Tuesday morning I get up to do some work before EMT class. Class runs 10 - 2, then I go home and grab lunch in time for S to pick me up in his white DC Animal Control van for a ride-along from 2:45 to 8:30. I'm doing a freelance article on his work saving (or sometimes failing to save) animals on the DC streets. S would give up his life for an animal; I have no doubt of this. While we hustle through the DC streets, I ask him why he does this; he tells me about how he left an abusive home at age 11 and spent years on the streets of LA and DC. He was stabbed and shot; he ODed more times than he can count. But he survived. Now he rescues other living things.

Wednesday I work until 4:30 then go to the squad early for the overnight shift. Not much happens, but it happens in the bleary early morning, and I don't sleep much. I'm home by 9 AM and then off to EMT class from 10 to 2. When I get home, I work through the evening trying to catch up on my paying clients' projects. I fail. On Friday I work until 11 before heading out to the Animal Control shelter on New York Avenue for my second ride-along. I whip up a little apologetic but sort of self-indulgent entry for the Tales. Before I leave, Susan and I agree that at whatever time I get off, we'll go out to dinner at that Indian restaurant she found while I was conscripted to clean the squad building on a Friday night. Then a movie, where if all goes well, I will able to curl up with a large tub of popcorn and get some serious sleep.