Run Away and Never Look Back

*This is written pretty much in real time. If my verb tenses change throughout, I apologize.

I had just finished watching this week’s newest episode of CSI when I heard a loud male scream and a crash above me. The couple who lives upstairs were not yelling in rapture tonight. This man, whom I’ve never met, screamed a profanity and then, I assume, threw something hard. Since I didn’t know what was going on, I went to my room to listen if this was just an accident (like stubbing your toe or something) and it was quiet for about a minute. Then the man started screaming again and there were more crashes. He was screaming THE profanity over and over, crying about how “you don’t know” or something. After much screaming, I heard her yelling back about how she didn’t do something and he kept telling her to, “Get out, get out of my apartment!” Insert colorful language here. There may have been a few phrases about not knowing how it feels from the man.

Afraid, I called the police. I couldn’t let this go. The operator let me go and signaled a squad car to come out. There was more screaming on his part. Before they arrived, I could hear her sobbing. I hope to God she locked herself in the bathroom.

The police have arrived and I don’t know what is going on. I don’t really want to know. I just want her to be safe. I hope she does get out and never comes back.

I’m sure I made an enemy tonight. I asked for anonymity and there are others in the apartment building who may have heard. I probably had the geographical advantage of hearing the fight – my apartment is directly below theirs.

My heart is racing and I’m scared for her. There is still walking around upstairs; creak, creak, creak. There are muffled voices from above now. It sounds like two males talking – I assume the officer is checking out the scene. Just make her safe.

I can hear doors opening and closing in the building. One of those doors needs a little oil; it squeaks.

My nerves are shot. I think it is quite possible I’ll start chewing my nails off here.

The stomping has dissipated at least. Either the man calmed down quite a bit or he’s no longer in the apartment above. I’m worried that he may be vengeful because the police arrived but I feel better knowing someone could protect her. I don’t know what happened between the two. I don’t care.

I hope she leaves him. I hope she never returns to him.

It has quieted completely upstairs. I keep expecting a knock on the door or my phone to ring. An officer called once they arrived at the apartment complex to have me open the door. I can’t tell anymore if the police are still here. From start to now, I’d say it’s been less than 25 minutes. Looking at my phone, it was 9 minutes between the time I dialed 9-1-1 and the time the officer called me to open the door. And it’s been 27 minutes since the officer called me.

The only sounds now are those of rain lightly hitting the window, the hum of my refrigerator, the tick-tick-tick of my wall clock, and the tapping of keys as I type. I think there is still someone upstairs, but the talking has ceased. My nerves are returning to normal.

And to think, I was going to write a post about the phrase of the week (which is “He’s always tooken cares of cars anyways,” if you were wondering). Or write about my problem at karaoke – the man with the phony Scottish accent invading my personal space and bathing in cologne. Seems insignificant right now.

Entertaining

My favorite overheard quote from an evening at the pool hall with Char was said by a tiny woman wearing a pink tank top and a lei with flashing red lights embedded in it:

"She's way more drunk than I am. Look at my toes!"

If a Picture is Worth 1,000 Words, This is a Really Long Post

Ah, DM's birthday. She's 40 now you know. To celebrate my best friend's special day, we each took a few days off work and made a long weekend out of the event. DM wrote a post about her weekend and I don't have much to add. Mainly, I'll provide the pictures.

I hope you enjoy!



On Friday night, we went to a goodbye party for one of my favorite co-workers. This is a picture of Mary (said co-worker) and me.


At Manny's after the opera


Forty and still able to rock. This picture has gotten the response, "Awesome," more than once.


There are more pictures on Flickr and DM has access to post some of the ones I marked private (friends and/or family only able to see). She may post a few more. I'm going to leave this post as just a few.

It was a great weekend, filled with laughter, friends, happy times, and well-wishes. Even crazy moments (such as surprise visitors at karaoke, getting lost, random Trivial Pursuit answers, and conversations about my ability to flip people off while driving) made the weekend that much more special. Best wishes and happy birthday to a wonderful woman! Dana - You Absolutely Rock. I can't think of a better friend.

Just Another Saturday Night at the Pool Hall

After work, Char and I headed to the pool hall. This has become a semi-normal Saturday night for us. The pool hall gives us a place to walk around some, take out a little aggression (on the pool balls), relax, and unwind. We can chat a little about work (those bits of conversation that may be better stated out of the office) and get our fill of assorted personalities. There is a crowd that pool halls typically attract and I'll be the first to admit it is not always the classiest of crowds.

We were hit on tonight. Well, if you call it that. A drunk man stumbled towards us on his way out the door (someone else was driving him) and commented on our "chins". I don't think the word chin was what he meant, especially considering the comment of, "That's not what I meant," slurred after saying chin, but whatever.

Nature called and I had to use the rest room of the establishment. This is when I realized some of the oddest situations occur in rest rooms. I was in one stall. The larger stall was empty and two women (a little buzzed, but no where near drunk) come in. I expect one to enter the other stall while her companion/friend waits.

When I return to the table, the following conversation with Char occurs:

B (me): We're friends, right?
C (Char): Of course.
B: And we've known each other for quite awhile now.
C: Yes.
B: I just want to make something clear. We would never share a stall taking turns at peeing, right?
C: That would be correct.
B: And we would not do this while talking about how we just met this very night, right?
C: That would also be correct.

It's not like there was a history of friendship between these two women. They were discussing how they just met tonight. Now, I have friends who I adore and trust and can be comfortable around. Peeing with them has never crossed my mind.

This is not an option.

Snow Day

Finally! Living in Minnesota, you expect to get snow days once in awhile. In high school, I had a couple of days where the schools were closed because it was too cold to leave the house, but I don't remember a snow day since elementary school and I don't even remember those. My mom does say they happened though. Even the Halloween blizzard of 1991 didn't result in a snow day for me (only because my school was already closed the next day for something else).

But! After receiving a foot of snow last Saturday night/Sunday morning and having another storm arrive today, our call center closed! By the time I had left for work, the snow was up to my ankles. I was at work for two hours before we closed and in that time I had two meetings and was able to call the members of my team not there yet and tell them to stay home.

Once we closed, I went out and brushed at least 2 inches of snow off my car. Then I headed to my dad's after returning a call to James (karaoke was cancelled). I was at my dad's for four hours and at least another 4 inches of snow fell.

I'm at home now and messing with photographs (seeing what to develop for the last year) and looking out the window, I see the snow half way up the tires of the cars in the parking lot. But some of those cars were not there when the snow started. I'd imagine we're up to 8 inches or so of snow by now. Pretty cool.

Snow! I'm excited. I'm pretty sure I'll have to work Friday night. The roads will be cleared by then, but a girl can hope!

**I've been locked out of Blogger. Blast! Something about being flagged as a spam blog. This is annoying. It's probably because I used electronical terms too much. Dumb.

***In regards to my previous post, I have figured out the problem. There is no signal into the VCR. This can be resolved by changing the order of the connections and adding a cable - so at least there is that.