Wowy wowy. More exciting news from my life. These are spectacular times. So I'm in Moscow, Idaho right now at my cousin, Lucas and his wife, Missy's house. Last night, my cousin Sean and I went to a bar down town. We played pool and talked about cool stuff and what not, and then we left. Sean and I were both drunk, and he wanted to drive home. I didn't really object or anything. He wasn't so drunk that he'd be any more likely to hurt someone than he normal would be in a car, and he seemed like he knew what he was doing. Also, he had mentioned driving drunk several times and I was under the suspision that it wasn't that big a deal in Idaho or Moscow specificaly. Well you can kinda see where this is going. We drove for about two blocks when a cop pulled us over into a parking lot. Sean imediately took his wallet out of his pocket and slid it under the seat and told me that our story would be that I was drinking at the bars and he had come to pick me up. The cop asked him for liscense and registration so he gave him the registration and said he didn't have his liscence on him.

Cop: What's your name?

Sean: Lucas Howell.

C: What's your middle initial
S: I don't have one.
C: What's your birthday?
S: 4/22/83.
C: Whose car is this?
S: My granparents. They live in Tacoma.
C: Where are you lisncenced?
S: Arizona.
C: You from Arizona?
S: Ya, my parents live there.
C: Where in Arizona?
S: Phoenix.
C: Where in Pheonix?
S: Down town. They have a house (trails off into a mumble.).
C: Who's he? (refering to me)
S: That's my cousin Chance.
C: Does he have his I.D.?

Chance: Ya, here you go.

C: What are you guys doing up here?
S: We're visiting our cousin Sean.
C: Ok, sit tight. We're going to go run your information. I'll be right back.

So we wait a while and the cop comes back and asks Sean to get out of the car. Presumeably so I won't be able to hear and match my story to his. Another cop pulls up and shines bright lights on me in the car. Another cop walks up to me and another dialogue ensues.

Cop: Who's he? (refering to Sean)

Chance: Lucas Howell.
C: What's his middle name?
Ch: I don't know. I don't think he has one.
C: When's his birthday.
Ch: In April, I'm pretty sure.
C: What are you guys doing here.
Ch: We're visiting our cousin Sean.
C: Where's he from? (refering to the real Sean)
Ch: Uh.. I think he goes to U of A. His parents live in Phoenix. (This was a mistake.)
C: U of A, huh?
(We exchange awkward glances for a bit)
C: Sit tight.

He goes over and hangs out with his colleagues for a bit before I raise my hand and he comes back over.

C: Ya?
Ch: Why did we get pulled over?
C: Your rear liscense plate is unreadable. Both plates have to be fully visable at all times?
Ch: How is the plate unreadable?
C: Uhh... I think somethings blocking it.
Ch: What's blocking it?
C: Hang on, let me go check. (This was rediculous. He had become insecure with our conversation.)
C: I think it's the trailor hitch that's blocking the plate. (He THOUGHT it was the trailor hitch.)

He walks away again, and eventually I see Sean get handcuffed and go into a cop car. The cops say that they'll give me a ride home and instruct me to get into a car, so I do. While I'm the car by myself, I hear dispatch on the CB radio say that They found the real Mr. Lucas Howell, and that the man the had in custody was Sean Murphy. At that point I decided that I'd admit to them who was who if they asked me again. The cops have me switch cars and say that they'll cut us a break and not imopund the car. I thank them and ask how I can get the key to the car back, and they say that "Mr. Howell" will have the key. On the way home, I asked the cop driver his name and he said it was Officer Whitmore. He asked if "that guy's really Lucas Howell?" and I said "actually no" he wasn't. We chatted a bit. I told him that I go to Western. He said he went to Central. When we got back to the real Lucas Howell's house I said have a good night officer Whitmore, and he laughed.

WOW! That is a story! So, thismorning. I get up and look around town for the police station. I find it and they refer me to the courthouse/jail, so I go there, and they say they released Sean "a couple minutes ago. He should be coming out the south enterence about now." So, I go to the south enterence and wait for 20 minutes. I call them again, and they said I must have missed him. So I start walking to the house and Sean calls me (I had Lucas and Missy's cell phone). He said he didn't get pinned for a DUI (which is really really sweet); that he got two tickets - one for driving with an expired liscense, one for lying to law enforcement. He'll probably have to pay about $300. He's pissed off because the cops called our grandma last night, and he doesn't want our family to know about this. He called her today though, and she seemed pretty cool about everything. The only thing now is that we don't have the key to our car. The cops told me he would have it, but I called the jail and they said he didn't even have it coming in. We think, most likely the cops moved our car into an acceptable parking spot and left the key in the car. The police station said they'd call me after they look into what the hell they did with the key. It seems like a blunder on they're part.

End story. This has all been really fascinating. These are good times really.