Life is Nuts Sometimes

These pictures are kind of killing me right now.  This was last week (or something like that), when it was 25 degrees (Celsius) here.  Dave and I went on our first ice cream date of the year.  Tomorrow it's supposed to snow.  

I really shouldn't complain at all, because we were spoiled rotten with that kind of weather in March.  Snow is normal in March.  But it still hurts to see these.

Yesterday was a mental day.  Crazy day at work, of course.  Then halfway through the day I am eating dried peas (yeah weird enough, I know), and I choked on a couple. Like bad choked. Thought I was going to die for a second there.  Thankfully I was able to wash them down with some tea, but for the rest of the day my throat was super raw and sore.

My dad was in the hospital yesterday getting some tests.  I told my mom, no, DEMANDED that my mother call me as soon as the tests were done, because I would be sitting there at work all day biting my nails down to nothing.  And I did....I bit my lips (nervous habit!) until there was nothing left to bite anymore.  No phone call ALL DAY from my mother.  I am thinking the worst: that he had to go to surgery right away because his heart was so bad, etc.  I must have called her cell phone 25 times an hour, and it was off.  I was calling my sister frantically to see if she had heard anything, calling my mom's house to see if they were home.  Finally I called the hospital and asked if he had been admitted; they said he had been sent home.  I was thinking, "Home to god?  Home WHERE?". My anxiety levels were through the roof.

I finally got a hold of her at 6:30PM.  After freaking out all day. She had forgotten her cell phone.  She told me that she even tried to call me collect but it didn't work because of my cell.  I told her that was the only thing saving her butt, that she at least tried.  She said she knew I would be nervous all day.  My dad is fine by the way. Not perfect, but good enough that I am happy.

Needless to say I could not wait to leave work.  I told myself that I just wanted to get home, pour myself a glass of wine, get into my pjs and just veg.  I figured my day couldn't get any worse.

Wrong.  Fuck you universe! Why do you do that?!!!  I was walking home, minding my beeswax when the first weird thing I see is a guy passed out in an alley (dead? drunk?) and another guy trying to drag him inside.  Ok.  Not too weird.  Dave and I live in a pretty shitty neighbourhood so it's par for the course I suppose.  I continue walking. Over my super loud blasting music on my headphones I hear people screaming at each other.  I turn off my music and can hear that it's pretty violent.  It's a young couple having a domestic right there on the street.  The guy is running into traffic trying to get away from the girl and she is chasing him (it's rush hour at this point).  There is a car parked to the side, a concerned citizen who was obviously too scared to call the cops for whatever reason because she asked me to.

I walked on and caught up with the couple.  The girl was crying hysterically and had snot running down her face, she couldn't have been more than 19-years-old.  They were continuing to scream at each other.  So I asked them to calm down.  I told them that people were going to call the cops and they needed to take a deep breath.  They weren't really listening to me.  I told them I was going to call the cops if they didn't stop. That got their attention.  I was scared that they would turn on me, but they seemed harmless enough.  I live in a big city, in a sometimes dangerous neighbourhood, and I am not the naive girl I used to be when I first moved here.  I am not stupid enough to step in to something that could turn deadly.  These people looked like kids.  In a volatile relationship.

I am thinking that the situation is under control until this drunk (or something) guy comes barrelling towards the kids and starts trying to fight the young guy, telling him that he is going to kill him for fighting with the girl (uhhh...it's the girl who was kind of the crazier one in the situation), and they start going at each other.  The girl is trying to break them up, I am yelling that I am going to call the police, it's gone from bad to worse.  The drunk guy turns to me and starts screaming in my face, telling me to call the police, and bumping his chest into mine as if he is going to fight me, and I keep telling him to fucking back off, calm down.  He is spitting in my face, foaming at the mouth he is so angry.  I told him that he wasn't helping the situation.

Finally I get the kids off to the side and tell them that if they don't stop I really am going to call the po-po, and that I was going to stand with them for five minutes until they relaxed a bit.  The girl kept yelling at me to leave and I didn't know what the hell was going on, and I was like, I don't give a shit about what's going on in your life, you just need to simmer.  I said that if I read a news article that they had gone home and stabbed each other and I didn't call the police, I would feel guilty for the rest of my life (would I though?). They finally calmed down and walked away together.

Who acts like that out on the street?  I am not saying it's ok to act like at all, ever, and obviously they need to end their relationship as they don't really seem very good together.  But seriously now. When I told people this story they were like, ahhhh weren't you scared? Of course I was!!! I was crazy scared, but the older I get the less I suffer from the bystander effect.  This is not to say that I get up in people's business because I don't, but if I see people who look like they need help, I am going to help them.

I told Dave that I need to go into the witness protection program because I have called the cops on enough people trying to kill each other in this neighbourhood.  Shit. Someone is going to shoot me from behind one of these days.

Anyway, that's how my day got worse.  And then I went home and downed half a bottle of wine and presto chango! All was right with the world again.

Dave and I have a day of adventure planned for tomorrow (today).  I took the day off of work because it seemed like it was the right thing to do at this time in my life.  And since we had no money to celebrate our 7 year anniversary in February, we are celebrating today.  Breakfast, brownies, shopping, and high tea are all on the agenda tomorrow.  I will take pictures!

I hope you all have a wonderful Friday!