My Kind of Town....

In my year and a half in the Windy City, I've seen some pretty crazy stuff just walking around the streets.

For example, more than once, I've witnessed a drug deal. The funny thing is, they do it exactly how you'd think a drug deal looks. Two men  stand really close together (first obvious clue), they'll look both ways, one will hand the other something, and then they exchange money. Duh! We all know what you're doing. (I'm thinking there are ways to make this less obvious. Maybe only look one way??)

Another time I saw a man either having a heart attack in the middle of the street, or he was just crazy and rolling around. Not sure...either way, 911 was called. The truly scary part--he was in the middle of the bus lane, so what was likely going to kill him is a crazy city bus driver, not clogged arteries. Those folks stop for no one!

Then there was this weekend when I saw a bum take off his shirt exposing his really large belly, and then he stood in front of the Potbelly's to show of his "physique" to everyone in the restaurant. Wasn't that nice of him?

Okay, so you get it. But truly nothing in the world could have prepared me for what I saw last week....

I was walking home when I saw three older women on the sidewalk. One was hunched over, and as I got closer, I saw that she was bleeding profusely on the sidewalk. (Like more blood than I ever saw at any crime scene or car accident I covered as a reporter.) She was dabbing her feet (which she appeared to have stubbed and cut) with a Kleenex, trying to get the bleeding to stop, but she really needed something the size of a beach towel. I offered to call 911 before I blacked out and nearly passed out. Isn't that crazy? My aunt, who's a nurse, says the woman was likely taking blood thinners, hence the Chainsaw Massacre scene. (Because that's the thing about old age...you want everything that's thick to be thin and vice versa.)

So when you walk down Oak Street and see what you think is a murder scene, I can assure you it's not. (And this also explains why I often see blood on Chicago sidewalks.)

Now don't even get me started on all the bums I see either singing/talking to themselves/or yelling expletives at me....