Warm Saturday Night in LA

You know you live in LA when after being sidelined with an ear infection and reduced to full couch potato status, you decide to take a leisurely stroll through your Wisteria-Lane-type neighborhood only to have it cut short by the sound of a drive-by.

Well, I'm not 100% sure it was a shooting, but after my husband pushed me into the house and yelled for me to, "Get away from the windows!" I'm kind of convinced that it might have been.

So what did Dave and I do after hearing such a shocking sound? Call the police? Phone the neighbors?

Nah. It's best not to get involved. What if the bad guys come back to get the snitch?

"Because when they come, they come at what you love," says Michael Corleone. By the way, the fact that "The Godfather" trilogy is on TV right now has nothing to do with it. I swear. Not even a little influence over the last 6 hours. Hmm. Okay… maybe it wasn't a drive-by, but it certainly sounded like a gun. Or at least a powerful firecracker. At the very least, a hoopty backfire – and that means trouble, right?

Here's what I do know: beyond the manicured lawns, accent-lit palm trees, and artistically-arranged driveway pavers, suburbs of Los Angeles, even affluent ones, share the threat of impending violence. The LA news wouldn’t be so good without it – seriously, it’s almost like watching a movie sometimes. Perhaps the traces of pharmaceutical waste (mostly anti-anxiety meds) found in tap water create a heightened state of paranoia or maybe there's just too many people here… are they all watching us right now?

Enough. Rant over. Back to some much needed sofa time and more Advil. All this worrying is giving me a headache.