It started out sane enough. Normal day at work, went to my favorite yoga class. Left early for an acupuncture appointment, ran straight from there to the LunaChix meeting spot. I saw Sara's car so I ran the opposite way around from our usual, to ensure that I'd see the group. Never saw anyone, ran home. Then the fun starts.
After a slight mishap in communication, my dad, Erik, Julie and I met up at Ken's Artisan Pizza for dinner. We were working our way through a bottle of wine and finally got seated at a table outside. Our appetizers arrived and we promptly demolished the most amazing, butter-tender eggplant topped with gently spiced, silky-smooth tomato sauce and non-stinky-garlicky pesto, as well as two other wood oven fired veggie dishes and a Caprese salad made with a lovingly diverse rainbow of tomato wedges. Seriously, someone made a wish for world peace each time they picked one of those tomatoes off the vine. They made me proud to share a distant line of evolutionary genetics. Not too distant-- especially with that "green zebra." She reminded me of a great great aunt.
Anyhow, that stuff was gone and we watched a few police cars pull up, and cops start walking across the street, including one holding a big rifle. More cars pulled up, blocking off the street. That's when we were told to move inside.
We gathered our glasses, silverware, napkins and stuff as best we could, and stood awkwardly in the crowded restaurant. Our pizzas came out of the oven and the cooks kept testing their temperatures, looking worried. Now there are some dedicated pizzamakers. A waitress kicked people out of the waiting area to create two tiny tables for us, and we sat down to eat the delicious pizza. By then "POLICE LINE DO NOT CROSS" tape had gone up and rumors flew around the restaurant. The front door was locked, and the side door by our tables was also kept locked, although people were allowed to enter and exit there.
Eventually we got word that the fire department would arrive, clear the house across the street, and we were allowed to leave shortly. We waited outside on the corner while the cops took down the tape. Apparently a woman had come home to find someone in her house, a suicidal guy with a gas can. They carted him away and we drove off the busy block, a back way around.