Things that make you go hmmm??

First of all...sometimes, just when I think that the world is no damn good, people are just fantastic and I love them. Charlotte will be well taken care of during my vacation...three different homes, everyone more than willing to help me help her. I'm so happy!! And she's doing so well...she's taking her medicine with some resistance but without too much complaint and she's gaining weight, becoming more brave and investigative, and purring all the time. My colleagues call me her "mommy"...but I'm averse to that title..."custodial guardian"...we'll see about the "mommy" thing...in time.

Secondly...I confonted a stereotype that I never even knew I had today. I spent my lunch hour at an outreach today. A shelter for hookers on the "skid row." And you know one of the things that I was most suprised at?? The amount of men, and transgendered women that were there. I guess I just had this image of bleached blond, strung out, emaciated women with fuck me heels ...I guess I just never gave much thought to the composition of the hooking population. A coworker and I hung out there for a couple of hours....they call her "Blondie", me "Pretty Eyes"...we're technically there to answer legal questions, provide resources, that sort of stuff...so we chatted with people, ate ice cream sandwiches, watched a bit of Pet Cemetary opened some files. At one point there was an altercation between two of the women - one straight, one transgendered. And the woman who runs the place called a group meeting. Apparently the "street" has been present more and more in the shelter these past six months...I gathered that she meant that there had been more and more violence and problems recently. She opened the floor up for comments from the people there (probably 25 or 30 in total). One women commented that she didn't understand why there were so many men there. And one of the men stood up - other than rather feminine clothing, he lived as a man - most of the men there lived as women (I'm not sure I'm explaining this very well) - and his comment was that he had been coming there for five years, and he didn't know where he would be if it wasn't for this place. And then, with a sudden burst of emotion, he said, "You all know that I'm out there every night sucking cock just like the rest of you." I'm not sure I have any other comments about this. But I do know that my reaction to it was surprise...and then surprise that I was surprised. I guess it's like it's one thing to know...know with your head. And it's another thing to "know"...know with your heart. And at that moment I knew with my heart that this was real...that these lives were real...that these women, these men they were all real...and that my own perceptions of what life on the streets was like were not real. But the thing is...I could spend every single day at that shelter...and I could "know" with my heart what real was for these ladies, but the difference is that every single night I go home and I curl up in my cozy apartment with my adorable kitten, or I stress about my boy situation, or I hang out with my girlfriends and drink wine, or I do any one of the things that I have talked about here in the past little while - but they...they are out on the streets sucking random cock for $30 a pop. Man...we judge...so easily.

I was having this one conversation with a meth head today (man...meth heads and their teeth...for me that's a for sure reason never to touch the stuff)...but regardless...she's not hooking much these days. A few months ago she had a bad date - john threw her out of the car and then ran over her leg. She's permanently crippled now, has had two surgeries on her leg, and another one scheduled for October. She has bi-polar disorder, diabetes, and a whole host of other problems in addition to her addiction - she looks way older than her 35 years. Anyways, she had some questions about her conditional sentencing order relating to a criminal conviction a little while ago...so we started chatting, and were chatting when the outburst occurred. So I asked her what she thought...why there had been increasing problems. Her answer was that there were some bad drugs on the street right now...bad mixes, bad varieties, just bad. And then she said that there were always more problems in the summer because there were more people on the streets - it's warm...hookers don't like to stand out in the cold. So in the summer there are more people competing for johns...and, consequently, less money to go around. The combination of the two makes people edgy...and angry. I've never given much thought to the social dynamics of the street.

Ok...and then a totally different and totally shallow, superficial, vain comment...but important to me and I don't give a damn what it says about me. I am very upset that I apparently am no longer allowed to take lip gloss on airplanes. I can deal with the no liquids thing...but my lip gloss...that's crossing the line for me.