Another one for the list

Add this to the "only in LA" files . . .

On Thursday night I rushed home from work to take a quick shower before heading out again. I was driving my getaway car and took the usual route. As I turned right onto my street I saw a cop car with sirens and lights blazing blocking off Walnut St and the northbound traffic on my street. As I passed through the intersection I looked over and saw like 5 firetrucks, 50 cop cars (a slight exaggeration) and a command center. Helicopters were flying all over the place but I couldn't tell if they were news or police.

I saw my neighbor as I was getting out of my car and she didn't know what was going on either. We sort of had a "all this action is a block from our building - is it safe to be here??" moment. I was running late so I frankly I didn't really give a damn. I turned on the news while I was getting into the shower and discovered that there had been an incident at the massage parlor on Walnut St (about 1-2 blocks away from me). A guy had apparently become disoriented while in the massage parlor and took one of the women hostage! After and unknown amount of time he let her go and remained locked down in the building. The Pasadena Star News on Saturday said he gave up peacefully but I have no idea how long it took. When I got home around 11pm everything was quiet again, except for the usual helicopters.

I knew it would only be a matter of time before I witnessed a hostage situation! Ironically I was just asking a friend of mine what the quintessential LA experience was. He said driving up the coast to Malibu, going to the 3rd St Promenade in Santa Monica or taking a helicopter ride over LA (!). He forgot to mention hostage situation! I told another friend of mine about this and he said all I needed was to see a high speed car chase on the freeway and my LA experience will be complete. I totally can't wait to see that!

In other news I think I may be the only person on the planet who has ever gotten a fooze ball injury. Seriously. I guess I was a little too competitive - sue me, the stakes were very high - because when I woke up this morning my entire right shoulder and arm were aching like I had been throwing curve balls all night long. WTF?? Who gets an injury playing fooze ball?? The worst part of it is that despite my competitive streak and obvious over zealousness, I still lost!