(no subject)

[phosfate]

Yesterday I spent an hour talking to a woman who is either clinically insane or living in a John Grisham novel (I realize those are not mutually exclusive - just because you hear voices and claim that no computer will work for you doesn't mean you're not at the heart of a criminal conspiracy). I couldn't help her much other than steer her away from the Crime Commission (it would be like going to the Liquor Licensing Board to report a drunk at the bus stop) and listen, but at least it was interesting and made her feel a little better for a little while. Anyway, if I'm found murdered in the next week, tell them about the whole murder conspiracy and they should check the lobby security footage. Unless they're in on it. They're probably all in on it, except for the lobby baristas. I would die for the baristas.

I seem to have inherited the curse from Mom where strangers talk to me. Mom's best story was when she and dad (I'm not sure which dad) went out to a nightclub, and the evening ended with the stripper sobbing in her arms. This was back when striptease was still wholesome nightclub fare, and there were still nightclubs.

I found five dollars on the bus. Using cash feels strange now, like I'm in the 70s.

I assembled a very small doll room box, which is supposed to fit together like a jigsaw but actually required a sweater-covered fist and then a rubber mallet. I don't own a rubber mallet, but my screwdrivers have silicon handles and I have a lot of pent-up rage, so that worked. Now to spend weeks going totally My Froggy Stuff on its ass. Hello, scrapbook paper from 2005!

Comments

[phosfate]

I get addicts and the mentally ill, which is fine because they're rarely scary, unlike bus mashers. The only scary one is the lady with the white hair and silver canes, because she will actually get physically violent and shout. I do not like being hit and yelled at, especially when I am not allowed to hit back. ("Yes, officer, I did punch the elderly mentally ill disabled lady a third of my size, but she started it!") She will try to fight you if she asks if the kids are out of school today, and you don't know, so that's fun.

I used to always keep a $20 in my keychain in case I needed a cab, but Uber just takes it out of my Paypal, and if I lose my phone there's no way to get a taxi anyway, because payphones no longer exist. They even took out the payphone outside the phone company door. I keep mints and the occasional valium in it now.

I think about when I went to Europe with travelers checks, and that seems completely insane now. I got home five bucks in the hole to my group leader. "Why didn't you wire me for money?" Mom said. "You didn't tell me I could," I replied. Because she hadn't. "I mean, I would've brought you a much better present. And more books. And not have lost 20 pounds."

[wolfy_writing]

Yeah, I used to live near a camp full of homeless people, and over the course of four years, I had to deal with being creepily hit on once, and one guy making a remark that was both creepy and baffling and then just immediately walking away, which is not exactly off the charts.

It's a lot simpler with the cell phone, but as is the case with a lot of simple things, if the one point of failure actually fails, you're left in a rough situation.

Oh man, I remember traveling to Europe and having a money belt! My brother's oldest kid is going and I'm offering to be very reassuring about what happens if they lose their passport. (They're being careful, but you never know.)