Welcome to the “Grab A Cup” Blog! Before I jump into what you can expect while reading this blog, here’s a story on “why” this blog is named what its named “Grab A Cup.” A few years ago, I started my career as a law enforcement officer. I grew close to the other officers on my squad/rotation. Even the ones that worked for different agencies. We all worked the midnight shift, we were all away from our wives/girlfriends/fiances/children/homes when everyone else in the world was sleeping in their warm beds or staying up late to catch the 2AM broadcast of SportsCenter. Believe me, all of us wanted to be in their shoes. Instead, from about 6PM on any given night until about 3AM the next morning, we were charging under the the moonlight. We’d respond to the DOA (or “DRT” as we call it), the domestics, the car crashes, arrest drunk drivers, find fugitives, etc. We’re busy.
So one night a few summers ago, one of the officers who worked for a different agency messaged me on a “in car, instant messaging” system. All he said was, “0300 we grabbing a cup.” Well, I was in the median and typing a report for smashed mailbox I had just investigated and I read his message and just stared at the screen; “….Huh? Grabbing a cup?” Now, I knew the officer pretty well, but I wasn’t best friends with him. So, I felt like the appropriate response would be to act like I never got the message; plausible deniability. My shift got over, I went home. The next night I got into work, and the officer that told me he was “grabbing a cup” messaged me again. He said, “Hey! How come you didn’t come grab a cup last night?” I wanted to crawl in a hole, I figured it wasn’t that big of a deal!
It kinda is for reasons you don’t truly realize right off the bat.
I replied, told him I must have missed his message; lie, I know. Feeling guilty, I asked a few more questions. I took a shot in the dark; since he said, “we” in the original invite, I assumed there were other officer’s invited. So, I asked who was all there. He rattled of 4 or 5 names, one of them being an officer in my own agency. Then I thought, “Oh, I think he means, ‘grab a cup of coffee’…” Not that difficult, really. Catching on, I said, “Okay, count me in for tonight.” Sure enough, come 0230, I got a message. This time from a different officer/different agency; “hey, come grab a cup at Main/State.” Given a location, I headed that way. I walked into the 24 hour gas station. Five officers were all standing towards the back of the store. Naturally, all their eyes checked who just walked through the door. I grabbed an empty Styrofoam cup and filled it with some coffee. Strolled over to all the officers and found a ledge to lean against.
They were already deep in conversation about something happening within their department. I listened. Again, I was acquainted with these guys, but I didn’t know them well enough to jump in and provide my 2 cents. The conversation changed 3 or 4 times while I stood there with them. It went from “venting about command” to “have you seen that new show on HBO, yet?” to “Did you see who the Tigers and Cubs traded last night?” all the way to “have any of your wives used this program for recipes before?” It was pretty dynamic. The conversations were deep, laced with humor, but short enough to be had over the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee. When the coffee in the cup ran out, it was time to head back out on patrol. But, over the 15-20 minutes we stood there sharing our cup of coffee, we exchanged a little bit about ourselves with each other. They quickly learned that I was a die hard Cubs fan, I enjoy all sports, movies, and mostly, throwing in quick-funny jabs at each other.
I worked with those guys for a little over a year and a half. And a few of them have become my best friends. Hell, several of them were there with me on my wedding day. Almost every night we worked, all it took was for someone take charge to say, “hey, lets grab a cup.” Some nights someone couldn’t make it, “Nah, gotta head home early tonight, kids are sick.” or “Cant tonight, man, I gotta get this report done.” But most of the time, we always found time for each other. Its an opportunity to pick each others minds about how they handled a situation on duty. We discussed life experiences and learned each other’s morals and values. We talked sports, movies, and shared pictures and laughed at each other from a fuzzy Saturday night out. When we got back out on patrol, it was like we just had a mini night out with a bunch of friends – minus the beer, add the coffee. Now, the meeting for coffee was simply a chance to do something together that didn’t feel like work. For the most part, all of us same guys were responding to the same call – THATS where the silent bonding occurred. Believe me, you become a lot closer to someone when you’re faced with a situation together involving someone and a knife or a gun. When you’re chasing someone through backyards, over cars, and finally they’re caught by you and your partner at the same time and you successfully put them in custody…it makes the conversation at the coffee meeting a lot cooler. They’re family with guns.
For now, I can’t meet with those guys. Things have changed a bit in our own lives, but we still keep up. I learned about the camaraderie as a LEO, and moreover, how important it is to never take yourself too seriously. So, this blog FINALLY gives me a forum to write. I’ve been writing for a while, but in Word Processing. This is actually pretty cool. A nice release. I plan to discuss anything you would when you grab a cup of coffee with a friend. Todays culture, todays sports, the Cubs, Notre Dame Football, my life experiences, my current situations, my faith, my family, whatever comes to mind as I sit and listen to Zach Brown Band and drink my Dunkin Donuts Keurig Coffee.
So, grab a cup and hang out for a bit if you want.
And remember, don’t take life too seriously. None of us get out alive anyway.
grabacupblog 