Monday, August 6, 2012

Day Sixty-Five

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

To celebrate having a laptop again I go to the mall in the morning to find a pair of headphones. There's not much else to do on Saturdays with all services being closed and I should take advantage of the free rail zone for the last month we have it.I take my time in the mall browsing different stores filled with things I don't have the money to buy. My mouth waters when I pass the Jamba Juice. I would kill for a chunky strawberry topper right now. But, even just buying a cheap set of headphones is cutting close on my bank account. When I'm done I go to the library to enjoy the Internet before Day Program #2 opens.

At #2 I meet up with KL and Houdini. I have the hair dye we bought last night and I'm more than ready to color my hair. We are about to take over the big bathroom when staff starts yelling saying they have to usher us into the back of the building where the education center is. They will not give us any explanation but when I see a police officer walk in I don't protest anymore as long as they let us dye our hair in the lone education bathroom.

The bathroom in education is much smaller and with it being the only one other people barge in and try to use the mirror or need to pee. This makes coloring our hair a rather large fiasco. I am starving as I haven't eaten yet so once my color is on I walk to get us snacks and drinks. I buy half a watermelon and get KL a soda and Houdini a juice. Houdini says that the juice I bought is the best juice he's ever tasted and I laugh at his passion about it.

Even though we spend a few hours coloring our hair we are still not let back into the main building where showers are when I'm done. Thus, I am left rinsing my hair in the crowded bathroom sink. Staff provides us with two hair dryers, one of which looks like it survived the 70's. When my hair is dry I determine that the color didn't take as I wanted it to. I need to redo it. KL decides she's not happy with hers either so when we leave we walk back to Walgreens where we buy another set of hair dye for each of us.

Pushing KL she complains incessantly. I can't imagine how terrible it would be to have someone push me in a wheelchair all day after I injure my foot because I was getting high. She has been irritable with both myself and Houdini and I'm getting rather sick of it.

We go walk Houdini over to shelter and then sort through our bags of stuff to find whatever KL wants me to put in her locker. Nerdboy comes over and buzzes up demanding to be let up because he has an "important medical situation which is both important and medical." To my surprise the staff let him up which pisses me off when they made me walk to the hospital. When I comment on this KL starts defending him saying he's mentally ill. When I disagree with her she starts yelling. When I yell back she screams at me to stop yelling at her.

"No," I say, "No. I listen to you bitch at me all day long when I'm the one helping you out and pushing you around. I'm done. I'm sick of listening to you bitch and complain. You're never happy. I'm sick of this. I'm done. You can push yourself and carry your own damn shit."

And with that I leave her with her wheel chair and bags of crap. One of the other kids finds me storming away and asks what's going on. I tell him I'm sick of her bitching and he says, "I know man. When I was pushing my cripple around all he did was complain. It's annoying."

We joke around and hang out until shelter opens for us. I go up and color my hair the new color I grabbed. I sit with my back against the window air conditioner. It s at least ninety degrees in shelter. Once the color has set I stand in an ice cold shower for thirty minutes. I blow dry my hair then try to go to bed.

I find an Internet connection they forgot to lock and am thrilled I can watch my Netflix again, despite the risk of getting kicked out of shelter. I try to lay down by the shelter is about twenty degrees hotter than it is outside and it was in the lower 90's with a 64% humidity during the day. It's in the upper 80's now with just as much humidity.

Shelter is in an older building with no insulation. We have two window air conditioners but those do little when you have over thirty people crammed in one space. I tear down the blankets I put up on my bed to provide privacy and lay on the foot of my bed so I can be by the fan. I still can't fall asleep because my sheets stick to me and the heat is unbearable.

I give up and get up to sit by the window air conditioners in the common area. I'm not the only one. Several people have given up on sleep to sit out where it's a few degrees cooler than the dorms. We sit up and talk and fan ourselves with our hands or paper. We try to joke about the conditions until we are so tired not even the heat can keep our eyes open.

I go back to try and sleep but wake up several times unable to stay asleep with such god awful heat.

--mm

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