The Final Countdown and Other Stories from the Longest Weekend in History

I have needed to recover from this weekend...it was that hard...and event filled.

Saturday-Day: Our October workshop. Early this week I had been having nightmares about forgetting something, but it all paid off in the long run. We had a few hiccups along the way, mostly me wanting to smack the museum's event coordination staff upside the head....although Doug from Cafe Med will probably be forever scarred from spilling 4 gallons of hummus in the back of his delivery van. The thought of the hummus dripping out the back door as the car goes down the freeway still makes me giggle. However even with the success of the workshop both Jimmy (who volunteered to help me) and I were beat.

Saturday-Evening: In keeping with our new "tradition" Jimmy, his friend Rose, and I all got dressed up to go see the Rocky Horror Picture show. Jimmy was trying to convince me to wear my garters...which looked fine, but I wasn't comfortable with that much bare skin and the cold that I knew we would face outside while waiting for the midnight show to start. So I ended up wearing a short black skirt with red fishnets and a negligee top....and my black sweater cause I ain't no fool....it's cold out there!

Driving Home Early Sunday Morning-2:30ish am. Pulling up to our driveway, Jimmy, Rose and I witnessed 5 or 6 guys chase out one guy from the tenement next door. The guy tripped and was on the ground. One guy got on his knees and repeatedly punched him in the head, while two others kicked him in the head and side. When they saw that we were pulling into our driveway they ran back into the apartment building...of course after they took the guy's wallet. Jimmy called 911 while I was parking the car and then we ran over to the building to help the kid. Jimmy's first aid training kicked in and I was so proud of him. He kept him stabilized and still until help came. My major accomplishment was getting a blanket to cover the kid, making Rose go inside and get more fully dressed, getting a coat for Jimmy, and pacing in front of the apartment building like a caged lion in case anyone else came out of the building.

We could hear the sirens for several minutes, but didn't see anyone. Just when we were considering calling 911 again a lone cop car pulled up. Basically, because the tenement gets police calls so often the police had to survey the scene to make sure that it was "safe enough" for the EMT's staged two blocks away to come and help. This infuriates me on many levels....first of all...weren't they concerned for OUR safety? What happens if I have an emergency at MY home? Are they going to delay help getting to me because of my neighbors? And then...let's mention the treatment of us by the police... Jimmy and Rose were treated like children and they were quite condensing to me until they realized I was 28 and apparently a responsible adult. The EMT's didn't listen to Jimmy at all...and made the kid sit up! Even when we had told him exactly how he had been beaten...and it was a brutal beating! In fact the EMT's were bitching about how the kid wasn't helping them. Geez....I'm sorry, he was just beaten within an inch of his life by 3 to 4 people. A beating that would have been much worse if we hadn't "interrupted" them, so to speak. The police didn't even go into the apartment building even though we had told them that all of the assailants had gone back inside. They weren't interested. Not that I think that either party in the beating were entirely innocent (I suspect that it was a drug deal gone wrong) but they did leave the guy for dead.

When the police left they reassured us that we had saved a man's life. Which we did. If we hadn't been there and seen the beating we wouldn't have seen the body as the streetlights are out on that side of the street. It was also very cold. With his injuries and the cold, he would have been dead if not discovered until morning. Many have asked if I fear retribution from the tenement assailants...I don't. We picked up their dirty business.

As it was, it was 4am until I got to bed.

Sunday Morning: My Last Day at Cactus and Tropicals. Besides having "It's a Long Way to Tipperary" in my head in the morning and Europe's "The Final Countdown" (I hate that song!) stuck in my head in the afternoon, my last day at Cactus was quite enjoyable. Boy, am I glad that it is over!

Sunday Evening: Jimmy's Anniversary Dinner. Jimmy took me out to the Spaghetti Factory to celebrate his one year anniversary of living with me in Salt Lake. After dinner we watched The Jungle Book and I went to bed at 10pm.

Monday: I wake up at 1pm and spent the rest of the day in a stupor. Which has pretty much continued throughout today. Thank god the weekend it over!