at lunchtime charlie and i made a bubble tea run up to BeBoBa at western and addison. i bought a round for my coworkers – mine had no bubbles, of course, because the last thing i want when i’m enjoying a beverage is to feel something unexpectedly solid, round and eyeball-like touch my lips. delicious!

afterwards we had to circle the block to drive back to work. we were on a side street and a blue panel van came zooming out of an alley, crossed the street in front of us and disappeared into the alley opposite. the whole thing took less than 4 seconds. no honk, no slowing down – just barrelled out of nowhere at probably 40mph. i was not very fazed except to think, ‘jeez what an asshole,’ but as charlie pointed out, had we been a few seconds further along we would’ve gotten creamed and charlie would be dead and i’d be…well, i guess i would’ve been mostly ok…since charlie’s car has side airbags…but STILL – let’s focus here – point is, what was that crazy prick doing? i think he was just a thoughtless dickface, but charlie’s theory is bank robbery.

my worry here is that this crazy blue van near-death experience coupled with last friday’s alley 187 has the makings of a chain of probability-defying events that will a) kill one or both of us; or b) combine to create the most confounding series of episodes ever experienced by two people in a subaru. so yeah – knock on wood.