Bad Day

Excerpts from a now deleted blog post from Juliana on her official site in 2008:

My older brother and I were once held up as we were walking across an outdoor parking lot at night. There were about six young guys — teenagers, I think — in sweatshirts, baggy jeans, and baseball caps. My brother and I thought they were just going to amble past us, but then one of them pulled out a little silver handgun and pointed it at my brother’s head. I was standing right next to him. I don’t remember anyone saying anything. We were all relatively calm and no one panicked or yelled or made any sudden movements. My hand went automatically to my pocket where there was a little wad of cash — $80, I think — and I immediately handed it over to the kid closest to me. My brother gave him his wallet. Then the kids took off running down the bike path next to the parking lot. My brother called the cops and filed a police report.

With ”Bad Day” I was relating my mugging to my life at the time. I had trouble with relationships. I went for guys who didn’t treat me right and in the song I equate the bad boyfriend archetype to the mugger (“I screwed it up again. I made another friend, a desperado named ’Trouble.’ He showed his gun to me. He took my money,” etc…). I’m basically blaming myself for getting hurt. And the mugging is a metaphor for the trouble I seemed to keep getting myself into. (“I made my bed and now I don’t sleep in it so well.”)