Aftermath
Thanks so much to everyone who posted or called me--I love you all. This has been crazy. Duncan, sure, you can tell Tony.
Saturday I slept badly and woke up around 11:30, and didn't leave my apartment until 1:00. I saw that the floor outside in the hallway still had a lot of blood on it--I went down in the elevator and realized I had left my phone in the apartment so I stayed in the elevator and hit 19 again. I could hear someone had just walked into the elevator bank (on the ground floor) and I was hoping not to share the elevator with them but at the last minute, some guy stuck his arm in the doorjamb. I was annoyed. Of course it was a young guy--and he hit 19 (my floor). I start getting tense. We ride up in silence together and I decide to let him walk out first so I'm behind him. He turns left (i.e., toward my apartment) and I watch as he walks right over this messy, bloody floor without even mentioning it. He doesn't say anything to me like "man, what happened?" or "do you know anything about this?" even though it's obvious it's right in front of my apartment. Man, I have some prize neighbors, huh? This guy is from the apartment next to mine--I didn't recognize him but it's a biggish family--two little girls (with whom I've chatted on several occasions and who have played with my cats), two parents whom I've never met, and I guess this...son?
So I go downstairs to maintenance to ask them if they could take care of the floor. The guy was horrified and asked me if I'd told the manager yet. I said no, I assumed the cops had. He said he didn't think so and took me to meet him. The manager was also horrified and said "tell the cops we have cameras in the lobby and in the elevators." I said I had--he said when they call me back, give them his number and he said he was going off to check the footage of that night. Their concern was actually quite validating--the complete disregard from my damn neighbors had me wondering "did this even HAPPEN?!"
I leave for Thyme rehearsal. On my way I stop on 54th Street where there used to be a security store that sold pepper spray and mace but I guess the store isn't there anymore. I get through rehearsal and afterward walk over to the ER of Roosevelt Hospital. I wait a couple of hours (not nearly as long as I'd feared though)--Mike joins me to share the wait--and eventually see the ER nurse and doctor. The nurse is awesome--she's this 6-foot-tall Valkyrie with short-cut blonde hair and beautiful light turquoise eyes who's all "You fought him off! That must be empowering..." and the doctor is her exact opposite, this tiny Indian woman who looks no older that 17 who kind of gasps and says "You're so brave!" They tell me it's too late for sutures, that it would atually increase that risk of infection if they re-opened the wound to stitch it. They give me a tetanus shot and dress the finger, and give me a prescription for antibiotics. While at the CVS to get the prescript filled, I browsed the Halloween aisle and bought the October issue of Country Living and two bags of cotton candy and dark chocolate, autumn-colored M&Ms. Mike made the astute comment that Halloween magazines for me are like porn.
Mike and I get back to my place and I call my mother last night and tell her. I also cleaned the blood all over my foyer and Mike helped. I threw out the purse I'd been carrying on Friday because it was covered with blood. It made sick to look at it. My mother called me again today and tried to convince me to take sick leave to go down there for a week or so. I don't think I have sick leave although I probably have some vacation time accrued.
Patricia (Titania in Thyme) and Tesse both very kindly offered to have me sleep at their respective apartments and I decided to stay at Tesse's. Jason and Paula met Tesse and me up in Inwood and we went to Guadalupe's and hung out for awhile. I was exhausted and had to wake up quite early this morning for rehearsal this morning. Luckily the A was running express, even thought it wasn't supposed to be. At rehearsal, Kelly came up to me and said "this is from Letham and me"--it was pepper spray. Rehearsal went better than yesterday and afterward Patricia suggested going to breakfast. Even though I was exhausted it felt weird to be alone so I went to Galaxy Diner. Afterward I went back to my apartment and SLEPT. When I finally woke up I called my dad and stepmother and filled them in. My stepmother (who is a psychologist who's specialized in women's issues and I'm sure she's dealt with things like this) talked to me about my need to get away and asked me to think about going up there for as long as I wanted. I said I'd think about it, and my dad decided to come down here to stay with me for a little while. They were so sweet, saying I was still their little girl and family has to stick together and they wanted to help me.
Obviously I'm going to have to move. I'm kind of dreading the big "yeah, I gotta break the lease" talk with the manager.
