COPS!

Well, it's the end of the school year. Tonight was the College Republicans end of year party, which was a lot of fun until it came time to start saying goodbye to people. Some of them I won't see ever again, some of then I may see one day, and some of them I'll be seeing again in the fall, which seems like a lifetime away right now. All I want is to just have my friends and not have to say goodbye, ever.

So I left the CR party around midnight and went over to On the Rocks In the Dark (OTR ITD), which is an annual concert that takes place at the end of dead week Spring term, where where OTR sings every song they know. It's become an annual tradition for a lot of people as a way to close out the year, and it seems that the crowd gets larger every year. Tonight was my third OTR ITD, which is crazy because it doesn't seem like it's been that long. But at the same time, I feel like a completely different person. I'm an older, wiser, and much more weathered Melissa than I was back then.

So on my way home at 2am, I was driving down 18th going through the 18th & Hilyard intersection and the light turned yellow. I was lost in thought so I didn't notice it right away. I could have stopped if I had noticed it sooner but I didn't, and by the time I saw it was yellow, I didn't see any harm in going through the yellow light. NOTE: The light was not red, nor did it turn red as I was passing through the light.

So there was a car waiting to turn left onto Hilyard. As I went through the intersection, the headlights of the left turner's car made it to where I couldn't see the car. Well, as soon as I started passing the car, what do you know. It's a cop. I wasn't speeding, and I didn't think I had broken any laws, but I kept my eyes glued to the rear-view mirror... sure enough, lights go a-flashing and he flips a U-turn in the middle of the intersection. Shoot. I turned left on Patterson and pulled over, kinda freakin' out (a liiiittle) on the inside. I've never been pulled over by a cop before with me as the driver.

The first thing he says, "Do you realize you just ran a red light?" "I never saw it turn red sir, it was yellow when I went through." "Okay well if you're at all able to stop, you shouldn't go through yellow lights. It's actually against the law if you have enough time to stop. Did you know that?" "No." "Yeah, I didn't think you did." Then he questioned me on a whole bunch of stuff, got my license and registration, went back to his car and checked my record, came back, and said, "Well, your record is immaculate so I'll let you go with a warning." "Okay, thank you sir."

NOTE: I'm good with cops. I get it from my mom... trust me, there are many good stories about my mom and cops, especially (but not limited to) corrupt cops in foreign countries. It always ends with her driving off scott free, even if she was actually breaking a law. Granted, I wasn't breaking any laws but I was calm, cool, and collected with that cop like I never would have thought I'd be. Ahh, I look forward to the day when I get myself out of a ticket I deserved (not that I'm planning on deserving any).. my family will be so proud of me. No seriously, they actually will.

So tonight, we learned two things:
1) The cop tried to get me to admit that I had run a red light, which I hadn't.
2) He knew all along that I didn't run a red light.. but this Tuck stands up for herself, even when she's up against a big bad law enforcement official. Take that, authorities.

And now I have to sleep.