you can call me narc

You know that ridiculously long diatribe the other day pondering my overall happiness level? Well, it occurred to me that I haven't given much thought to the actual premise of the book that connects happiness level to locale. That is, until I was reminded for the sadly-not-exaggerating-500th time today that there are just so many things that bug me about where we live. I realize that in writing these things, they may appear silly and/or mundane, but these are some of the things that build up day after day after day, and do truly affect my happiness level. But... then I can also recognize the really cool things that I appreciate about where we have chosen to call home, at least in the general area, but the frustrating reality is that those things may not be as apparent in day to day life.

So, I've written before about my frustrations with what I can only call the vast differences of personal lifestyle between my family and much of the larger community in which we live. Take, for instance, the interesting conversations I've overheard at the bus stop, or the joy we've had interacting with local youth. Well, my daily frustrations start when we try to cross the very major road on whose corner we live, and I kid you not, I am confronted with having to navigate around at least one vehicle whose driver decides that the large white line on the road is something to simply drive completely over before finally coming to a stop in the middle of (or fully blocking) the crosswalk. The best ones, by far, are the large vehicles-- the Metro and school buses, because apparently the "STOP HERE ON RED LIGHT" signs that are at each intersection simply don't apply to them, and anyone wishing to actually use the crosswalk should just wait an entire light cycle until they have driven off. I am not exaggerating that this happens with such a frequency that I often form elaborate plans like creating large signs to whip out of the stroller when needed that chastise the offending drivers, or simply rolling the stroller directly into their front bumpers. (Yes, I know that nothing good could come out of that one, and I would never put my children in harm's way... but I still feel like it would release some tension...)

Okay, so all of that was just to relay some of the frame of mind I often have when I'm out and about walking in my community. At this point, I should share that I also have our city's police numbers-- emergency and non-emergency lines-- programmed into my phone so that I can call them with the push of one button if the need may arise. And it wouldn't be unprecedented. There was the time that lovely hubby and JAM came riding their bikes home from JAM's school and rode directly into a HUGE fight among an incredibly large number of students from the high school that sits in between our home and the pedestrian bridge that is my gateway to main part of our city. Or, I can still vividly remember the time last fall that the two girls started beating the crap out of each other with a crowd of 30 or so onlookers at JAM's bus stop ten feet in front of where I sat with the kids in the stroller. Can you see a common thread here? There is a regular lack of appropriate behavior that I observe each and every day from our local teenagers-- from the mundane to the extremely offensive. It's an absolute joy to have lines of kids stream through our development screaming the F-word as literally every other word of their 'conversation' as my kids play in our front yard in the afternoon.

Well, there's another number that I programmed into my phone this past fall. I read about the county' public schools' latest initiative to curb truancy in our area-- the request that adults call the county's non-emergency line to report suspected truants. My first thought to this was, how would one know what was an appropriate reason to call? At any point during the day, I can see high-school-age-looking people walking down the main road-- should one call then? For goodness sake, every single time that I walk through the high school parking lot for 10 minutes as a shortcut to get to the pedestrian bridge, I can easily count 10+ students walking away from the school, getting in cars and driving off, or waiting at the Metro bus stop across the street. I assume that there are legitimate reasons for students to leave campus during school hours (internships? anything else?), but the number of students I see (and yes, their school ID's hang right there on their necks) always seems a bit excessive. (It seems to me that if it weren't for the obvious funding difficulties, it makes sense to have someone posted at the exit points of the schools' campuses-- but we are talking about a county with something like 25 high schools-- our local one has 3,000 students alone!) But, I've never called. Until today.

We were walking back home from the kids' music class at the community center in the main part of the city, and as I was approaching the pedestrian bridge, I was soon aware of the presence of two people walking in the same direction somewhat behind me. As they passed, walking in the middle of the street together, but listening to their individual earbuds, one kid began to shout out his lyrics. Now, mind you, they came up behind us-- as we crossed the intersection at the same time, there was no way that they didn't notice me with the two kids riding in the SUV stroller. So, as the singing began, it didn't take me long to become furious, and simply stop in my tracks so that I wouldn't have to share the walk on the bridge with these two characters. The lyrics introduced some lovely new words to the kids-- although, I'm sure they weren't aware of anything at all, it was just me who was instantly enraged. What kind of person acts this way with full knowledge of their surroundings? Honestly, I just wanted something to happen that would thwart these guys in a way that made up for how pissed their stupid behavior made me. That's when I remembered about the county initiative, and remembered too, that I had that number in my cell.

I wish I could say that after I made the phone call, I saw the kids get stopped by the local police who I had talked with, but in all likelihood, by the time officers made it out to the road that I said these kids were walking toward, they were long gone. Most likely they went about their business-- exactly what that could have been, I can only guess-- without any interruption whatsoever. But, I figure, I did what the Post article reported was the intent of the initiative. Even if I did it solely as an act of anger and retribution. Sometimes it's just plain hard to be happy here.

Trying now to remind myself of the positive attributes of our community,