walk-by shootings are good for the soul...

last night there was a shooting on my street. i believe it was about 4 houses south of ours, there was a walk-by shooting, at about 9p.m. NINE FREAKING PEE EMM. Seriously? isn't it amazing that it happened before MOST PEOPLE ARE EVEN IN BED?! Don't thugs have a ridiculously early bed time? perhaps if they napped a little during the day, they wouldn't be so grumpy. it was curious to see so many people COME OUT of their houses just shortly after.

the rumors: two guys on foot (at first they were black, then someone said mexican)
walked up to the house
the facts: at least 9, maybe up to 15 gun shots, about 5 to start, then a second set of blasts.
as of today, ezra informed me they were .45 bullets, he found about 4 on the opposite side of the street.

and the street light happens to be burned out near their house.
and i know one of the sons has been in and out of "juvie" for the last several years.

and what does this become?
a selfish thing for me. y'know, if i had been planning to walk by someone's house, to shoot it, and then leave, i would have second thoughts. i'm half a block away, and i am still mildly FREAKED THE FUCK OUT, and i'm not even on a first name basis with the "victims". i'm also a skeptic: i'm pretty sure they did something very shitting retarded, and this is the "payback". so, i'm already kinda nervous about living here. paranoid i suppose. rumors say that the street behind my house alternates normal families, and drug dealing families. yay. lifestyles of the ghetto-faboo. you can mark my words with this; if i ever make enough money where i have to make a choice between driving the newest purtiest jag-u-ar, or living in a decent-yet-expensive neighborhood, you better believe i'm moving a.s.a.p. yet my neighbors, drive cadillacs, and fricking lexi, and they live HERE... hmm.

yes i'm freaked out. yes i've heard other gunshots in the near vicinity in the last year, at least on 4 other occasions. i already don't go out at night. i avoid riding my bike at night, because i have this bizarre phobia of my fucking neighbors.

a couple of months ago a young girl rang our doorbell because she mixed it up with the house that got shot. i'm glad the shooters didn't make that same mistake. i'm pretty sure there's no real shooter's-code-of-ethics that says they have to triple check to make sure they're at the right house. or maybe they did. i've been seeing a few more strangers the last couple of weeks wandering down a dead-end street? isn't that an odd way to realize you went the wrong way? "oh hey, we need to keep going, it's around this... dead end"...

and i am still a "what-if"er at heart. i'm trying to break myself of that habit. it's that curse passed down generations on my mom's side. i mean, i was just trying to beat heather over the head with the idea that what-if's don't matter. they weren't phrased quite as a what-if, but i know how to read between those lines. whatiftherewasastraybullet?! whatiftheygotthewronghouseandhitus?! the list can go on, but there really is an increased paranoia living here now. i've always hated this 'hood, and now it's more justified than ever. and i can't WAIT to move.