You Can't Have Your Sushi And Eye Exam Too
This morning, I had about 10 bucks on me, after starting out on Monday with nothing.
It's easy then to fall into the trap of resenting the rich.
It seems like I get begged more when I actually have nothing; and begged by those who don't believe that I have nothing and who will persist in not taking "no" for an answer.
I was annoyed the entire evening.
Send The White Lady
One black guy sent a white woman across the street to ask me for a cigarette when I was minding my own business and waiting on the sushi bag, at about 3:30 a.m.
"I don't give away cigarettes," I told her.
"Well, can I buy one off you?"
"Sure, I'll take a quarter; that's about what I pay for them; that would be fair."
She couldn't produce any quarter from her pocket and I suspected that she was hoping that I would hand her the cigarette while she was fishing in her empty pocket for what I thought was going to be a quarter, and would then just walk off with it. That's a "classic" skeeze.
She called across the street to the black man, asking him for a quarter.
He stalked over and stood in front of me expressing anger and outrage over my asking a fair price for, instead of just giving away, cigarettes to perfect strangers.
At that point, I had traded money off my food card for beer and cigarettes, making them theoretically twice as expensive; as that is the rate of exchange for food card money.
Watching Game, Not Playing
Earlier, at my playing spot, I had had a hard time getting motivated, even though the lady who lives next to Barnaby came out and sat on her steps and asked me how I liked the weather, at one point.
I think she likes my music.
Lilly made a brief appearance.
When I made my first trip to the restroom at the Blacksmith Tavern, Monday night football was on.
Not Thinking
I wound up watching football, and didn't play until after the game was over; made very little, but improved my harmonica playing; and then decided to wait until 5 a.m. for the sushi bag to come out of Rouses Market; not thinking about my eye exam appointment the next morning.
I got to the sign spot and fell asleep, thinking that when my alarm went off at 6:30 a.m., I would gulp down an energy drink which I had by my side and then make it to Rebuild Center by 7:15.
I woke up at about 7:45, realizing that I had either slept through the alarm, or the alarm hadn't gone off.
In my attempt to make sure that I woke up by giving the alarm a test run the previous day, I think that I disabled it by hitting "dismiss" instead of "snooze," which might have dismissed it entirely.
I will know if it rings tomorrow morning.
Now, I have to show up at Rebuild every time they do eye exams and hope that someone else sleeps through their alarm; or I might be pushed back another whole month...
Beggars who ask more than once, instead of asking once, politely, are really being short-sighted. They spread bad-will, and it's time wasted that can be spend going on to the next person to ask.
ReplyDeleteAt least when I was out doing that, I don't smoke so I wasn't part of the cigarette game. I got offered cigarettes pretty often, and it seemed to really surprise people when I said, "No, thanks, I don't smoke!".
As far as I know, the jail/prison system is still the prime mover in getting Americans to smoke cigarettes. Yeah, kids will try 'em in their early teens, but generally those kids have parents who smoke because they've been through the prison system. Anyway, as you know well, once you're in jail or prison, one of the few pleasures is to smoke, so people just naturally take it up.
Coffee is the other "pleasure"
ReplyDeleteYeah ugh nasty prison coffee.
ReplyDelete