Angry, Angry Birds

The US is an angry place right now...actually, the whole western world seems to be aflame in some way or other. And it's carrying over into interpersonal relations.

Last night as I was on my porch sipping wine and surfing the web or reading, the bus stopped in front of the house, and as a guy was getting off the bus, he was yelling something like "When I tell you to fucking BACK OFF, you should JUST FUCKING BACK OFF!"

Then, the guy saw me and engaged with me, asking me IF SOMEONE TOLD YOU TO BACK THE FUCK OFF, what would you do? I just smiled uncomfortably...not wanting to engage....and as he was walking down the street, he said something like 'So you would just smile at me?' and I shrugged and answered 'Probably'.

LOL...none of this particularly bothered me -- after all, I live in an urban environment, so sometimes shit happens.

But I did wonder what would have happened had he engaged me more directly...me tipsy as hell from the wine, and sitting on my porch? Of course, I would have fought back...but it was uncomfortable. The sidewalk to my front porch is only 30 feet or so this was pretty face to face!

The good thing is that he never broke his stride walking down the sidewalk. #urbanlife

On a positive note, I just saw a rollerblader at night with headlights, roller-blading down the street. #urbanlife