Straw And Drink

Straw Just Like This

We Get A Bed Of Straw
It is Saturday morning and I slept "in" until about 8:45.
I woke up on a bed of straw, which had been spread over the whole area where myself, John the street preacher, and now a new guy with a woman, sleep.
The new couple are both black and probably in their late 30's. She has her hair bleached to a shade of orange-ish yellow. The guy is portly and rolls a large suitcase on wheels behind him. I have seen them in Cathedral Park a couple of times, and they were always friendly; asking me where I was going to play and wishing me luck.
The straw was strewn sometime between Thursday and Friday. Our cardboard had been covered by straw, as opposed to being throw away, leading me to think that, whoever put the straw down was sympathetic to us homeless people and not trying to run us out.
It may be a stretch to think that the Christ Church bought the straw to make us more comfortable, but, putting the cardboard out of view by covering it with straw may have been intended as a suggestion, by whoever did it, of how we can continue to sleep on the spot and not have unsightly cardboard under the HVAC unit or leaning on the building.
It crossed my mind that someone from the church may have seen John preaching on the street and then seen him sleeping at the spot, and put the straw down as a gift of some sort. If that is true, though, and they hear me play, they might come rake it out of my spot and use it to add another layer to his.
I have yet to run into John the street preacher or the black couple, but if I do I will have to ask them how they enjoyed the straw.
Thursday And Friday
Thursday night, I had very little success, as there were few people out. On my way back to the church spot, where I may have had my first encounter with the straw, I was waylayed by a guy, who was sitting at a table in front of Veet's, which is a bar that had a House Band, which is a band that plays there just about every night of the week.
The guy, who turned out to be Jesse, told me he had walked by me when I was playing and that I had been playing very well, though he hadn't had any cash on him at that time. He offered by buy me a drink, and after my acceptance of that offer, joined me in a couple shots of Maker's Mark bourbon whiskey, which is $8.50 per each at Veet's, which is a bar that has a house band.
Veet's also has a bartender who is very "homeless-unfriendly" which is a term that soon might make its way into the Oxford dictionary, with business owner's from places like Veet's being referenced. The first time I was at that establishment, I had run into Ben, the ambulance driver, who brought me in with him, and had to assure the bartender that I was his guest, to make it OK for myself to enter.
When Jesse placed the first round of whiskey down, he informed me that the bartender had asked him if I had "pan-handled" the drink from him. He offered to provide the service of running me off of the property, should that have been the case.
We talked for a while, myself satisfying his curiosity about what it's like to play music on the street and sleep on a bed of straw (although I had yet to) and him telling me that he works for Hewlett-Packard doing a job which he hates, and which makes him feel like "a fraud." He added that he is "ashamed" of how much money he makes.
While we were on the second round of whiskey at $8.50 per each, Jesse began to cultivate some ill sentiments toward the bartender, whom he felt had done me an injustice by his comments. He seemed to enjoy our conversation, and told me that I seemed like "a pretty square guy," and then went inside and informed the bartender of this opinion, payed his tab of almost 100 dollars, and then concluded by telling that personage that he was taking his business elsewhere.
To make a long story short (if it's possible at this point) Jesse (and I) took his business elsewhere and then elsewhere. I showed him several cool spots in Mobile where one can buy a friend a drink at up to 11 dollars per each, and then even wound up driving Jesse's rented car (blind as a bat, no licence, but more sober than he) back to the hotel, after he reached a point at which 11 dollar shots of bourbon will "catch up" to a man, (somewhere around 175 dollars worth.)
After Jesse showed me his wedding band to affirm his heterosexuality, I wound up staying at the moderately swank "Hampton" Inn, where the staff, in deference to the rates charged there, were all smiles and politeness and didn't ask Jesse if I had panhandled a room out of him.
Jesse left and went back out at some wee hour, to find trouble with a strange woman, I gather, and didn't return until noon Friday, and so I had the room to myself.
He was hurrying to catch his flight at that time, and so, couldn't elaborate on the strange woman or anything else, and we wished each other luck, and I went out to the street and he, back to the job that he hates which makes him feel like a fraud.
Now, it is Saturday morning, as stated at the top of the page. I am about to go out to me job which makes me feel like a beer.