The Amazing Suit Race

Academy countdown: 3 days.

For those of you unfamiliar with the police academy, it’s not just 40 weekly hours of physical and mental demands, they also have homework that they bring home with them.  Basically, we’re looking forward to 6 months of very little quality time together, sleep deprivation, and stress.

Yay.

JD came home from last week’s orientation with a packet of information such as 10 codes, their mission statement, etc.  He wasn’t told that he needs to know it all by the first day, but if his military background taught him anything, it’s that you’ll be doing far fewer pushups if you show up prepared.  So, he’s been studying the sheet and I’ve been quizzing him. 

We also have the fun task of finding suits to get him through the first few weeks of the academy.  They aren’t issued uniforms right away, but they’re still required to show up in business professional attire.  Luckily, we were warned not to get nice suits because they’ll be doing PT (physical training) in them.  I have to give them credit for that; I would be super pissed off if he showed up on his first day in his $400 suit and he was down on the ground doing pushups in it.

Anyway, finding cheap suits for JD has not been easy.  Finding a matching suit at a consignment store is hard enough- nothing is organized by size, pants and jackets aren’t paired together, and all the tags have been cut out.  Now, imagine trying to shop for The Hulk at a thrift store.  That will give you an idea of what it’s like to shop for JD.  He has really broad shoulders and big arms, so half of his long sleeved shirts have holes in the elbows because he busts out of them.  So far, he hasn't been able to get most of the suit jackets over his shoulders.  We went shopping a few days ago and found 1 (one!) jacket that fit him… but the pants were outrageously too big.

We went shopping again today.  Four stores, nearly three hours, and only one suit.  This means the process will start again tomorrow.

Double yay.