Yesterday was weird. There was some kind of a
crime wave in
Berkeley. I walked up to the
Bank of America ATM on
Shattuck minutes after the bank was
held up; cops were streaming in and the bank manager, creases between her eyebrows and mouth tight, was taping a "CLOSED FOR EMERGENCY, PLEASE COME BACK LATER" sign on the door. I deposited the $30 my co-worker gave me "toward
Stanford" (after I wouldn't let her re-pay me for the autographed copy of
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay that I got for her at
WonderCon), got a little cash so I could buy dinner for once, and retreated. Later, in
Japanese class, one classmate's bicycle had been stolen, and another had been spontaneously
stalked and then followed into our building and
attacked by some strange person. He had to leave class several times in order to answer questions from security (I wondered why they added security last month! Now I know) and the
police. Today I read that a
Neon was stolen on College Avenue yesterday evening with its owner's eight-month-old
infant in it. Lesson: never leave a child alone. I think this practice is way more common among today's parents, who are largely selfish and
career-oriented, than it should be. That said, can you imagine? You do one tiny thing wrong--leaving your child and keys in the car while you dash in for
coffee that you need in order to stay awake on the drive home because you work 9 hours a day and are still responsible for 75% of the housework and cooking and 90% of the childcare--and when you turn around
your child is gone.
Life can change
in an instant.
Also, some woman was stabbed by someone she didn't even know at the
San Francisco Airport. Serious bad
juju yesterday. Luckily, everything except the Japanese
quizzes went fine for me...