Son feos

Remember the post I did about "Normal Life" (if not scroll down a bit)??

Well, I only live about a 4 minute walk from school, but you know that we keep getting reminded about being robbed, so I got into the habit of taking the bus to school in the morning (actually takes about 20 min) and walking home in the afternoon. I figured that this strategy would, #1 have me walking during daylight, and #2 decrease my chances of being mugged since I just will be "out" less often. The bus comes to my house at 6:20 am and then does a round of pick ups before we get dropped off at school around 6:40. One Friday was a teacher workday and we didn't have to be to school til 8:00 am and I decided taking the bus so early was ridiculous and that I would walk, and low and behold the 4 minute walk in the dark wasn't so bad. So when I returned after break I decided that I would sleep in an extra half hour and risk my life an extra 4 minutes every day.

Now, I leave the house around 6:35 and it's still pitch black. We do have street lights here, but you know how your brain plays tricks on you when you are walking in the dark. Hey, what was that creepy shadow? Well, a friend brought me some mace back from the States and on the first day back I buckled up my chest strap on my backpack (this makes it harder to rip off) and I armed my right hand with mace and began the 4 minute walk in the morning blackness. Can you tell I had freaked myself out a bit... yeah.

So I leave the gate of my apartment complex and start walking on the sidewalk towards school. In the darkness I approach an area with trash cans and random floating trash pieces and

sssccrruunnchhhh, shuuuuuugggg, sssccccrrrrrrrruuuuuugggg,

WHAT
OMG

Heart beating faster, eyes wide open, sweat starting to bead on my forehead, my attention jerks to the left and what do I see


RATS

rats, rats, rats, rats, rats, rats, rats...

ew

ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew...

Now crossing chickens I can get used to BUT RATS????