By now many of you know what happened the night before last but, for those who don't know or have not heard the details, here's the story...
On Tuesday night I came back from hanging out with Jason at his place and got ready for bed. I slipped into some PJ's, watched a couple of episodes of "The Office" and drifted into sleep with absolutely no idea of the nightmare to come. I have no idea what caused me to suddenly wake up on Tuesday but as soon as I opened my eyes, there was a man crouched down next to me with his hands delicately pulling down my comforter. There is nothing more terrifying than this... nothing.
I cannot tell you what possessed me to do this but, instead of covering myself or trying to move away from him, I thrashed out of bed screaming in a deep, psychotic voice and ran toward him as he backed away in shock. In my loudest, most insane voice I kept screaming "GET OUT! GET OUT! GET OUT! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" as he stumbled out my door and I chased him out of the front entrance of my apartment. I locked the door behind him, grabbed my phone and shut myself in my closet.
I called 911 and the moment someone answered, I started sobbing. I spent 12 minutes in my closet waiting for someone to come. TWELVE MINUTES! Anything could have happened but thank God it didn't. Because, somehow, both of my roommates slept through the experience, I spent those 12 minutes thinking the absolute worst... "Had he already been in their rooms?", "Where they alive?", "Where there other men in my apartment?"... I had no idea. When the police finally arrived, I struggled to put on a pair of pants and a coat with trembling hands. I pushed Josh into my bathroom and answered the door.
The police officer showed me where the fucker came in... he took the screen off our living room window and crawled in. He made a bee line straight to my room but, luckily, his plan failed. I have no idea whether or not things would have been different had I reacted any other way, but I think my reaction made the difference and probably saved me. Not to make this a PSA announcement but there are a few things I want to share from this experience:
1. I took self defense and truly believe it prepared somewhat me for this situation. I felt like I could stand up to this man even after being ripped out of sleep. I may not have had to lay a hand on him, but my sheer confindence in the confrontation probably made a difference.
2. LOCK YOUR DOORS AND WINDOWS... we have no memory of unlocking ours but, it will forever be a nightly ritual for us to check.
3. If you live with all women- do NOT live on ground level... it's too easy for creeps to sneak in.
4. Do everything you can to FIGHT BACK... if I had frozen, I probably would be too messed up to share this story with you today.
All I can say is I am so thankful that this situation was not any worse that it was. I'm also thankful for my amazing and supportive friends and family who provided shoulders to lean on after such a traumatic experience.
And... because I would consider myself a complete failure if I could not eventually see any humor in this situation... I will admit that, even while wiping tears away from my face while talking to the cop, I thought of this...
