I was going to write an entry about how I just picked (back) up Final Fantasy Dawn of Souls (which is FF1 and FF2 for the GBA), as well as talk about how it feels like an old friend coming back to me. But that all got shattered by my run-in with the law this morning.

I wake up at 4:30 AM (leave the house at 5) for work, on the current rotation that I'm on. At 5-ish in the morning, there's not a lot of cars around, so it's very easy to speed a little. To make matters worse, I decided to "Shuffle Songs" on my iPod, which decided it would play "Everything Ends" by Slipknot.

...and to make matters even worse than that, I've been in the habit of making an illegal right at this one light. It's always red when I get to it, and I'm impatient. Well, turns out that the police officer that finally pulled me over had been following me from just about the beginning of my 30 minute commute. So he saw all the speeding (must've been at least 20 over at a few places), as well as the illegal right turn.

After I made the illegal right turn, the cop flipped on his lights--a mere 10 feet from my turn into the corporate park, where my work is. Actually, it's good that he did that, because I've gotten into the (bad) habit of making an illegal left on red, there. Anyways, there was no shoulder, so I turned off onto a side street, and pulled over as far as I could. I quickly dimmed my music, rolled my window down, and then put both hands on the steering wheel.

The cop came up, asked me for license, registration, and insurance (SOP), and then asked me if I'd seen the "No right on red" sign back there. I mumbled something, basically affirmative, and he then told me that he'd had to do over 65 to catch up to me on 541. This later sunk in--541 is literally the second road I turn on to on the way to work, but at the time I just gave a sort of nervous shrug. I was a little put off by his demeanor--he was friendly as could be, and even had a sort of half-laugh in his voice when he mentioned trying to catch up to me.

He took my information to his patrol car, and came back within about 3 minutes, then asked me where I was going. I replied to work, just a mile behind us. He nodded and said to try to watch my speeding, and gave me back my papers. I again mumbled out something, and thanked him, and then went to work.

All that really doesn't capture the encounter precisely. It's hard to describe exactly how I felt, and all the factors involved. But this is the third time I've been pulled over for speeding, and if I have my way, it'll be close to the last. I've been rushing too much lately.

I'm still pretty baffled by his attitude, though. He was positively cheery. I guess he was having a good day, and wanted to pass it on.