The Horrors of September 23, 2005

On September 23, 2005 I sent this email out to some of my family and friends. It was requested that it be my first blog.

I was attacked at the zoo today. To fully appreciate this story I must start it from the beginning at 4:30AM this morning when M woke up and would not go back to bed. Needless to say, I decided we needed to make a field trip. Because she woke up so darned early I gave her an early morning nap enabling us to make the free Children Zoo hours at the Zoo. So off we went. Our first stop was rather enjoyable. M petted lots of goats. She seemed to enjoy it (or humour me, I'm not sure which one). Next stop is a bird cage that you walk through and there are a bunch of larakeets (larakeets not parakeets) flying around. You can even buy bird seed to feed them (I opted out). So M and I push through the double doors. I take her out of her stroller to see the birds. There is one really close to this stool so we sit on it and watch it. Very colourful bird. Red, yellow and blue. After awhile it starts to get a little boring so I decide its time to go. Meanwhile a bunch of people just came in in front of me. Now I don't know if this caused it but all of a sudden out of nowhere I am smacked on the side of the face by a flying larakeet (I'm still holding M). And this is not just a small smack but a full on the bird ran into me smack. I am very upset. I panic and flail my arms around like a madwoman. I try and rush out of there but the lovely group of people in front of me has decided to take a family picture. No one seems to notice the mad woman with the small child in her arms. What is wrong with these people. Finally, I escaped. I have no physical damage but I still feel emotionally traumatized and I will NEVER go in there again.

And so it is now 1pm and I have been up for 9 hours and been hit by a bird and...

last night while putting M to bed I could hear the sounds of helicopters. I roll my eyes and pray that she will still fall asleep and not think much more of it. Cster has just left for class and I am looking forward to my nap while he is gone. Then, a few moments later, Cster returns and comes into the room. If you can believe it somebody 2 blocks down has taken their family hostage. So, for 15 hours our street was in chaos while the cops tried to negotiate with the guy. Apparently he was mentally ill and had his 70 year old aunt and 2 year old nephew hostage. Needless to say I didn't take a nap and had my eyes glued to the tv. Bless all those people dealing with the hurricane but the news stations only gave a 5 second clip on the sit. and then jumped to some guy surfing in the gulf coast and getting arrested. Shouldn't a larger portion of the news be on local news? Specifically when there is a madman on your street?