Minnesota "nice and safe"

sidenote* We got back into Minnesota around 10pm Sunday night. I will post another blog about our wonderful trip when I have sorted through our photographs to include, so stay tuned for that.*

Coming up on 20 years ago, I was very upset with my parents for moving me from sunny California to the bitter cold Minnesota where I knew no one except my parents and younger brother. They never asked me if I wanted to move. It didn't matter, I was only 8 and had no say in the matter. My Dad loved fishing and hunting and claimed it was more affordable (I had no clue about cost of living in the third grade and didn't care) and was a safer place to raise a family.

Twenty years later, on a Wednesday afternoon in my early childhood town of Monrovia, that statement was affirmed in my mind! How, you ask? Well...Mike, Maya and I were invited to hang out at my uncle Stephens place to spend time with him. He is only three years older than myself, so we are more like siblings than a niece /nephew relationship. It was Maya's nap time and after the decision to stop failing miserable on the Rock Star drum and guitar game, she fell asleep. I laid her on the chair on the right side of me. Stephen, Mike and I played Mario kart on the Wii with actual little steering wheels! It was a lot of fun. We do not have such fun toys as a Wii system. It was warm in his place so he had the door open to his second floor apartment. Out in California, they have a walkway on the outside so each door is a separate entry versus walking inside apartment building hallways here in Minnesota. Our race was abruptly interrupted when a young man comes to the door out of breath asking if he can come inside and call his Mom because a dude just chased him with a GUN! Stephen, being the passive person that he is, yes, "ummm, sure." At this point, internally a little panic starts. I picture some dude barging in with a Gun, open fire and my baby is sleeping next to me. I wonder, do I pick her up and put her in the back bedroom just in case? I do say out loud,"Stephen, at least shut and lock the door!" He complied and peeked out of his blinds to see if anyone was out there. The young man called a friend, told that person that he had been chased and he thinks the gunman is mistaking him for someone else. That he is only a few blocks from his home and he was walking from school. He then says he has someone picking him up and he went outside and made a similar call to someone else. We locked the door behind him as he left the apartment. Talk about putting us outside of our comfort zone!!!

We chit-chatted a bit about how odd that was and how we hoped it wasn't all a scam to scope out the place to rob later. If it was a scam, the young man was a great actor because he did look quite freaked out and was out of breath.

I'd like to take this moment to THANK my Mom and Dad for raising me in a place that thus far, no one has chased me with a gun nor needed protection from such acts.