I'm a freak!

"Tara, we need to leave right now". That was how I responded last night to a few gun shot sounding noises in the distance, some flickering lights in the air, and the sound of planes flying overhead. Without a question asked, she obliged to my cry of distress and followed behind as I pulled her out of the apartment, still trying to put on her shoes.

Let me start at the beginning.

I am a chronic worrier. Most anybody that has followed my blog writings, or that knows me pretty well knows this sad fact. It's never really affected my day to day activities, aside from the occasional breakdown (please refer to my New York Post for an example of said breakdown), and has thankfully remained an inner struggle. Occasionally though, the inner struggle manifests itself in the form of irrationality, and those around me are just forced to go along with it. Such is the case, last night.

The night started out very chill and relaxed. After watching a bit of "Titanic" we decided to put the DVD on pause, and spend an hour or so catching up on our reading (I needed to finish reading "Wicked" and she had some class assignments to read). In the quiet and stillness of her apartment, I began to focus my attention on a strange sort of banging noise, coming from the woods behind her apartment. Knowing that the railroad tracks run right behind her apartment complex, I assumed the noise was from the train yard and ignored the interuption. As the banging continued however, I became increasingly curious as to what was making such a ruckus, and decided to investigate the situation further.

I opened the door to listen a bit closer, and was surprised to find that the noises were not coming from the train tracks, but from the distance and sounded more like gun fires, not train yard happenings. I called for Tara to come listen who simply told me to "Shut the door, you're letting all the heat out!", indicating my cue to stop being ridiculous, that there were no gun shots outside her apartment. I humored her for the time being, shut the door, and resumed my spot on the couch.

Worry, began to set in. I knew right away where this was going, and it was nowhere pleasant.

As the sounds outside her apartment rang in my ear, I found it harder and harder to concentrate on anything other than the gun shots (read: noises probably attributed to fireworks or something similar and very unthreating). I quickly threw my shoes back on, and headed for the porch only this time finding that the gun shots were accompanied by sounds of planes in the distance (note: she lives next to Midway Airport) and bright blinking lights across the horizon. My heart began to pound as I assured myself that we were in fact being attacked, and we needed to get out of there NOW!

I ran into the apartment, grabbed Tara, and we piled into the Cabby. Tara wondered where exactly I had planned for us to go, if in fact we were being attacked, but I figured anywhere was better than being in her apartment just waiting for them to blow up her building and kill us! I drove around Oak Creek for a few minutes to assess the situation and hopefully catch a glimpse of these enemy aircrafts that were trying to take over the city/THE UNITED STATES!!! (I wasn't lying when I said I am a chronic worrier). When it hit me that I had just freaked (like usual) over nothing, I looked over at Tara, smiled, and apologized for being such a freak. There was obviously NOTHING going on, and the city was safe.

She laughed and said "It's okay honey. Someday you'll probably save our lives because of it". She was such a trooper. Just following along behind me, being as supportive as she could be to a completely irrational woman. I bought her ice cream to apologize and she just quietly ate it, without ever making me feel stupid or making me feel as though I had inconvenienced her with my worries.

We arrived back at the apartment once I was sure that Oak Creek was not in fact under attack, and laughed a bit more about the entire situation. I'm a freak. I know this. At least people love me because of it =)