I feel like the only person who gets into more sticky situations than me is Jack Ryan (the hubs and I watched Patriot Games last night). That may be a bit of an exaggeration, but I've had my share of bad luck. Back in college I remember thinking I was invincible (like most college students). I would speed a bit more than I should, drink coffee and take no-doz like there was no tomorrow the day before a test (and most of the rest of the time), and would walk outside by myself at 3 am when I finally decided it was time to leave the science hall and give in to sleep.
Events from the last few years have changed this. The speeding was remedied by two speeding tickets and the excessive caffeine by graduating from college, but the walking outside at night took an oversees trip and my seemingly safe city of residence to remedy.
When I was in Europe back in 2007 with my friend Tiff I had a great time and got to experience so many new and exciting things. Included in this was a mean dog that tried to attack us on the way back to our hostel (fortunately a taxi was driving by, we ran out into the street, jumped in and then drove the 2 blocks back to our hostel), and 3 people who attempted to rob me. The first was on one of the rare times that Tiff and I parted ways for the day (Tiff and I love each other but realize that sometimes our friendship is better when we take a day away from each other). I decided to sit down on a bench and eat my dinner. This was a rare treat because most benches that we found were owned by restaurants and you had to order food in order to rent your space on their bench. I had gotten dinner from a grocery store (we traveled economically) so had no need to order food. I was used to eating while sitting on a curb, but found a wonderful oasis of the non-restaurant owned bench in the middle of the city. I was leisurely eating my dinner when two children sat down next to me and casually reached for my purse. I grabbed it before they got it and no harm was done.
The next time one of the locals decided to try to fool a stupid tourist was in Naples. Tiffany and I had been told not to go there - it is dangerous and dirty. We spent a total of 1 hour and 5 minutes in the city. The 5 minutes occurred in a train station on our first trip through Naples to a near-by resort town. In the 5 minutes it took for us to change trains I saw someone mugged on the other train platform. Fortunately we didn't have to hang around and wait for the mugger to find us because our train arrived. The hour we spent in Naples was when we passed back through on our way north. We had an hour to spend in the city (at least it was day and not night as was our previous Naples experience) between train rides and decided it would be an opportune time to grab lunch since the only thing you could get on the train was an overpriced proscutto sandwich. A local approached us while we were eating to ask us for change (aka get us to open our wallets for 1 euro and then steal all of our money). Fortunately we just said we didn't understand and then left to board our train.
The final robbery attempt occurred on the steps of the Duomo in Florence. I was sitting there with my purse underneath my legs when Tiff told me that someone was reaching under me. I looked down just before the man was able to grab my purse, I grabbed it instead an yelled at him fueled with rage and 1 or 2 beers.
Then I came back to America. I wasn't too phased by my European experiences. Doesn't everyone get robbed in Europe at some point? However, the target was not removed from my back when I moved to my current city. Within 2 months of living here I was mugged at gunpoint (thankfully he was a small-time mugger and only wanted my cash...I got to keep my ID and credit cards and didn't have to reset those parts of my life). Things were pretty calm for about 1.5-2 years until I was shopping downtown in the middle of the afternoon and I heard someone yell "Hey red!" I am aware of the fact that only 2-4% of the population has red hair so I assumed that this voice was referring to me. I made the mistake of looking up to see a homeless man sitting on the steps of a church across the street. I hurried into a nearby store, wandered the aisles until I thought I got the guts up to go back outside. I mean, someone yelling "Hey red" is pretty harmless isn't it? Just in case it wasn't harmless, however, I got my keys in my hands. I wasn't going to turn into one of those suspense/horror movie characters who can't find their keys or who fumbles with their keys and drops them just as the antagonist reaches their car. And yes, I did need a key to enter my car. I am not one of the lucky car owners who also has a remote to unlock my car. As I was approaching my car, trying to appear nonchalant although my pulse was racing at a cardio fat burning rate, the man stood up, took a moment to grab his garbage bag of possessions, and then headed for my car. I picked up my pace, thankful that my keys were already in my hand, started running when I was almost to my car and got in and locked my car just as the homeless man reached me. Then I cried and drove away as fast as I could.
I resolved not to go downtown by myself anymore. I figured that as long as I hung around my home I would be fine. Then came the morning, less than 2 months after the homeless man incident, when a man tried to break into my house. I was still in bed, wasting time on my laptop, when I heard someone ring the doorbell several times and knock. I thought, "Wow. That UPS man is really insistent!" I was still in my jammy-jams so I decided to put off opening the door and to wait until his truck pulled away. I peeked out through the blinds, but there was no UPS truck. "I guess it must have been someone campaigning." So I went back up to continue doing nothing on the computer. However, as I got into my bedroom I looked out the second story window down onto a man in camouflage investigating my back yard. I still liked to think the best of people though, so I ducked down so he couldn't see me and thought "I wonder if he lost his dog and is looking for it on my back porch. That would explain the excited doorbell ringing. I know I would be going out of my mind if I lost a lovable little dog!" So I called my dad and said, "There is a strange man in my back yard. Should I call the police?" He said yes, I called and then the man came back to my front door and started banging on it while I was talking to the 911 operator. Thankfully the man decided that my house was too secure and decided to break in to my next door neighbor's house (he was able to pop one of their doors open with just a screwdriver). The police came, the burglar got spooked mid-burglary (as was evident when we went over to their house, saw he had only had a chance to rummage through 2 drawers before escaping into the woods and leaving the side door of the house standing wide open) since he could see the police in the street from the living room that he was in the process of burgling. After that I did not leave our house, unless the hubs was home, for about 3 weeks. Then we got a dog, a dog that feels the need to pee every few hours, and the healing began. Although, I still refuse to answer the door if I am home by myself. And I figured out how to use a gun and invested in some pepper spray.
Why is all this relevant? Well, the hubs is a 4th year medical student and we are trying to figure out where he should do his residency. While I think it would make us hipper people if we decided to live downtown someplace I have a rule. Although I realize that no place is 100% safe, I don't want to live within walking distance of a bar. Alcohol can make people do stupid things, as evidenced by my running after and yelling at that man who tried to steal my purse in Florence, Italy.
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