one crazy night

As many of you will recall, a few days ago I mentioned how proud I was that I spent the night (actually 2 nights) all alone in my house in my ghetto neighborhood. I also joked that it wasn't likely that a gangsta would come in my house and busta cap on me. Now that I've refreshed your mind of that, please pay careful attention to the experience that I'm about to disclose.

Last night was the first night Ben's been home since Wednesday. He had a great camp out and came home tired. The puppy, too, was one big ball of tiredness....he slept all afternoon yesterday, all through the night, and just barely woke up when we got home from church. Ben and I went to dinner with my mom and Suzette last night and pretty much came home and went to bed.

Ben had somewhat of a rough night--acid reflux, sore muscles from hiking, etc. I slept good, finally, since my ear feels SO much better.

Around 4:30am, I heard a loud POP and seconds later another loud POP, commotion ensued what seemed like right outside our bedroom window. I heard people yelling, girls screaming, and then a rush of 3 or 4 cars drive away in an instant. Were those loud pops what I thought they were? Had someone just shot a gun on my street, by my house, in this neighborhood? After the noise calmed down, I rolled over to Ben, who was as still as still could be and asked, "Was that a gun?" He said, "Yup." I cried, "Did it go off twice," and he said yes again. We sat real still for a few more minutes, Ben got up to get some milk, and then opened our front door. It was like nothing had happened, the street was all quiet.

He was panicked and had horrible flashback/nightmares about his time in Iraq, what with the being shot at and all. Needless to say we had a very sleepless night after that. When we walked to church this afternoon, we looked at the house we think the gun shot either came from or where it was aimed. Everything looked normal. The fact that there are dozens of empty (and a few full) beer bottles on the street leads us to believe that some sort of party was going on.

So, no, the gangsta didn't come in my house but he did busta cap on someone (or meant to anyway as no police showed up or no one appears to be hurt) very close to my house.

In friendlier, happier news, yesterday I saw "Hairspray." For all the hype and buzz on this film, I was expecting something more. True, it was fun and entertaining...Even John Travolta was a hoot...but it was just OK. I enjoyed the songs and dance, the costumes, and of course, the big hair. I think I would have loved living back then. My mom kept telling me throughout the movie that she remembers the style of clothes and hair that was portrayed in the movie.

Technically this is my last week on real vacation. I have lots of little school stuff to work on. Next Monday I will return to my room and get ready for the new year. We have teacher meetings all week that week, so I'm counting this week as my last one before school. Ben's leaving me again on Wednesday to Friday for another Scout camp.

Here's wishing everyone a safe and gun shot free week!