As I predicted I finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows last Saturday evening. All day my Potterhead co-worker and I were playing "you know you've been reading too much Harry Potter when..." to pass the time.

Only 24 hours has passed since I was sitting at this same table finishing up my Freebie Design Exchange. I was waiting for the same Potterhead friend to walk down from work (our workplace is at the end of my street) to join Will, Mike and I for the midnight premier of the Simpsons movie. My big plan was to drop the package off at the late night post office on the way to the theater. I was having a terrible time with the finishing of my project and almost in tears I was so frustrated with it. My scissors had slipped and I was afraid it was ruined. Suddenly Will yells for me to look outside.

At first there were a couple of police cruisers down the street talking to some young men they had on the ground. Within a few minutes our street was packed with cruisers and unmarked police cars parked three across blocking the entire street. There must have been at least 30 of them and my car and the neighbor's car were blocked in. Nobody was allowed in or out of the street so we called my friend and told him not to try to walk to my house. They ended up loading 2 paddy wagons with young men and the street wasn't clear until after midnight. We missed the movie and my chance to go to the post office. After the excitement I went back to my exchange and was able to finish it despite the earlier problem.

We don't know what happened because nothing has been in the paper or on the news. We think it might have been a fight between two rival gangs or groups since they brought the two paddy wagons. This morning I woke up late and in my rush to get ready for work and finish packing the envelope for my exchange partner I forgot to include the card I had for her. I hope she will understand and not think I was rude for not including a little note.

Tomorrow I plan to work on my house with a garden exchange. Hopefully things will be much calmer!