So I've retrieved the reluctant kid from his grandparents...

but he'll go back again next week in preparation for moving... Natha's watching Little Shop of Horrors at the moment, at his request. I wish we could have taken him when it was at TPAC - he doesn't know that these things called movies sometimes come from things that people perform *live*...

I got stuck in traffic friday night taking him up there, for almost 2 hours... I made semi-friends with a trucker who was previously retired and said he'd do one run a week on the weekends, from Nashville to Saginaw, and of course he gets stuck in traffic then... He told me what was going on, so I had some idea... You never know when you'll meet interesting people, you just have to be open to meeting them. Unfortunately a lot of the mind-expanding people are borderline unsafe to have too much communication with, especially here in Nashville... although on thursday afternoon I was in the parking lot of Burger King on Charlotte and a homeless guy came up to my window and asked if he could wash my windshield, to which I told him that he could, but all the money I had was the money in my car, which was 90% pennies. So while he washed the windshield with the scrap of paper towel he got from a restroom somewhere, I got together all the coins I had in my car to hand to him - and it took a couple minutes to get them all out. When I handed them to him, it took two of his hands to hold them all - and it was probably less than $3.00, all in small coins, but he tried to catch every one of them, and even used his other hand to keep from spilling the pennies. I almost asked him if he was hungry and I would have taken him inside Burger King and sat down to a meal with him, in a Mr. Wendal sort of way. The reason I didn't was that I had told him that all the money I had was in my car, and I would have looked dishonest to then pull out a $10 to pay for lunch. If they would have taken credit cards, I would have done that. Most people just give them money to go away, or at most buy them some food and walk away, maybe with some little bible verse or speech on the importance of Jesus. I wish I could have assessed him quicker before I said that to him... I would have liked to share a meal with him. He wasn't at all intrusive, he actually waited for me to finish talking to Erin before he even walked up to me. I've honestly seen quite a few sketchy beggars in that area, which makes me feel apprehensive about anyone who walks up to my car... If he had been in East Nashville, I would have bought lunch. Most people look at homeless people as less-than-persons who obviously made some bad choices in some bad circumstances which demotes them to a different status from the rest of us 'productive' members of society. I acknowledge that there are obviously places they turned down the wrong path, but I'd like to hear what they have to say. Nothing makes people feel better than to be acknowledged as a real person and to be listened to - listening=validation - and if that can possibly bring someone up from the depths of bad decisions, I'm going to listen to them. Not to mention the tidbits they impart to me, if only a reminder of how they used to be like me until _______ happened a couple years ago. Some of my fondest memories of my trip to Key West are of talking to/having dinner with one of 'the kids', as we called them. DeNardo was sitting outside the Wendy's eating what he had bought - he didn't even feel as if he was allowed to sit inside, even though he had bought his meal like everyone else. I was going to read 'The Professor and the Madman' during dinner, but saw him and invited him to join me, like I had run into a friend at the cafeteria and shared a table, buying him a Sprite. Those were the most interesting people I met the whole time, excepting the street magician, Tweedy. Those street magicians make a *lot* of money, even though they look scruffy... Long story shortened, I wish there weren't as many scary looking beggars that make me have to curtail my desire to learn something from them for the sake of my personal safety... All people are someone's son or daughter, someone's sister or brother, even someone's mother or father. They have feelings, and want to be acknowledged. That makes them human. I wish everyone treated them in a way that reminded them of what they *really* are, despite appearances. Oh, and I don't have to see them as an embodiment of some higher power to pay attention to them, I want to see them as a person, not some manifestation of religion's ideas on how you sould help those less fortunate...

Ed's going to be over here in a little bit - I went to the Cedars of Lebanon with my poker buddies last night, so I was away for a while and haven't seen him as much as usual... I missed him last night - almost drove back in the middle of the night so I could sleep next to him... Kelly talked me out of it, though. I was tired, and that wouldn't have been the safest decision.

I've got to start working on study aids (re: posters & flashcards) for Organic Chemistry - I have a test next week. I'll work on that while Ed's finishing whatever important document needs his attention because he promised. :)

Later...