Last night I had a horror movie scenario happen to me.
So I get home around 6:30 and am in the bedroom puttering around. My boyfriend works late on Mondays, so I wasn't expecting him home til later, when I heard my front door open quickly. Being the jumpy person that I am, I screamed at the intrusion. I was expecting my boyfriend to say "sorry it's just me," but instead I was met with silence. I look out my bedroom door and see the front door closing and someone leaving. I couldn't see the person, just a presense retreating. I grab the closing door and look out in the hallway to see that the hallway door, which is always propped open, is also closed. I immediately slam my door, chain and lock it and put my back against it. All I could think of was that someone had just entered my home, but was desperately hoping it was my boyfriend playing a mean trick on me, after all it was the day before Halloween. Then I thought maybe someone had the wrong apartment and was afraid to admit that they entered the wrong unit.
I make several calls to my boyfriend, but can't get a hold of him. He finally calls me after seeing my TXT message, which read "Please call me." He was at work, I could here his colleagues in the background. My terror increased since I knew it wasn't him joking with me. I told him what happened and he said he would leave right now, but also said it was probably a mistake and that someone tried the wrong apartment or something. Yet, I started to wonder if the person actually left my apartment or if there was another person who entered my place. So now I very slowly with a steel pot in my hand, start to open closet doors and creep around my place.
10 mins later, the front door knob slowly turned again as I stared at it in horror. Seriously this happened. I felt like I was in a Halloween film and was the babysitter or someone trapped in their house and being toyed with.
I try to call my boyfriend again, but I get cut off since I have no bars in the apartment. You believe this shit? I've always had dodgy reception at home but of all times and we don't have a landline since we both just use our cell phones instead. It's was all starting to feel like a real horror movie, but I kept brushing that thought off.
I finally get though to Raphael, who's now in his car and he tells me to call the police. I argue with him at first saying it could be a prank or a mistake. Angry he tells me to call 911, so I do. Explaining to the operator what happened help make me calm down a bit too, since it was very methodical. They were sending police shortly.
Everyone arrives at the same time. The police said they checked out the area, but didn't see anyone suspicious and told us to call if anything happened again.
Raphael does his own search later on and notices that our welcome mat is missing and that in this other section of the apartment building, on the other side of the propped door there is a person with a handkerchief around their head curled up on the floor sleeping in front of someone's door. It seemed too much of a coincidence that this person wasn't the same person as before. So we call the police again, but not their emergency number. Again they said they'll have someone come by and take a look.
We eat dinner and are on the couch watching TV when the door rattles again. I grab his knee in reaction and he jumps up for the door, with a golf club in hand. He barges into the hall shouting "are you looking for someone?" The person he saw on the floor earlier, is a woman and she and a couple of the neighbors are outside. Apparently the woman had just tried their doors too. She was obviously homeless and strung out. These guys next door got her to leave the building. She left saying that she was a woman and needed a place to stay and why didn't they understand?
I get that she might have wanted to sleep inside our building in the hallway instead of outside or in our parking garage like the rest of the Venice Beach bums, but why try all of our doors repeatedly to get in? She was obviously crazy or high, but at least the mystery was solved and I wasn't being targeted specifically. It also helps knowing it was a woman, which doesn't mean she isn't still dangerous, I know.
Crazy, huh? For now on, I'll always lock my door as soon as I get in.
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PS: I'm the only one wearing a costume in my office today :( That's OK though, it's my favorite holiday and it is fun to dress up. I even saw two homeless guys dressed up as demons asking for "change for the strange."
The buildings were lower but so were the prices of the cocktails (barely) but this lounge also has a little pool, dance floor, more seating areas and pods. What are pods? They are three partially enclosed spade looking huts with a water bed inside. 
Last night I opened a membership at Costco. Not at just any Costco but apparently the third busiest Costco in the country. The cashier said if I came on a weekend I'd never want to come back. The place was still a mad house after work and I was overwhelmed by the options. I needed paper plates but did I need a 200 count? I felt dwarfed by the shopping cart alone and was navigating like a child behind the wheel of a car as I swerved into each aisle adding soup, easy mac and other quick snacks into the cart. I wanted to get bottled water but couldn't even lift the thing to put it into the cart, so I gave up. It didn't help that I wasn't used to this store's layout since I'd only been to one in Connecticut before. A $50 membership and a $117 bill later I left with a headache and a filled trunk of junk that I probably didn't need. Can't wait to go back and get some more though :-/ 