Thursdays = rehearsal for Latchkey Kids from 4-6 and my last level 5 class from 7-10. Dave Hill is our coach for the Kids, and he was running a little late b/c of an audition. Today it was just me, Hannah, Laura, and Eric. We warmed up and when Dave got there around 4:15, we sat down and started talking about the direction to take this team. All of the sudden there was this incredibly long screech of tires. It was long enough for all of us to look at each other and wonder if this was going to end in a crash. Oh yeah, it did. It was this horrific breakage of glass and car. We stuck our heads out the window, but all we could see was Cosmo, which was pretty empty. We saw a few people running towards Hollywood Boulevard. We could hear people yelling for the cops and for an ambulance. We all just looked at each other with these stunned faces. It seemed to be under control. We stumbled back to our seats and there was this weird silence. I mean, obviously, something horrible had happened, but we were going to go back to rehearsal. Then someone started running through iO yelling for everyone to evacuate the building immediately. (I left behind my favorite pen. How sad.)

When we got outside, there was a huge crowd of people at the front of iO. An SUV had smashed through the front window into the bar. What we gathered was that the driver fled but the passenger was still there. No one was hurt. Not one person, and this is a high-traffic pedestrian area. The bar was empty. Had it been a couple of hours later, there would have been a ton more people around. James Grace and Eric Hunicutt were there, handing everything. Poor guys. They totally kept their cool the whole time. I'm imagining they're in shock. I took a couple of crappy pictures with my phone, but Schackne got some better ones.

So, that's basically it. No mainstage shows for a while. Someone asked me if I was upset. I don't know how to describe how I felt. It was all so surreal. I mean, iO is my second home; I almost feel violated. I have been there every night for the past week for rehearsals or performances or to watch my friends. And now it's going to be closed for a while. No one knows what's going to happen with classes or shows. I'm in 3 different troupes that were going to perform there. I was in the 4 person tournament. Everything is up in the air. It's a weird day.