I knew something was afoot
when I crossed the parking lot this morning and saw one lone person sitting
outside. She was on the homeless-resident side and she was reading, not
smoking. There wasn't another soul in sight. On such a pleasant morning, that
was very odd.
The pre-release fellow that I find so
charming was chatting with Cutie Gatekeeper, and there was one fellow in the
dining room helping Doug rearrange the tables. When that was finished, Mr.
Charming came in there, sat down, and began to read.
Doug had everything we needed
for lunch and for dinner. For lunch
there was donated spaghetti and garlic bread, and donated $9 deli sandwiches!
We served peaches and potato chips with those. For dinner, Doug had filled a
giant pot with canned beef stew, and he was cooking more beef to add to it. Of
course he had the Sunday-night green beans simmering and some fat biscuits
ready for the oven.
There was a box of sandwiches
already made, so I sacked them with drinks and chips and cookies—about 35. Some
doofus had raided a lunch sack in the fridge and removed just one sandwich from
the zip-lock baggie that held two... it was a WORKER doofus of course. Boy, was
Doug mad... again.
Cutie Gatekeeper spent a very
long time in the kitchen today, chatting it up with Doug. Apparently, they had
a lot of shelter-scoop to catch up on. And that brings me to the thing that was
afoot. One of our pre-release was filmed hurling a deadly weapon at Mr.
Charming, and the hurler was sent back to the big house. Sounds like a good
thing, right? No. Now Mr. Charming has established himself as a
"rat." The others aren't speaking to him. It was creepy, watching him
eat his lunch alone, and sad. It was sad. As Cutie said, "Every one of
those guys has come from prison where
everybody is a rat. Who do they think
they are?"
Still, none of us has
experienced prison life, so I guess we really can't speak to these behaviors. I
want to believe that by next Sunday, the brouhaha will have settled down, and
folks will have gotten on with their lives.
Our homeless were movingly
tattered today—unkempt—unhealthy—appearing stuck in the misery of
their lives, with no way out. I'm especially fond of one very pretty young woman who's been there for several months, and
who speaks of waiting for her disability to come through. She's intelligent,
she's so pretty, she's humble and
kind… it's just impossible to SEE a disability from my side of the serving
counter.
Our extra-large she man was at
lunch and in good spirits. Looks like there's been some weight loss. Still,
where does he/she fit in, in the real world? Hard to imagine where—with just
a few (and rotten) teeth, so much girth, and the ever-present gender issue. How
far can such a person get with only "good spirits?"
So yesterday I was told that
we had two new little girls at the shelter (and we do).
I was so excited! I packed my toy bag with special things for them and for my
boy. Not one child came to lunch. Heck, we didn't even have anybody who was childlike at lunch!
I wrapped up all the duties I
could lay my hands on by 12:30. Again Doug thanked me for my help. Again, I
assured him I had fun… it was different, but of all the places I could choose
to be on Sunday morning, this one is best.
I expect to be
away next Sunday, and I'll surely miss my people. Have a good week.
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