Too Much Law and Order?

Leave it to NYC to rob me of my 911-virginity. I've never had to call 911 before (Adam has--when his brother was hit by a truck as a child) but I've had lots of nightmares about trying to dial that or another important number and I couldn't for the life of me punch the right buttons. But then a few weeks ago, my time came. I was driving East on the Belt expressway (I've been told we don't call them "freeways" here) when, in one of those slow-motion moments, I noticed that there was a head floating in the middle of the fast lane on the West-bound side. Something clicked in my brain telling me that all was not right in time for me to look over and see a man in the middle of the fast lane. He was sitting serenely, with his back to traffic. My brain had two thoughts in a nano-second: "He must be protesting something" and, "Is there a mental hospital near here?" I debated if I should call 911 and even dialed 311 but hung up on the first "please press one..." This man is going to die! So I called 911, gave them my location, and a surprisingly detailed description of the man and hung up, shaken beyond belief and wondering if he would be hit. I searched the web for news of any weirdness on the Belt later that day but found nothing. So much for my "first time."



Last night, Adam and I were awakened out of a dead sleep by the sound of a gunshot. We had heard what sounded like rockets or firecrackers periodically the last week or so, but this one was different. We've both fired a hand gun, thanks to Adam's old roommate Jake and a bunch of 2-liter jugs filled with water in a Springville canyon, and so we knew this wasn't any firework. My first impulse was to run to the window and see what was going on. But Adam threw his arm over me and yelled at me to get down. Ok, maybe he wasn't that dramatic, but we were both really shaken and scared. We didn't hear any other noise, but at 1:11 AM, it seemed like calling 911 was the right thing to do. So, once again, I dialed and told them my name and what happened. NYPD called back and asked, just like the 911 dispatcher, if anyone had been injured... "No..." How many shots were there? "Just one..." Did we see anything? "Um...no--we're in bed." They asked if we wanted to meet with a police officer and we declined. They said something about officers being in the area and that was it. We slept fitfully the rest of the night; my dreams were filled with crime and violence. But everything seemed perfectly tranquil when I left for work this morning. My co-worker laughed when I told her how we'd called 911. Maybe, since I've already done it once, it's made it all the easier to do it again.



P.S. Before he rolled over and went back to sleep, I did tell Adam that, if someone was shot on our street, we were MOVING. To Utah.

Giving blood

Ah, Vampire Weekend.
They put on a good show this past Saturday at the SummerStage.
It was a bit of a sacrifice to see them, though they didn't take our blood.
We did get quite soaked several times. It's funny that we haven't learned one of the basic rules of being a NYer:
Never leave home without an umbrella.
It was a bit crazy. When we got there at 4, I walked for 5-10 mins and never saw the end of the line. So Emily and I decided to wait outside of the fence. It began to pour and seemed to not let up for like an hour. We decided to throw in the towel (which we wish we had) and headed for the subway, Once we got there we waited and warmed up a bit. By that time it had stopped raining so we said, heck we made it this far, and headed back. When we go there we saw that the line wasn’t that long and got in it since Vampire Weekend hadn’t taken the stage yet. At 6 they took the stage and started their first number as we were let in.

They were very entertaining. It was really fun until it began to pour again and were got re-soaked to the bone. We left quite the puddle under us on the N ride home.

The only casualty, we thought, was my cell phone. But now it works, except for the screen.

Thank you Brooklyn Vegan, Surgery, and Gerry Visco for the photos.

Our little girl

We had to go back for another ultrasound on Friday, because the last time we went, she was curled up so tight the technician couldn't measure her heart. The 3-D images they took that time only showed us that she was timid. Now we know she is friendly and responds when we tell her to say hi.

Oscar is printed

My first cover that I am stoked about.