So much stuff to share.
There was a huge gang fight at a house across the street from my house last thursday. BACKGROUND: it wasn't always this way - it seems like the gang members set up shop at 2-3 houses on my block within the past year. For some reason, members of a rival gang were in my neighborhood causing trouble. There was a physical fight, bricks and glass were thrown, my dad's car was in the middle of the fray. The rival gang members were outnumbered, they left. I decided to go outside to see if there was any damage to my dad's car after they left. No sooner than after i put the key in the door of his car, i look down the block and see three young men with VERY menacing looks on their faces. They were about 50-100 paces away from me. I didn't want to run and have them think that i was a lone gang member, but i didn't want to walk too slowly and get hit by a stray bullet (common sense says that after punches have been thrown, you don't return to throw more punches).
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The suspense is killing you, i know.
I made it back into my house safely and am currently alive. I walked back to my house somewhere between very quickly and slowly. Thank you for your concern. The rival gang returned with more people and started to throw things at the house and break windows. There was a lot of yelling and cursing exchanged. Local neighborhood gang reinforcements arrived on the scene (en masse), but people in the house (which must have a lot of bad stuff happening inside) told them not to do anything (not even to fight) and to leave because the police were due at any moment - and the last thing that they would want is for unnecessary attention to be brought to the house (newsflash: the whole neighborhood already knows, we don't like you and your days on the block are numbered).
Everything eventually died down - the police showed up after their presence was needed.
I had knee minor knee surgery on the 12th of august. Same exact surgery that i had on the same knee in july of 1999. I feel great. Recovery has gone well. I have residual numbness and pain. Neither bother me too much, but i'm going to see my surgeon again in the near future. The big issue surrounding the surgery is the fact that i might be on the hook to pay for a significant portion of the surgery beyond my deductible. The summary of benefits received from the insurance company said that they paid $6k less than they were supposed to because they deemed the costs to be excessive. Hopefully that cost will not be passed on to me. After sharing this with my parents, i learned that i'm supposed to get approval from my insurance company before getting such procedures done. I did not know this. You live and learn. Hopefully this can be a free lesson.
Last story!
I'm an NYU student. I use the NYU athletic facilities to work out. I shower at the gym after I workout. The showers in the NYU gym are communal. I loathe showering at the NYU gym for this reason. I hate walking around/riding the train in sweaty clothes more than i hate communal showers - so i shower at the gym every time. I lock my locker when i shower and I usually lodge the key to my lock (i lost both of my combination locks) between the soap dispenser and the wall while i shower. Today i decided to store my stuff in a new and different section of the men's locker room and so it logically followed that i used the shower in that section of the locker room (the gyms and locker rooms at NYU are HUGE). When i went to lodge my key between the wall and the soap dispenser, my key fell behind the soap dispenser and it wouldn't come out.
Did i mention that i lock all of my belongings (including my clothing) in my locker when i shower?
I had to stand around the locker room in a towel and flip flops and wait at least 10mins for a guy from building maintenance to come with a huge knife (it was very flat, so it could fit in between the wall and the dispenser) to get the key out from behind the soap dispenser. I HAD TO STAND AROUND THE LOCKER ROOM IN MY TOWEL FOR AT LEAST 10 MINUTES. You never realize how weird such a thing is until you get looks from EVERYONE that comes in the locker room that say "dude, why the heck are you standing around in a towel and flip flops?"
