Good Morning;
It's 10:00 am. Saturday and I've just finished breakfast..(a Ham and Swiss w/ grey Poupon & Chipotle Chicken) sandwich combination made from two sandwiches "rescued" from the Starbucks dumpster last night, I discarded the bottom halves of the rolls, (the dry, 'unsauced' halves) added fresh sliced tomatoes and...(what else but!!)..Mayo. Some low fat Pringles, (I actually prefer them, and unlike the "FAT FREE Pringles", there is no danger of....'Anal Leakage'.....YEECCCHHHH!!...[look up the side effects of the 'artificial fat' used in them.....eewwww Grosssss!], and a 'deep discounted, day old' chocolate croissant with my leftover bottle of Powerade, (No Cal Sugar Free.... I know it's kinda nasty, but, it's an acquired taste....really acquired......lol).
I figure if the last vice I have left to me, (through choice and finances), is food, (well alcohol, in moderation, also....but technically, alcohol is sugar, which places it in the food category), I may as well enjoy myself and eat as well and creative, in a culinary sense, as I can within that day's budgetary constraints, and kitchen accessibility. If I get the chance to perform in someones kitchen, on a day when I have food credit on my card, just hope that you are an invitee..........LOL.
So, I woke up about every hour on the half hour last night, after falling asleep reading 'Round Midnight. At 8:30 am. I got up because my back was making noises like the Titanic, just after she stopped for ice cubes. I really had no reason to get up or anywhere to go today, or anybody to see, or anything to do, (or anybody to do either....lol), but as much as I wanted to just chill, I was forced to move. Now yesterday, I was still catching up on 2 late nights and all the walking and adrenaline detoxification from the Fair, so I ended up falling back to sleep until after 10:30 am., and it took a while to 'kick start my heart', and bring it up to speed. After I left the library yesterday I went to the coffee shop and just chilled out and read and watched DVDs..(Law and Order: CI, the 3rd season; and "On The Town" a musical with Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Vera-Ellen..{who I am in love with.....60 years too late...sighhh!}, and Ann Miller.......the sets, the colors, the production values, the innocence....love that old stuff.). My friend Olga came by and we talked, and I listened....lol.....just call me Father Dave, "Have Confessional-Will Travel"......no penance given.
{I've got "JAMS AND BEYOND" playing on the Rhapsody Radio here....lots and lots of Grateful Dead, and Phish, and similar groups.....so I may slip into my Retro/Neo Hippie mode................duuude...........LOL}
I was talking to a young woman yesterday on the bus and as we walked across the parking lot to the St.Thomas Giant where she works, and we were discussing some of the homeless 'characters' along the Reisterstown Rd. corridor from Belvedere to Owings Mills, (that is, from the Ghetto to the Upper Middle 'Burbs, for all you 'non-locals'..lol), and it turns out we have noticed some of the same people and their traits. There is 'Rainman' and his female companion, who I have mentioned, and the 'Bag Woman'...(this psycho is no 'lady'....lol), who is always wearing fleece or flannel, in layers covering her from head to toe, and sometimes all but her eyes are covered, and gloves too...in 92 degree heat!!, She has at least a half dozen disposable plastic shopping bags from various food stores with her at all times. I thought that it was her clothing, but they are filled with scraps of paper, old newspapers, pieces of rag, and empty cardboard food packaging? She rarely sits on the bus, placing her bags on all three side facing seats, but when she does she unfolds those free advertising fliers and local papers and spreads them out on the seat. Of course her pants seat is already filthy..??? When she does not have gloves on, she will not touch any surface without folding paper around her hands first. I have seen her riding the bus literally for days, or sitting asleep on a bus stop for hours. i do not know where she stays, but she has many different sets of pajamas and sweats that she wears.
Another common sight is the fairly tall skinny black guy, around 30 or so,(?), who sleeps on the bench at the bus shelter at Reisterstown and Old Court most nights. i see him on the library, and he used to come in to the Starbucks in Pikesville, and the gas station, and he is always on the Metro Subway, walking Through the cars while the train is in motion, a big no-no, announcing in a loud (and squeaky) voice "Hi everybody, I'm homeless, Got any spare change". He has been tossed out of the gas station, library, Metro stations, and the Starbucks many times. (For annoying patrons...this is AGGRESSIVE PANHANDLING). He also writes really bizarre notes on scraps of paper that are nearly impossible to decipher, (in a combination of English with extreme curlicues, and a made up alphabet that resemble cursive Arabic and cursive Cyrillic combined), that are Messianic in nature, and even more hallucinatory than Revelations. After his actions in the now closed Starbucks started to reflect on me and another street person, who also sat quietly and bothered no one and was therefore welcome to sit and stay, and he kept coming in even after the manager asked, then told him not too. I took it upon myself to 'advise' him to 'be elsewhere'...now he pretends not to notice me on the train or when I see him at the State Center Station.
Speaking of the State Center, there is an extremely obese woman who panhandles there, sitting on the benches by the exit saying, over and over and over, to the same people day in and day out, "I'm Hawngree, can you help me?", even to other obviously homeless, down and out, and or beggars.
Public Service Warning:
For any visitors,(or locals) to 'Our Fair City', if you are Downtown, near the Shot Tower/ MarketPlace Metro stop, or anywhere in the vicinity and you are approached by a white male or white female, alone or as a couple, asking you if you know of any soup kitchens or shelters in the area....BEWARE!!!!! this is a scam. You'll know these folks because they are picture perfect examples of the 'white trash junkie'... skinny, scraggly, bad teeth. Now, let's be straight here, I panhandle, I've been a junkie, (and my first priority in life is NOT to go back there....by ANY means necessary), but these people are lying scum who will try to flim flam you and are not above one stealing a wallet from a pocket book while the other is distracting you. This is what screws up everything for others who are honest and only ASKING, not bullying or demanding, just hoping for some charity, compassion and/or generosity from another.
These two and the
'junkie-crack head-dope fiend'
crew who sometimes infest the corner I stand on, and the obviously high, stoned, or drunken assholes who bang on car windows and scare people, and even though I do not blame them for something they have no control over, the 'crazies', the mentally ill, can really end up lumping all homeless in the same batch, and make it harder to exist above the radar, by coloring everyone with the same brush.
OOOOOOOOps....sorry, did it again, went off on a tangent........lol.
Anyway, it is only 11:50 am, I have the whole day ahead, a few, a VERY few dollars with which to do something, (and I WANT to do Something today), meds and a monthly bus pass...oh yeah and a half pint or so of 'low budget vodka'....lol.
I guess I'll be back Tuesday...unless I am realllyyyyyy! bored this afternoon, or I go to Towson on Sunday after 1:00 pm. I have minutes on my phone so I will answer if anyone who has the number calls me....hint...Hint...HINT!!!........lol.
Well it is e-mail time, then I'm history........later................Dave
p.s.
I forgot to mention that I have not seen Mike/Leo around for a month or so, I'm guessing he is locked up for something again. Either -- theft; crack..(he was witnessed making a buy by someone with no reason to lie, and who does not know him....and after reviewing some examples of his erratic behavior, I would not dispute the possibility; OR, something really stupid, like sleeping in the cemetary, or sleeping in a glass elevator and not waking up in time to leave before the security guards opened up in the morning.....(both were previous arrests...........DUH!!), I felt sorry for the guy and tried to assist him, (see some of the real early first posts), but between his negativity and his 'rapport'...HAH...with the police, I could not afford to be around him, for both mental and physical reasons.............
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