Another Day at the Office

This is the first installment of what I hope to be many “Tales From The Corner”, or “The Office” as we like to refer to it. There are just so many times I walk away feeling infinitely better about the world and the people in it. Sometimes, well… Sometimes I walk away pissed off at the world, but the former far more than the latter. So many hilarious and true WTF moments happen up here daily. Crazy traffic madness, uplifting interactions, drama – we got it all right here. Today was pretty mellow, but it left me feeling kinda high on life.

For one thing, it’s Saturday. I love Saturdays here in North Dallas. So many shoppers and generally just a random assortment of people that I don’t see during the weekday rush hour commutes. On weekdays, I try to hit my corner between the hours of like 11am-2pm, or 4-6pm. The morning commute is good too, but I am rarely awake and ready to go at that time. My mornings are quite leisurely, with basically all the time in the world ‘cept for needing to make a few bucks to get through to the next day. Weekends are also very casual. No one is in – at least as much of – a hurry as they are during the week. The fact that there are tons of people that rarely – if ever – see me out here helps too, I’m sure. Truthfully though, my spot will produce enough loot in no more than 90 minutes at any time during daylight hours. I don’t need much.

Today was one of those great days. I made more than I needed in just under an hour and each interaction was a “feel good” moment. Twice, parents gave their donation to their kid in the back seat to hand me. This always kills me. First time, it was a little girl – around 6 years old – and she handed me a snack size bag of Goldfish crackers. Did I mention we’re the “bougie homeless” out here? That’s because it’s a wealthy area and the fact the Goldfish were Whole Foods Organic Goldfish crackers goes to illustrate that point. I smiled real big, said, “Thank you so much, sweetie!” then immediately sat back down, tearing open the bag so she could see me eating them. My sign reads “Hungry”, ya know. I wasn’t at that moment starving or anything, but I feel like if you’re gonna fly “hungry” and someone hands you food, you oughta sit right there and let them see you grubbing on it; especially when a child hands it to you. The look on her face said it made her day. Hell yeah! Made mine too. I do this no matter who it came from, though I’ll often put it in my bag when the light changes to eat or share with a hungry friend after I finish at work. Second time it was another little girl – maybe 10 this time – handed me the fiver that her dad passed back to her. Kids are so sincere about it all. I guess ‘cuz they haven’t formed any prejudices yet, I dunno…

The rest was a series of people giving me a dollar, a five, whatever. Every encounter was pleasant with smiles, introductions, best wishes and prayer sentiments. I love that. I really dig that despite the negative connotations associated with homeless in general, I still manage to interact with citizens (as I call those other people) in a positive way that puts a smile on all our faces, for real. My faith in humanity is restored on a daily basis out here. Lastly, an Indian couple parked somewhere and walked up to hand deliver me a bag of fresh baked goods from Market Fresh. Very tasty.

As always, I didn’t stay longer than necessary. When I can manage to get what I need in an hour or less, I get up and leave. Being greedy is not what I’m about. I am already relying on others for my basic needs and things are hard all over so I only take what I need. Also there are others that may wanna work this corner so I keep it short. Phone bill is due in a few days so I’ll keep some back for that. Oh! If you are looking for a new cell provider, check out Visible. I have been using them for years now, and for a flat $25 a mo., you get unlimited data, talk/text, *and* hotspot. That is how I get work done out here. That and a refurbished Galaxy S10e. If you sign up using my code we each get a free month: https://www.visible.com/get/?66PBBBZ

Oh! Almost forgot… Likely due to this very detail. A well dressed, attractive woman rolls down her window. “Do you smoke?”, she asks. Thinking she means cigs, I smile and say “Yeah.” She then pulls out a bag and asks if I want to do a dab. Weed concentrate. I’m like, “right here at the light?”. She laughed and said I can just eat it. She pulls out one of those teeth things with the string, dips it in a baggie to snag a blob of green jelly, hands it to me, and I just instinctively put it in my mouth. The tendency to take just about anything from a stranger and ingest it without hesitation probably deserves its own story, so for now I’ll just say the light turned green, she flashed a beautiful smile, and I am now quite stoned as I sip iced coffee at Starbucks while writing this, high on life *annnd* THC concentrate… “Bougie”, like I said.

Latez,

-Sully