We worked a bit into lunch today, taking a verdict, so Gym Trainee and I decided to just take a walk instead of going to the gym for what little time there was left of lunch. We were circling the neighborhood and looking around at the wadded-up fast food bags thrown on the sidewalks and at the shady-looking people coming out of pawn shops when I thought, “This is a really bad area.” That was when we approached an intersection where the cars next to us were stopped at a red light. A Hispanic guy was crossing the street toward us, walking in front of the stopped cars. When he stepped onto our sidewalk, he started saying something to three black guys in a car, also stopped at the light, closest to us at the corner. I was wondering if they knew each other, when we got close enough for me to realize he was challenging the three guys to come out in a hostile voice. “C’mon, bring it,” he was saying, along with other slangy stuff I wasn’t picking up on, sprinkling some colorful adjectives in there as well. I couldn’t tell if the three guys in the car were saying anything, but I certainly didn’t hear them. The Hispanic guy reached into his jeans pocket at this point and I briefly wondered if he had a gun. He pulled out something small and colorful, and waved it at the car. A utility pocket knife, it looked like. And then he walked farther down the sidewalk so that he was behind us, still challenging the carload of people. I got PISSED. Get the f out of my WAY when I’m trying to cross the sidewalk, and stop dancing around behind us! Go stab the car or something, their passenger window’s open! The car took off when the light turned green and the Hispanic guy said cockily, “YEAH, thass wot I THOUGHT! Chickenshits.” WEREN’T YOU just bouncing around behind TWO WOMEN, trying to put us in the middle of your idiocy? I almost wish the carload of guys had gotten out and beat the crap out of him. How stupid does a guy have to be to start crap with a car of 3 people to his 1, and all he had on him was a dinky little keychain pocketknife? What if they pulled out a gun? What’s he gonna do, stab his way through a metal car as they ran him over? Idiot. Gym Trainee’s take on the situation was that as the guy was crossing the street, the car may have pulled up a little after he stepped on the sidewalk, so the guy took offense, like the driver was trying to hurry him up or play like he was gonna run him over. She also thought the guy overreacted because he was “trying to look hard” in front of women. Ooh. Score. *eyeroll*