Factoid: I've now officially had at least 5 aquaintances or strangers tell me that I look like Catherine O'Hara. It's no longer an isolated incident. Mommy?

LOOK! It's a antique fansite built on Tripod!

Had a sad conversation tonight with the man we've been working with to get his immigration paperwork pushed through so he can work legit and provide for his wife who stays up north. It was denied again - he sat and cried as he talked to me about not getting it, he is scared to call and tell her. I started to tell him that it would be all right but would it? I don't know that. Why do they make it so hard and so expensive? (I have my theories but who am I?).

Racial tensions are rising at the shelter again, that's always frustrating. Every single one of these groups would be offended if the other called them names but turn around and do it to one another. Two wrongs don't make a right. No one group is better than the other, they are just all different in their own ways.

We barely stopped moving all night, I think it took my co-worker and I nearly an hour to gobble up 2 slices of pizza because there was non-stop action. Good weight loss plan, I suppose.

On the bright side, while there was rain, I didn't have to drive home in a flash flood like I did last night as I was leaving the bookstore in Highland Park. I came home to no power until the wee hours of the morning. My lackluster candles left me yearning for a old timey lantern of some sort. Finally, I laid in bed and read with a flashlight until I got sleepy and called it a day.

I've had a little more time to enjoy the mornings and afternoons this week.

Ariana has been attending Project Girl day camp at Intermedia Arts learning about positive body image, doing art, and girls that are in hip-hop and graffiti, etc.. This means that I am going back out to drop her off and picking her up just on the cusp of the afternoon turning into rush hour.

Yesterday we rode bikes in and enjoyed a calm, mild morning. On the way back, we rode in the rain, Ana riding through puddles trying to splash and spray me, laughing as she zoomed by. We took a break at Freewheel and the Midtown Global Exchange where we got veggies and snacks. Just like old times, before we started driving again. Our days were filled with bus stops and bike rides. We'd find fun stuff on the ground (even money!), played with stray cats and had time to bond each and every day. I keep telling myself that I need to stop using the van so much but all of the appointments and jobs I have cause me to have to be from one side of town to the next within a short amount of time and I hate being late! There is also the added point that Ana can't bike with me everywhere (especially if it's time senstive) - it's not like the old days when I could just hook her on the back of my bike in the trailer...

I suppose that soon enough, she will be a teenager and won't want to accompany me around anymore anyway...but maybe that's all the more reason to increase our time together now.

Things that make my life more enjoyable:

- Peanut Butter Twix
- Pineda Tacos - Carnitas with cilantro and onion to be specific
- $$$
- Good coffee
- Having a surplus of good books ready to be read
- Street fashion blog updates
- Playing in my garden, bring home greens which leads to that high pitched guinea pig squeal that makes me laugh
- A flexible work schedule
- Having something to look forward to (and the ability to do it) - i.e. Travel
- Funny podcasts - i.e. Savage Lovecast, my fav. Someday I'll add to that compilation of classic quotes...

As our trip to SF is rapidly approching, I found out yesterday that we'll need to postpone LA.

My friend's advisior died so he's been asked to stay and teach at the U longer than anticipated. Since they are LA natives and inherited a house in Hollywood, we are to stay with them. We had the option to go alone, probably including staying at their place, but I want to hang out with them as well as explore with just Ariana and I.

The plus side to this is that they are going back in the middle of winter so we are looking at Jan or Feb for our trip - it would be nice to get out of this place at that point in winter - a week or so would be perfect.

It's possible I'm a changed person when one of my first thoughts, along with noting to self not to wear my leaky tennis shoes, as I see the forecast or roll out of bed to rain is of the guys I know standing around the day labor line for a chance to work construction, the moving company or other similar jobs for a chance to make some money. When it rains, jobs are sparse.

And another of a man I know who is staying in a tent down by the river (he prefers it over the shelter and it's near the VA Hospital where he goes for appointments often) and hoping that he is warm and dry. He laughs when I worry at him about staying safe and dry but definately accepts socks and clothes as needed. And in the winter, he was around the shelters, so he has his safety and well being in mind.

And now we have the young man who is dealing with some sort of mental health issue(s) that we haven't identified yet - last week I stopped in and saw him standing in the rain with his fleece shirt pulled up over his head, rather than going to the drop-in center and staying dry or some other facility like the library, etc.. He's also been found sleeping outside the building next door at all hours. Last night he wandered in, we fit him in, expecting his behavior. After I showed him where his bed was for the night, I walked by to him trying to go to sleep with no linens whatsoever. I gathered up his sheets, a pillow and blanket and brought them to him but I'm not sure what's going on with him - he's stayed with us before, he knows how to find these things and what our protocol is for getting a bed but seems unable to go through with these tasks right now. ????

I totally feel like a brand new person now that I'm a couple of weeks in of dropping that third, on-call, job. I didn't realize how much it was affecting me negatively until I made the move - after that, a huge weight lifted off of me and I could breathe and laugh again.

Tonight was one of those nights where I really have to work hard to keep my judgements and personal ideas and feelings in check.

A few months back, one of our long-term or "extended stay" shelter guests joked that he saw so and so with "his girls" over by the Branch (a drop-in center for homeless and others). I was convinced that he was exaggerating and was like "Nuh-huh! Are you serious, not "so and so"!! Then I stopped myself and told that person, "Nevermind! I don't want to know, the less I know the better..."

Fast forward to tonight. So and so was around for the first time since winter essentially, tried to get a bed but no luck as of the time I left but was going to try back at the end of the night if no one showed...

I left work, driving my usual route home - East on Franklin Ave. to Bloomington Ave. and I see "so and so" walking with a woman that would most likely not be his lady friend (I could be wrong, and I hope I am).

Hrmph. Maybe R was right after all. But I need to remind myself that what each person does outside of the shelter is their own deal, their own business, their own life. And maybe I can apply the "Rule of Six" and come up with 6 possible reasons someone would be involved in such a "business". With him, one reason is to most likely support his young daughter who his living in Southern Minnesota and another is to support himself as I suspect he is undocumented and one related, maybe he is sending money back to his native country, to family?

Who knows. I'm not going to ask. Not my place to get involved unless he brings it to the shelter...

Travelling trash:

Ariana and I shared a laugh last night about our goofy neighborhood. You see, this weekend there was a small "kiddie tobagan" sitting atop our SW-most neighbor's trash can. Later that day we saw it on our most NW-most neighbors trash can - it had travelled a full block North only to be discarded again.

Ariana had also made a comment about a red crate she had seen a few houses down, leaning against a garage, she noted that she figured that the man who makes a revolving art installation in his front yard will probably take it.

A day later we saw it leaning against his garage. Monday, we saw a little pedal car at our NW-most neighbors trash cans (the same one who had the kiddie tobagon for the 2nd time)....last night we saw it's undercarriage at the house directly behind us. It had travelled a full block south through the alley.