Something to Say to Everyone

As my faithful readers know, I often observe unusual/uncomfortable/illegal activities during my evening walks. I often take similar routes because there are a couple of places that I like to stop and drink water. This means that I often see the same people around.

There is one house near a water-bearing park where I once before saw a man and woman on the porch. The woman was apparently having some relational difficulties, which could be attributed solely to the other involved parties. (Read: None of this was her fault.) I had no interactions with them.

Today I was on the other side of the road walking parallel to where one woman and two men were sitting on this porch. I heard them shouting as I approached. They were trying to stop a passing car (by shouting from the porch) because they believed that the ladder on top of that car belonged to them. They seemed briefly really worked up about it, but this emotion was not sustained.

As I got close to them (but on the other side of the road), one guy shouted to me, "Is that tattoo on your leg real?" It was the same tattoo that the man in the previous post commented on. I debated but decided that responding briefly was the best response. I just shouted, "Yeah." He shouted, "Seriously?" I shouted, "Yeah," and he shouted, "Damn." I was still walking, and I turned the first available corner to get away from them.

So many questions arose for this guy:
1. Did I do anything that sent the message that I wanted to talk to you? I was on the other side of the street, did not look in your direction, and walked continually.
2. If it was clear I wasn't interested in talking to you, why did you talk to me?
3. Why did you need to know if my tattoo was real?
4. Why did you doubt me after I said it was real?
5. Just why?

"You sure are pretty cute."

Tonight I was on my walk, and I was only a few blocks from home. I saw some cops with their lights on and realized that they were setting up a "sobriety chekpoint." I found this odd because it is Thursday, we are far from the university, and that area is not known for having bars or anything. A similar checkpoint near the college bars would make a lot more sense.

I was almost home when I turned into an alley. A 50-ish year old man on a moped (not uncommon in GL) was approaching the same area. I began to feel very special when he removed his ear buds. He asked me what was going on and gestured toward the police lights. I told him that was a sobriety checkpoint. He said, "That sucks." I thought, Only if you are planning on driving drunk down that particular block. He was checking out the tattoo on my leg and commented that he liked it. I told him to have a good night and started to walk away. I heard him say something, but I didn't catch it. I asked him to repeat himself, and he said, "You sure are pretty cute." And, that marked the end of our conversation.

I can't remember the last time a dude hit on me, and this was a much older dude on a moped who thinks that sobriety checkpoints suck. Talk about a self-esteem boost!

Bye Bad Mom!

BREAKING NEWS: BAD MOM AND RYAN/RYLIN MOVED OUT 7/29/2012

It's true. Bad Mom had one oldish man helping her load a van with her stuff on Saturday and another oldish man helping her load this truck on Sunday. It's unclear if she was evicted or if any other Bad Boyfriend has entered the scene. Gone are the sounds of yelling and banging on the door. I can't wait to see what kind of craziness replaces her craziness and to hear why NOLD doesn't like them.

Lost & Found

The following artifacts were discovered by a resident of the apartment building, Lizzy, in our laundry room:

Found-Item in hallway-you identify, I'll return: Apt 2

This is a game Apt 2 likes to play. Any normal neighbor would attempt to return the item to its owner. Since most people are honest, the item could be returned without playing the guessing game. Since said item could be virtually anything, you would need to know what you're missing! She knows who the item belongs to-She just lives for moments like this! Opportunities for her to have power over other people, since she is powerless against her husband. 

Here's what I know...Apt 2 belongs to NOLD, so she wrote the first note. (See previous posts about Nosy Old Lady Downstairs.) She and Bad Mom have been experiencing conflict, about which NOLD likes to gossip with Lizzy. They share a wall, and NOLD has called the police on Bad Mom several times. These calls were likely warranted, as Bad Mom seems to be literally abusing Ryan/Rylin, but there is also a crazy element to all of this nonsense. Lizzy and I both believe Bad Mom wrote the second note. Also, NOLD has brought us items that she believed we had lost, so she does not likely believe it is ours.

