Scary Friday

Haven't posted here in a while -- been focusing on getting my other blog up and running with some consistency. I was going to post this past Friday night, about what my average day is like, etc., but things happened.

I'd had a normal day -- drag my butt out of bed, head to work (fight off a migraine), head home, relax (long soak in the tub). My two older children were excited to be going to their first high school football game. DH took them while I was getting ready for my bath. After the bath, I was getting ready to pull out my computer and do some blogging.

Then the kids called. The football game was a rivalry game with such a large crowd it was held at the local college stadium instead of either of the high schools. Tensions were high, it went into overtime, we lost. After it was over, DH headed into town to pick them up. He couldn't get close because of police activity. Yep, police, everywhere. He called me, I called the kids, spoke with our daughter who was hysterical. Once they got home I got the whole story.

A couple of different things had happened. A longtime acquaintance of theirs had words with someone from the other school, who took offense and managed to shove their friend through floor to ceiling window of a local restaurant. My kids didn't witness this but came upon it right after it happened. They were questioned by the police, which my daughter did say wasn't scary at all (she thought it would be based on what she's seen on TV). Then while the kids were walking away from this, more fighting broke out, apparently all between people from the rival town. My kids got separated from each other, which only frightened them more. Fighting started no more than 2 feet away from my daughter, she just walked on by, but when a group of girls went screaming and running across the street to get further away, she was smart enough to join them (she didn't know any of them as they were all from the other school). An upperclassmen from the other school then pushed her behind him for protection. The police, already there because of the window breaking incident, rushed into to stop the fighting, chasing suspects down the streets. My daughter continued on her way to find her brother and get to DH. She ended up passing the same officer who had questioned her earlier as he was holding down and handcuffing one of the fighters. She was just totally freaked by the whole thing.

They finally got home. I was talking with my daughter, but also wanted to hear from my son. He was outside, very upset, as he'd come home and while IM'ing with friends had found out that the acquaintance who'd gone through the window had subsequently been beat up so badly that he'd been hospitalized. Eventually, everyone calmed down, and I was just thankful that all they'd received was a bad scare.

So what started as an absolutely normal Friday ended up as anything but.