Day Eighty

   ****NAMES CHANGED TO PROTECT PORTLAND'S STREET KIDS****

In the morning KL doesn't wait for me so I decide to go off and do my own thing. After breakfast I don't know what to do with myself since the library is closed on Mondays so I go to the mall. At the mall I run into Gold, Stripper Man, and Kitty. Gold and Kitty are searching for jobs as they have a rather crude competition going on. I wish I would have known, I look pretty terrible otherwise I would have dressed up too and looked for a job.

After we finish with the mall we walk through downtown where a man stands outside a deli handing out flyers. The deli is offering free milkshakes with the purchase of a sandwich. Gold says she is going to go in and hand in her resume and the guy passing out flyers says he's the manager. Gold pushes Stripper Man out of her way saying, "Move, you're in my light." This makes the manager laugh. He tells her to call in the afternoon and he will put her down for an interview.

We go to a different mall but I bounce out early without saying goodbye. I take the max back to downtown and go to #2 and take a nap. I fall asleep pretty hard but after an hour and a half they kick everyone out saying they don't have enough staff to keep the place open. I'm really groggy and my head is starting to hurt again.

One of the staff ladies at #1 pulls me aside in the afternoon and asks if I crochet and knit. I tell her I just crochet but I love it. She says she applied for a grant to yarn bomb the block outside the center. She says they'll know in December if we have the grant. I'm excited about this. It would be a really fun project and it would be a lot of free yarn. I love crochet.

I try to make sure i eat more protein as part of the problem may be that we are fed carbs all day but this doesn't help. I go to Whole Foods and the library working on various shenanigans for most of the day.

In shelter Director Lady is working and the mood is jovial. Gold was given an interview at that deli for tomorrow. Yougio sews his backpack while I attempt to teach my roommate how to crochet and Gold untangles my yarn. It's like an old lady party. We sit around joking about what would happen if my roommate went into labor in shelter. Yougio is getting all into herbal shit lately. He brews a tea with St John's Wort and Valerian root every night. I try it and it is surprisingly good. He says if she should go into labor in shelter the first thing he would do is grab the herbs. Gold has a stethoscope. I'll probably be running up and down the hallways like I found a chimichanga.

For dessert they have rainbow cupcakes. "What are we celebrating?" I ask, "Did someone come out of the closet?" Staff shake their heads at me. They don't know what to do with me. I don't know either though so I guess it's okay.

While eating the cupcakes I get the brilliant idea to throw my roommate a baby shower in shelter. I run this by Director Lady and she even seems excited about it. Gold and Yougio are too. I tell Director Lady I'll come back in tomorrow with a list of instructions for a baby shower and she laughs at me but I'm dead serious. I do the dishes for my chore but even once I'm done I can't sleep because there is so much going through my head.

I know the best person to ask for baby stuff is actually my old roommate's sister. The same roommate that burned me and started this homeless streak. I weigh out the options in my head and decide that I should send her a message via Facebook and see what happens. She hasn't deleted me yet. I can't get online in shelter anymore though so it'll have to wait until morning. This makes me sad though as I miss her kids a lot. My anxiety spikes tenfold so I make a to-do list for the baby shower and try to sleep. When I can't I play spider solitaire until my eyes can't stay open a second longer.

--mm