Day 29 (Thr., Sept. 29)

I've been wanting to go to Baja Fresh lately. I haven't eaten there in about six months, so I am really hungry for Baja Fresh. That restaurant has Mexican-American style food. Burritos, tacos and some good salads. It's been a while since I have been there. But I never thought that my next trip to Baja Fresh would be for work. I was sent out there today radio dispatch said there was a "suspicious package" sitting in the strip mall where Baja Fresh is. So, I headed out there. I didn't get a chance to see what happened to the package and what the authorities did to it. I had a 4:30 assignment and when I showed up to Baja Fresh, it was already 3:15 p.m. These types of things can take up to a couple of hours and I would have stayed there the whole time, but not today. I had an important assignment that I needed to get done. I did, however, hang out at the scene for an hour and talked to people as they all tried to figure out what was going on.

I really wish I had the face of the officer in this photo. He was screaming his lungs out at the lady as she tried to make her own law by driving into the blocked-off area. The cop raced down the street until he cut her off. He jumped out and told her to "get out of here, NOW!!!!" There's a reason why cops put up the yellow tape. That's to keep people out and it pisses them off when someone tries to defy their rules.

So, 4:15 p.m. came and I had to go. I rushed down rush-hour traffic to get from Ft. Lauderdale to Miramar, a 27-mile journey. Of course, I was late to my assignment, but my subject was informed about my delay by one of my editors. I felt good going to this assignment. It was a story on a family that was displaced by Katrina and is now trying to live a normal life while living at the home of a family member. The story I followed was that of Julie, a mother of two who lived in the St. Bernard Parish in Louisiana. Her husband is in Houston as he was able to keep his job when his company relocated there.

Being at this assignment made me miss my nieces and nephews. There were four children in the house between the ages of 1 and 5, which is the same age range of my sister's kids. I miss them a whole lot. I love playing w/ them and being their uncle. It's now been four months since I've seen them and I felt really homesick today because I love the beauty of kids. They are so full of life. They remind me of what kind of parent I want to be. Of course, I don't know anything about being a parent and I don't know how I am going to do it w/o a manual, but I will do it whenever it happens.

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