Bad day.

Today was bad.

First of all, because yes, we put Sam to sleep, which was really hard.

Second of all, because these bright pink flyers appeared all over my neighborhood. Apparently, there was a vicious sexual assault that took place--on my very block--at 3:30 AM on August 2nd. The poster said something to that effect, then described the suspect, ending with, "He was wearing a white t-shirt that would now be blood-stained from the attack." Saying to call if you have any information.

Well--first of all, this in itself is fucking terrifying. Terrifying. Secondly, I had an incident merely one week before where a man matching that description knocked on my door at about 12:15 and said his friend needed help. I told him I wasn't going to help, it was really late, and closed and locked the door. I live very close to a 24 hour drugstore, and he didn't seem at all desparate for help, much less upset when I told him I wouldn't help him. And he matched the description almost perfectly.

So, I get to thinking, and I realize I've had quite a few late-night knocks on my door, but I always ignored them and didn't pay any attention, figuring someone was lost or drunk or something. Then I think back to one night where Darlene, Gil, Wes and I hun gout at my place and drank. Wes left, but Gil and Darlene were both pretty drunk, so they were just going to stay at my place. As Darlene and I were settling into my bed, we heard Gil answer the front door, talk to someone, then close it again. We all just assumed it was Wes coming back for something he forgot, which is why Gil opened the door in the first place. It turned out it wasn't, but he was said it was some random Hispanic guy, which is the race of the guy who knocked on my door and the guy who sexually assaulted someone on my block. Now, I know there's more than 2 Hispanic men in the area, don't get me wrong, but it's easy to jump to conclusions when you're scared shitless. And how many people go around opening random apartment doors? Not many.

Anyways, so I'm totally freaked out about it, and I don't know if I've had all these random, similar experiences because they're all connected, or because there is some scary man who wants to sexually assault me and cover his shirt with my blood. But it's scary.

Anyways, in an attempt to be "safe, not sorry," I was going to call the APD about it.

Well, I spent about 40 minutes on the phone with them. First I called the general APD line, who connected me to someone, who connected to someoen at the homicide department--but it wasn't a homicide. He called communications, and they told him to tell me to call 911. SO, I call 911. She tries to connect me to someone, but he hangs up or gets disconnected or something. So 911 gives me this guy's number to call... and it directs me to 311 once again. Well, fuck. I tell the lady at 311 everything that's happened--I'm so scared about it all that I'm almost crying at this point--and she apolgizes (everyone is very nice on the phone) and connects me to another guy. This guy gives me the name and the number of the detective on the case, and I thank him, and hang up to call him. I dial the number, and the answering machine tells me that it is not a valid extension, and hangs up on me.

I tried again, and the exact same thing happened.

Tried once more. The same.



I gave up and emailed. I'm bad at being frustrated in general, much less on a day that my dog gets put to sleep and I think I may be being targetting by a violent sexual assualter (assaulter? is that a word?).

Fortunately, I'm not staying in my apartment the next few nights, but I'm still scared shitless. Does anyone have any advice?