Life, etc.

I'd love to start this post with a grand ole "I'M BACK!", but the truth is I didn't go anywhere. Unlike my other moments of work, travel and procrastination-induced delinquency, the reason behind my lack of blogging was a conscious need for time to sort my thoughts....As it turns out, when you have a big head like I do, it takes more time to find your thoughts in order to sort them...

I wanted to share something. I felt I HAD to share it....but I wasn't mentally ready. I thought that time would "heal all pain" and make things easier....yet here I sit, no more comfortable than I was a month ago.

Life is such a funny thing. The last post I did was about an experience my younger brother had...and that was actually "HA HA" funny. This post is about an experience my younger sister had...and it's the kind of "funny" you use when you really want to say that something just makes you question your beliefs and look at life in a whoooollleee new light.

In the early hours of February 2nd, my sister awoke to find a man with a knife standing a few feet from her in her apartment. She'd fallen asleep watching TV in her living room and I guess he made a noise (or maybe it was Divine Intervention) as he was burglarizing the house, and she woke up.

The thing about my sis is that she's as equally brave as she is a coward. She often blames me for her cowardice as one of my childhood passions was scaring the shit out of her. Whenever I spent holidays with them, I'd actually wait around corners and jump out at her because it gave me great (sadistic) pleasure to hear her earth shattering screams....Don't judge me :)

As it turns out, those earth shattering screams probably saved her life that morning because the intruder got so startled when she jumped up and started screaming that he ran and dove through a window, injuring himself in the process. The police were called in and from my sis' account, they were extremely thorough; dusting everywhere for prints, taking notes and doing a search of the area. When they eventually left, it was to go to the scene of ANOTHER break-in that took place earlier that morning. I guess the dude was on a roll.

Now I've never been one to take life for granted. I am a FIRM believer in living life to the fullest, and to me, part of that means appreciating the people I'm blessed with. HOWEVER, that incident has given me an even deeper appreciation for my family and friends because it was a sobering reminder that things can literally change in an instant.

At the police station, one of the officers taking her statement actually told my sister how lucky she was. You might be thinking, "Lucky?!", but trust me, when you live to see another day as opposed to having the police tell your family members that they just found you dead; raped and murdered...YOU'RE LUCKY and BLESSED!

We moved my sis out the very same day....she's back with the rest of the family and in no hurry (understandably so) to live on her own again. I wish I could say the police caught the guy, but I honestly have no idea.

I know this could have happened anywhere, but as I've said time and time again, it sometimes seems that in T&T we're just waiting for crime to come too close for comfort. There's no concept of the ripple effect when it comes to criminals; it's just them and their target. The moment that asshole brought his knife he decided, without even knowing it, that he'd make my nephew an orphan if he had to....and that ENRAGES me!!!

I'm thankful. I'm angry. I'm confused. I'm thankful.

When I had just moved back home, I could answer the "Why did you come back?" question in a heartbeat. These days I stutter. I know why I came back...the reason hasn't changed. I just have to hope that no one ever asks me the one question I'm still having some trouble with......."Why do you stay?"

Thanks for reading...