I'm still just so tired. I'm not even that tense or paranoid, I'm mostly just tired.
Saturday I slept badly and woke up around 11:30, and didn't leave my apartment until 1:00. I saw that the floor outside in the hallway still had a lot of blood on it--I went down in the elevator and realized I had left my phone in the apartment so I stayed in the elevator and hit 19 again. I could hear someone had just walked into the elevator bank (on the ground floor) and I was hoping not to share the elevator with them but at the last minute, some guy stuck his arm in the doorjamb. I was annoyed. Of course it was a young guy--and he hit 19 (my floor). I start getting tense. We ride up in silence together and I decide to let him walk out first so I'm behind him. He turns left (i.e., toward my apartment) and I watch as he walks right over this messy, bloody floor without even mentioning it. He doesn't say anything to me like "man, what happened?" or "do you know anything about this?" even though it's obvious it's right in front of my apartment. Man, I have some prize neighbors, huh? This guy is from the apartment next to mine--I didn't recognize him but it's a biggish family--two little girls (with whom I've chatted on several occasions and who have played with my cats), two parents whom I've never met, and I guess this...son?
So I go downstairs to maintenance to ask them if they could take care of the floor. The guy was horrified and asked me if I'd told the manager yet. I said no, I assumed the cops had. He said he didn't think so and took me to meet him. The manager was also horrified and said "tell the cops we have cameras in the lobby and in the elevators." I said I had--he said when they call me back, give them his number and he said he was going off to check the footage of that night. Their concern was actually quite validating--the complete disregard from my damn neighbors had me wondering "did this even HAPPEN?!"
I leave for Thyme rehearsal. On my way I stop on 54th Street where there used to be a security store that sold pepper spray and mace but I guess the store isn't there anymore. I get through rehearsal and afterward walk over to the ER of Roosevelt Hospital. I wait a couple of hours (not nearly as long as I'd feared though)--Mike joins me to share the wait--and eventually see the ER nurse and doctor. The nurse is awesome--she's this 6-foot-tall Valkyrie with short-cut blonde hair and beautiful light turquoise eyes who's all "You fought him off! That must be empowering..." and the doctor is her exact opposite, this tiny Indian woman who looks no older that 17 who kind of gasps and says "You're so brave!" They tell me it's too late for sutures, that it would atually increase that risk of infection if they re-opened the wound to stitch it. They give me a tetanus shot and dress the finger, and give me a prescription for antibiotics. While at the CVS to get the prescript filled, I browsed the Halloween aisle and bought the October issue of Country Living and two bags of cotton candy and dark chocolate, autumn-colored M&Ms. Mike made the astute comment that Halloween magazines for me are like porn.
Mike and I get back to my place and I call my mother last night and tell her. I also cleaned the blood all over my foyer and Mike helped. I threw out the purse I'd been carrying on Friday because it was covered with blood. It made sick to look at it. My mother called me again today and tried to convince me to take sick leave to go down there for a week or so. I don't think I have sick leave although I probably have some vacation time accrued.
Patricia (Titania in Thyme) and Tesse both very kindly offered to have me sleep at their respective apartments and I decided to stay at Tesse's. Jason and Paula met Tesse and me up in Inwood and we went to Guadalupe's and hung out for awhile. I was exhausted and had to wake up quite early this morning for rehearsal this morning. Luckily the A was running express, even thought it wasn't supposed to be. At rehearsal, Kelly came up to me and said "this is from Letham and me"--it was pepper spray. Rehearsal went better than yesterday and afterward Patricia suggested going to breakfast. Even though I was exhausted it felt weird to be alone so I went to Galaxy Diner. Afterward I went back to my apartment and SLEPT. When I finally woke up I called my dad and stepmother and filled them in. My stepmother (who is a psychologist who's specialized in women's issues and I'm sure she's dealt with things like this) talked to me about my need to get away and asked me to think about going up there for as long as I wanted. I said I'd think about it, and my dad decided to come down here to stay with me for a little while. They were so sweet, saying I was still their little girl and family has to stick together and they wanted to help me.
Obviously I'm going to have to move. I'm kind of dreading the big "yeah, I gotta break the lease" talk with the manager.
I'm still just so tired. I'm not even that tense or paranoid, I'm mostly just tired.