The helicopters overhead made my living room windows vibrate. It reminded me of that scene in Clueless where Cher tells her father she’s have a snack with her girlfriends.
“Where, in Kuwait?”
“Is that in the valley?”
Sir Hal slunk into the bedroom as I stepped out on to the patio to investigate the commotion. Outside was a confusion of sirens and helicopter blades — I could see three helicopters hovering over the next building in my apartment complex. I flipped on the local news. Oh boy.
“Murder/suicide,” I told my mother when she answered the phone.
“Jeez. What do you do? Attract these things?”
“I suppose so,” I said, considering that not much time had passed since my last neighbor-getting-murdered experience.
We decided that it’s a very good thing I didn’t go into real estate. I obviously have very questionable judgment — or am straight up a bad luck charm — when it comes to these sorts of things. I mean, my clients would be right as rain; it’s their neighbors who might not appreciate my handy work.
Yikers. Are you feeling somewhat freaked out right now? I sure would be!
Have to love it… I used to live in that “part” of the city… Now I’m very content with my non-crime area…
Good Luck! You’ll grow out of it eventually!
I know how you feel. Although unfortunately it’s usually me, not my neighbors with the bad luck.
Stay safe!
whoa, that’s pretty intense. and yes, good thing you didn’t go into real estate.
Love the post, aye me the ghetto and it’s strange occurences. But what made me post a comment was…is your little fish on the bicycle logo/icon/whatev thing been vamped up a bit or is it the same as it’s always been? I don’t remember green being under the bicycle…I’m far too observant for my own good which is why I ask strange questions such as this lol.
I left the house this a.m. to a fire truck, an ambulance, and two sheriff’s office cars. Some dude around the corner OD’d and I got to see them bringing him out in the gurney, certainly alive but most surely spaced out. Meh. It keeps things interesting in the nabe.
how can i say “i’m glad i don’t live in the big city” without sounding like a total hick? wow… just wow.
or … perhaps you are destined to be the new millenium’s jessica fletcher, and should be solving those crimes? i mean, honestly, that woman would have had some serious paranoia!
Being in the real estate business myself, I can tell you that the industry is awash with murders and voodoo-doctors. You would be a welcome addition, plus I need someone to blow of Friday afternoons to go drinking.
Yipe, what are the odds?? And umm… don’t ever move into my neighborhood, kthx
Even though is about crime, it made me think of the tragedy that just happened last week here in Charleston – the nine firemen that were killed. So, so sad
This rain would drive anybody to… well, okay, not murder but it is making tempers flare. Hope you’re on high ground and that the luck changes soon!
Hi, I’m a long time reader of your blog and I’m Kuwaiti and let me tell you that Kuwait is nothing like that…we barely see any helicopters
But seriously, our crime rate is pretty low, and lets hope it stays that way!
Anyway, stay safe and the way I judge a place’s safety is by the percentage of the older citizens living in it! The higher the percentage, the lower the crime rate I believe
Wow. Do you live in my neighborhood? When I first moved in to our little ghetto in Pasadena, our (now) 7yr old neighbor’s father was murdered in our complex! You’d think I would have moved but I’ve lived there for 3 years!
I love the clueless reference! Glad you’re ok, unfortunate that not all your neighbors are. I think you’d be a ton of fun to live near but now that your neighbors in two different states have had um…an unfortunate end…I’m going to stay far away.
I hate to break the illusion Jessica, but there is no “non-crime” part of the city. What about the woman who was murdered in her apartment in May (by her ex) who lived in a nice neighborhood in Plano? Unfortunately, domestic violence situations happen everywhere.
Hey Michelle, regarding that Jessica Fletcher reference. . .you took be back about 30 years to when I asked my mother, “How come Nancy Drew is always finding bad guys and mysteries and I’m not?” Now one has to wonder why the hell Bess and George spent so much damn time with that trouble-attracting girl. Maybe her roadster?
Thank Jeebus you got the hell off our street when you did. I feel infinitely safer, if not far more bored, without you here.
At least you aren’t bored!
Wow… This just reminded me of a memory I have long suppressed. Not long after graduating from college and moving to KC for that first real job in the big real world, my roommate and I came home after work to find our apartment building cordoned off in yellow police tape. We were stuck as we had no home to go to. Turned out later that evening in the local news that some criminal on the run for years had broken into my neighbor’s place during the day and killed her. I can’t believe I’ve kept that memory dormant for this long. Until now…
Of course, now that I live in a high rise condominium in Chicago, deaths in my building occur more frequently. Sadly, they are mostly due to old age, rather than murder. Soon enough, we won’t have to turn on the heater to the entire building as early as September when all the elderlies, uhm, moved on…
Sorry for the tangent.
my apartments are always on an ambulance route. ALWAYS. on nearly every single phone call with my mom (which really isn’t that freqent, thank god) one would go by, and she’d make the same lame joke: “Where’d you move to? Back to Houston?”
What part of the city do you live?