. We have to say the pledge of allegiance at the beginning of each day, which isn't something I've had to do since elementary school. Here are a couple pictures from the first few days... It's also very different to have the South Dakota Highway Patrol recruits doing wall squats while one of them cleans their shower for inspection, or them all standing at attention in the caf waiting for permission to be seated, or sitting in the hallway polishing their boots. Everyone carries around plastic guns.

Also, I would like to say this.

Really LET? One Ethernet cable to share with my roommate? In case you're wondering who set up the wifi with the name Bitches210, it was me. Just saying. I also put a sticky note on the door that said "Wi-Fi $5"

Good Morning, LET.

My corner of the dorm room.

Pano of the room. This is pretty much all of it. Two beds, one nightstand, two desks, one "entertainment" stand, two wardrobes. We share a sink, toilet and shower.

Lovely caf food.

The one good thing about Pierre: different scenery.

Now that you have seen what I'm looking at all day, I found out the other day that a girl I know (not well, she is closer with my sister) lost her husband unexpectedly on Friday. She found him sitting in his computer chair (he works from home) cold when she came home from work. He was 38. His autopsy revealed he did not have a stroke, heart attack or aneurysm. He didn't have any medical abnormalities. They took tissue and blood samples and will have those checked but the clergyman giving her grief counseling has told her to be prepared in case they can't determine a cause of death. Apparently sometimes people just... die.

This is kind of scary. The night I heard I came home from work and Nate and I talked about it a bit. This girl had been married a few years, she was 33, he was 38. They were putting off having kids because he wasn't really ready. Now that may never happen. As staunchly anti-kid as I am now, this really struck a chord with me, and somewhere, deep in my ovaries, I'm sure an egg or two squeaked "OH NOES! BABY NOW!? NO TIME LATER!!!" It is scary because there is so much stuff N. and I are putting off because we're just not ready, and there will be time later. Turns out there really isn't always. :(

<3 Sarah