Saturday, April 22, 2006

Jess Press

A couple of weeks ago, I told you about the shooting on my street, in Boston's South End neighborhood. Kim and I befriended a reporter from the South End News and chatted with her for a while about living in the area. Below is an excerpt from her article from the April 6 edition, titled, "Shooting suspect held on $1 million bail."

"I've seen groups of kids hanging out on that corner [West Canton and Tremont streets (but I meant West Canton and Montgomery Street)], but nothing frightening," said [me], 23, who lives on the street, the afternoon of the shooting. "I feel less safe now that I did 20 minutes ago."

Her roommate, Kim Newton, who was at home at the time of the shooting and woken from a nap by the shots, agreed. "Now I'm really glad that my mom bought me pepper spray," she said, laughing. On the teens hanging out on the street, Newton said, "They seem very innocuous."

"On a positive note, I've met two of my neighbors now," she concluded. "It's kind of a sad thing that it has to be a shooting that gets everyone out of their houses."

(I, too, hope Kim has her pepper spray with her if we're ever again around an... um... shooting. I'll at least feel safer.)

According to the article, the perpetrators were just kids - an after-school altercation out of control. This is what I'm talking about when I say it feels like the city is getting out of control... shootings everywhere, guns in the hands of kids. In telling my co-workers about the experience, I learned that most of them have heard gunshots in their proximity at some point in their lives in Boston. Coming home to find the area still "smoking", proverbially, was close enough for me.

The other thing people keep asking for is the actual Missed Connection posting from several weeks ago. First of all, if you haven't taken the time to read the Missed Connections in your applied city, you should. Boston's is here.

My post, which only stayed up for a week or two, went like this:

Matt D. with a face you can trust - w4m - 23


Date: 2006-03-16, 8:26PM EST


Being a bit of a cynic as of late, I'm 90% sure you're gay, if only because you're so cute. But anyway - you sold me a book on Dreamweaver and signed me up for the discount thingy, and it was all pretty noneventful as retail transactions go... but I wish I'd chatted you up a bit more. You seemed very friendly and a touch flirtatious.

I'm the rather forlorn looking girl with long brown hair, a black coat, a gray hat. But you perked me up a bit today. You were adorable. How 'bout it, Matt D. - want to let me buy you coffee?

So there you have it. If I'd actually expected him to find it, I might not have started out by questioning his sexuality. Good thing he was down with that. Looking back, I'm a little surprised at myself for posting it. Desperate? Pathetic? Adventurous? Self-depricating? I'm not sure. But if you're going to post one, accuse the other person of being gay. It works.

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