GatewayRedbirds.com

I hate those nights where things feel "off." I just walked up the street to get a few things at Walgreen's and things just don't feel right outside. I walk around late at night all the time and feel perfectly safe, but there's a weird energy going on tonight. For starters, there are lots of drunk Cubs fans walking around that give off a bad mojo. You can really tell the difference between local people who go to the game and the ones that truck it in from the suburbs. They seem like they're in to blow off some steam, break bottles, and piss on the street. It isn't a neighborhood to them it's a drunken playground. I hate them.

On top of that there were some unseemly gang-banger types meandering around. I didn't think anything of it when I walked past them loitering in front of the tattoo parlor, but when I saw them walking down my street and away from all the businesses and good lighting, I was unsettled. Only more so when they did this odd thing where one split off from the group to walk on the other side of the street, very slooooowly, like he wanted me to pass him. I ducked into some random front porch and waited for them to clear out, which took forever at the rate they were going.

sounds spooky.


i got the perfect relief.

I know the feeling completely.

But this begs kind of a strange question: the "feeling" you get... do you put any stock into it?

Reason I ask is because a lot of times after a tragedy you'll hear something like, "it doesn't surprise me this happened -- I had a bad vibe coming into this," despite the fact that we get similar feelings constantly and the majority of the time nothing happens to us at all.

I don't know, maybe I'm just going crazy. I liken this to people "calling" things during a sporting event, and then gloating about how prophetic they were later on.

By the way, nothing personal is meant by this at all. I'm speaking completely generally.

Kyle wrote:I know the feeling completely.

But this begs kind of a strange question: the "feeling" you get... do you put any stock into it?

Reason I ask is because a lot of times after a tragedy you'll hear something like, "it doesn't surprise me this happened -- I had a bad vibe coming into this," despite the fact that we get similar feelings constantly and the majority of the time nothing happens to us at all.

I don't know, maybe I'm just going crazy. I liken this to people "calling" things during a sporting event, and then gloating about how prophetic they were later on.

By the way, nothing personal is meant by this at all. I'm speaking completely generally.

I think that when it comes to sporting events and tragedies that having a "feeling" that predicted it is complete BS.

But when it comes to your immediate surroundings, especially in a place you are very accustomed to, I don't think it is. We are constantly perceiving our surroundings without having to do so consciously. I think we can tell pretty quickly when things are a little out of whack. Usually, whatever that is amounts to nothing, but I don't think it is always just a case of our minds playing tricks on us. In my case tonight the things that disturbed my normal sense of harmony were blatant: bleary eyed drunks wandering around, broken bottles on the street, and kids who looked like they were up to no good and who obviously don't live in the neighborhood walking up and down residential streets at midnight on a Sunday.