Why does this always happen to us?

On Christmas eve, Jennifer insisted on making a last ditch effort to buy the rest of the gifts (I'd banned her from the mall, to no avail) and just as we were leaving, 5 cop cars rush by, a police helicopter starts buzzing overhead as we pick our way into the TJ Maxx parking lot (we were gonig to Trader Joes in Federal WAy).

The police locked down the TJ Maxx and people started coming out of the store with their hands up, and inside, we could see the police, guns drawn at the front of the store, with other officers searching the aisles, and the guys, one by one.

Apparently, 6 kids got in a fight at the food court across the street, ran out through sears and into this store. Eventually they got them all, but not before alot of excitement.

"Why does this always happen to us," says daughter who insisted we go and investigate. The events always happen around us, but never "to" us, thankfully.

We were in the same mall 16 Christmases ago, and Jennifer started to fuss, badly, so we left. 15 minutes later, bullets were flying in the place gary and I were standing.

"See" J smirked. "i saved your life."

OK mom's a news junkie

And as it's turning out, a twitter junkie-following the iran election and the resulting protests afterward.

Time and time again, I kept turning to Jennifer, saying -come look at this, come read this - as brave protesters stood their ground in the face of police with clubs, rubber bullets and sometimes real ones. And fists. Even Jennifer winced as a woman was beaten by police. Apparently one of the main sources of the protesters to the outside world (since the journos have been kicked out) is cell phones, YouTube and twitter. Even the state department is asking twitter to not shut down for maintenance later today.

Then, my daughter, somewhat annoyed I've dragged her away from texting with her b-friend, wandered into the back room-probably for privacy. Probably so it would be more difficult for mom to come and grab her "come look at this."