On NPR

Since moving to L.A., I've become an NPR addict. I'm officially a clog-wearing, NPR-listening, Trader Joe-buying liberal. Oh, cliches. Why must you be so true? Anyway, every once in awhile I hear something on NPR that just must be shared with someone. And today, dear blog reader, it's you. I actually heard this back on November 1st, but since my life has been about work, work, and more work, I haven't been able to blog about it.

In honor of Halloween, This American Life decided to air creepy stories. And, boy, did they do a good job. In the first entry, a woman gave a scary rendition of her encounter with a rabid raccoon. As I grew up across the street from a woods, raccoons were a common night time visitor to our yard, and I -- confident in my top-of-the-food-chain position -- never paid them much attention as "they are more afraid of you than you are of them" (as my mother used to say). But this story? This story freaked me the hell out! This woman was attacked in her driveway, and after fending it off for fifteen minutes while screaming bloody murder for help and fumbling with her cell phone to call her family (who were a mere five feet away in the house), had to watch as her husband and son took turns bludgeoning the thing to death. AND THEN! She got the run around about a rabies shot. The first hospital told her that she had X number of days before rabies would take root and to wait until Monday to speak to her doctor. Then, on Monday, her doctor told her she had 72 HOURS in which to get the shot, and now she might die if she didn't get a shot ASAP so she needed to get to a hospital stat. And then the second hospital wouldn't give her the shot because she lived outside their jurisdiction and told her that she needed to just go back to the first hospital. But her hours were, like, ticking away, and she needed the shot NOW. But, oh-by-the-way, the cost of the shot is $350 and we're not giving it out to just anyone who walks into waiting room. The woman could have died in their waiting room and they were worried about a $350 shot! So the woman had to break down and cry and beg for her life until finally, FINALLY, they gave it to her. But the worst part of the story was the part where the producer tells you that a rabid bat can bite your child in the night time and there won't be a mark on him/her. CHRIST! As he said, "I was freaked out when I heard that, and I just had to share with everyone." Yeah, thanks! And right after that story, Bill Eville recounts a night gone horrible wrong on the Vineyard where he and his brother come thisclose to getting kidnapped. On the Vineyard! I can't even imagine... If you want to listen to it yourself, feel free. I hate Halloween.