Vandalism sucks. And scaring people sucks too.

I mentioned in my post yesterday that something weird/spooky happened to me when I was at the studio on Saturday afternoon. It kind of creeped me out and it completely pissed me off at the same time.

I was not teaching on Saturday. I went in at the request of the studio owner to help one of our relatively new teachers because she had never done all of the opening/closing duties or the paperwork by herself. Also, weird stuff ALWAYS happens during our Saturday classes. Either we get 15 walk-ins and get swamped with students, or we have a particularly difficult student, or really odd stuff happens like the day I was there without a helper and the entire back end of the studio flooded due to a broken pipe in the store next door and I had customers helping me pull hundreds of canvases and supplies out of our two storage closets.

This Saturday was no different. We had a group of six students that showed up an hour late for class so we had to scramble to get them checked in/take payment, set up spots for them (since we had taken their canvases and easels down when we didn't think they were going to show up), and get them caught up. They ended up staying an hour after the class was supposed to end even though we got them through their painting almost on time. But that's not the weird thing that happened.

I had told the studio owner I was going to stay and paint a couple of things because one of my co-workers at my law firm commissioned two paintings from me. (And Danielle, if you're reading this, I haven't forgotten to find out shipping costs for my paintings - I just haven't gotten around to it yet.) All of our students left around 4:00 or 4:15. The teacher left around 4:45 and I began working on my two pieces. We have a satellite radio system and it's set up right next to one of our back doors. We always place the antenna just outside the back door on a small loading ramp so that we get better reception. It is always sitting right beside the door - in fact, I don't even walk all the way outside when I put it out there as it is so close to the door.

At approximately 5:15, I was all alone in the studio and I was doing some serious rocking out to the 80's station, swaying to the music, and standing on the stage painting at the stand-up easel. It had been raining all day so the pavement was wet. I heard tires on the wet pavement behind the store. Suddenly, the music went silent. I then heard tires driving off. And I got a little freaked out. There is a hair salon next door to our studio but it was already closed for the day. The rest of the businesses in the shopping center are normally closed on Saturday so I knew I was probably the only person around.

I think because of the recent murder I've written about on here, I started thinking someone may have driven in the front of the shopping center, looked in the front windows and saw that I was alone, and that they were trying to lure me out back to knock me on the head and come in and rob the place. I was not standing in a position that would allow me to notice anyone if they had driven by the front windows.

I then thought to myself that I had heard tires drive off so I was probably safe to go out there. From the time the music cut out to the time I worked up the courage to look out the back door was probably a minute to a minute and a half and I was shocked at the scenarios I had flood through my head in that short period of time. I knew I was going to have to go out back and bring the antenna in before I left anyway and I decided it was best to do so before it began getting dark. I cracked the back door open and looked around. I didn't see anyone so I opened the door. The antenna was pulled way out into the back alley (it has a fairly long wire) and as I walked towards it, I could see that it was cut in half.

I picked it up and pulled everything back inside. I then called the owner to let her know what had happened and she said she would come up there since she only lives about 3 miles away. After we hung up, I heard voices out back. I know it was a stupid thing to do, but by this point I was much less spooked and much more pissed off. I ran to the back door, opened it up really quickly, looked out and saw three young guys, probably around 13 or 14 years old. They didn't hear me open the door so I yelled "Hey!" in my scariest and meanest sounding voice. I sound like I'm 3 years old anyway so this voice was not scary or mean sounding at all but it was the best pissed off voice I'm capable of mustering up. It must have worked a little bit because all three of them jumped and turned around. I asked them how long they had been back there and they all started stammering and said they had just arrived and had just walked over from one of the kids' houses. We have teens hanging out back there a lot so it's not unusual. They never do anything - they sit on the curb and talk, sometimes they are skateboarding, etc. but always completely harmless. I asked them if they had been back there 10 minutes earlier and they swore up and down they had just arrived but had seen a black car pulling out from behind the shopping center. I told them what had happened and they all stuttered and stammered and swore they had nothing to do with it. I explained that I was not blaming them, I simply wondered if they had seen anything. They said they only saw a black car pull out and since they were looking at me like I was completely insane and as if they were frightened to death, I walked back inside.

We have a competitor who has totally ripped off our name. We have a sneaking suspicion that she reported us to the county for something (yet she is doing this same thing herself) which has resulted in tons of legal fees and we've had to get a county ordinance re-written and voted into law which has taken a year to accomplish. She has now relocated her business and moved into a spot less than a quarter mile away from us. I'm now wondering if she might be the one who came over and cut the antenna wire. I know it's a long shot, but this woman's business is struggling and she has done other things trying to ruin our business already.

I don't really know who did it, but it scared the bejebus out of me on Saturday and I'm super pissed off about that.