Here's what I don't know...what was lost, to whom it belongs, or whether that person will ever get it back.

Bad Boys, Bad Boys, Whatcha Gonna Do?

Tonight's walk led to another interesting sight.

The first sign of something noteworthy. People are sitting on lawn chairs in the streets...watching the police at a crime scene.

The view of the crime scene from the end of the street where the spectators are.

One perspective on the large area that is blocked off with police tape.

I have no idea what is going on, even though I stalked the area from every area (for journalistic purposes, of course). Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get better shots with my camera on my phone.

Also sighted on today's walk...Mormons.

Back to Normal

Hello Faithful Readers. Finally I have a good entry for you...just hours after I didn't have a good entry. And by "good," I mean rediculous.

Tonight I went for my usual walk. Well, it was somewhat unusual because I had a specific destination, as I needed to return a Red Box movie. And, the heat index was 91 at 9pm. I was wearing a t-shirt, gym shorts, and sneakers.

Typically when I'm walking I don't see other people out walking. People are hanging out in their yards, on their porches, and generally in the streets, but they are not walking. Tonight, soon after I left our building, I became aware of a guy who was somewhat near me. He was wearing a muscle shirt, gym shorts, sneakers, and a backpack. Also, somewhere behind me some woman was shouting something about Facebook. I tried to basically keep some space between him and me because I wasn't interested in any interactions. As I kept walking toward the store, he kept being close to me. I would round a corner and there he was. He wasn't doing anything creepy at all; he was just walking. And, he was always in front of me, so he wasn't following me. It was just odd that a) he was walking and b) he was continually near me.

At some point, I became aware of a woman coming up behind me. There were a few differences between us. She was walking down the middle of the street; I was on the sidewalk. She was wearing only a sports bra and gym shorts; I was also wearing a shirt and shoes. Soon, she, the guy, and I were all walking for several blocks near each other.

I was starting to feel like the three of us were on some kind of survelliance team. It was like on SVU when they are all trying to look like they are casually hanging out in the park while they are obviously not. I was imagining how we could make it more authentic...the woman could be talking on her cell phone, and I could have Lizzy with me. Then no one would suspect our true intent.

As I was imagining this, it became clear that the man and the woman actually knew each other. She was following him. For blocks and blocks, she followed him. She got within a few feet of him and started shouting at this time. At this point I was about 3/4 of a block behind them and couldn't hear what she was saying. I was torn between my curiousity (I wanted to keep moving toward them) and my concern that something bad was about to go down (I wanted to turn away from them). I worried that someone might think I was actually with them if something were to go down. We were all dressed casually (some more than others), we were similar in age (although I was probably the oldest), and we had been walking in the same general vicinity for close to a mile.

I was debating whether to turn away from them when the woman gave up her pursuit. She turned back toward me and shouted, "I hope you fucking get killed." I hope/assume she was talking to the dude and not me. She then said to me, "He hit me. If you see the cops, turn him in." I just muttered, "Okay," with absolutely NO intent of getting involved. She then said, "And, he has a knife in his bookbag." So wait...I'm supposed to believe that you were chasing him due to your fear of him? I'm not buying that one. All I've seen is you running around half naked chasing him, and again this has nothing to do with me.

The woman kept walking away from me and the guy eventually turned a different way than I was going. And that was the end of tonight's GL excitement.

A Happy Sight

I take walks around the neighborhood almost every night. Often I don't see anything to feel happy about. I see parents ignoring children, teenagers hanging out in the streets, and an abundance of litter. A couple of weeks ago, I saw the rainbow in the picture above. My phone camera sucks, so this picture does not do the rainbow justice. It spanned a huge distance and had a great range of colors. I walked toward it excitedly, and I wasn't the only one who was excited. A woman who was standing on the sidewalk stopped me to make sure that I saw it. It was amazing how a simple rainbow transformed the neighborhood, if only for a short time.