Carey's Playground

June 11, 2008:

This week has been ominous.  Very ominous.  Bad things keep happening just before I get there.  In some cases, seconds before I get there.

It started Monday morning.  I decided to drive rather than take the bus.  I was running a little late because I had forgotten to take the garbage out the night before.  I went on my way on my normal route to work.  All of a sudden, a police cruiser zips up from behind me, lights and sirens blaring and goes ahead to Main street (I was on Preston).  As I got closer, it struck me as odd that the light rail was sitting in the middle of the intersection.  I decided to turn to avoid the congestion from the stopped train and as I was turning, I saw a black coupe smashed and still attached to the front of the train!  What would of happened if I had not been running late?

Then, that very same day in the evening, I was driving to the Saucer for drinks.  I turned on Rusk after exiting from I45, and a woman in a black SUV zips ahead of me (which happens a lot when I'm in my '92 Dodge Caravan).  I got a little glee from meeting her at the following red light; kind of a 'ha ha' moment.  The light turns green, and she zips off again.  About three blocks later she was a block ahead, and heading towards a red light.  Not a newly red light, but a 'red red' light.  She doesn't slow down, and ends up T-boning a black coupe in the intersection, sending them spinning 90 degrees.  I pulled over and watched them for a second, and I flirt with the idea of just continuing on, since it looks like they're all right (within a matter of seconds they were out of their cars on their cell phones).  But, I decide to call 911, since they obviously couldn't move their cars, and wait for the police to give my statement.  I'm glad I stayed to give my statement, because none of the other witnesses did.  One guy in a tie that did stick around turned to me after I told the officer I witnessed it and said "oh, well I didn't see anything, so I guess I'll go!"  The officer takes my statement, and I went on my way.

As a side note: For some reason the black officer wanted to spell my last name with a G, even after I said "Jensen... J-E-N...".  I have NO idea why anyone would spell my name with a G, but it happens 80% of the time with black people, and ONLY with black people.  It's a very odd phenomenon.

Now if that wasn't enough, last night was the weirdest of them all.  I've been very busy at work lately, and my boss accepted my offer to come back to work after class to help him finish proofing a 137-page paper due today.  I get off the train and start walking up to our building.  There were three fire trucks and an ambulance waiting outside, but no smoke.  I called my boss and asked if everything was all right, and he thought I was talking about the paper :)  I told him about the Fire Trucks and he said "must be something with the law library."  I walk in the building (just as a fourth fire truck pulls up), past an empty stretcher, and the fire deputy doesn't let me on the elevator.  I ask what's going on, and he replies that someone is stuck on the elevator.  I call my boss, explain, and he says to hang out a bit and see if it resolves itself in 10 minutes or so.  If not, then I can go home.  This was a good opportunity to get ahead on my law school reading, so I pulled my textbook out and got a jump on it.  The security officers came over and were talking to each other, so I asked them what they knew.  Apparently approximately 20 people were stuck on the elevator!  I called my boss and explained that it's probably not going to be resolved soon, and he let me go home.  Again, it makes me wonder what would of happened had I gotten there 10 minutes earlier.  It could of been me stuck on an elevator for who knows how long!

This is enough excitement for one week.  Hopefully the rest of the week will be uneventful

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