****NAMES CHANGED TO PROTECT PORTLAND'S STREET KIDS****
I have only one mission for the day: to get my medical records so Bernard and I can try and get back into school tomorrow. I call the women's health department where I had my surgery but they transfer me to the medical records department where of course no one answers. This happens four times before I decide to give up and just go to the hospital.
Now for those of you who aren't from the Portland areas OHSU hospital is broken up into two main buildings. The first building is on the top of a giant hill; the second is located at the bottom. The two buildings are connected by a giant air tram that gives you a beautiful view of the city.
I hop on the street car to take me to the bottom building of the hospital. It's not until the street car is making the second loop through downtown that I realize I got on the train going the wrong direction. I sigh and continue crocheting. Oh well, I'll get there eventually.
A little girl gets on the bus and peers over at me. "What are you doing?" she asks.
"I'm crocheting."
"My friend Sophie crochets," she tells me, "Can you make me something?"
"I don't think I'd have time to on the bus."
"Oh. Do you like Scooby Doo? I'm having a Scooby Doo birthday party maybe you could come."
This little girl makes the hour long bus ride totally worth it.
When I get to the OHSU building I ask how to find the medical records department. The receptionist tells me to go to the top of the hill and gives me a pass for the tram. On the tram there are three tourists with their Canon cameras. I roll my eyes. For me this hospital will always be associated with my exploding ovary of doom that led me down the path of homelessness. Having a tram full of tourists snapping pictures of it is a little weird to me.
When I get off I get lost in the insanity that is OHSU. The place is huge. It takes me asking three different people for directions before I end up in the x-ray lab. They then tell me I need to go back downtown to find my Oz in a completely different building, located back right where I started. You have got to be kidding me.
I take the tram back to the lower part of the hospital where I get back on the street car to get back downtown. I get to Fifth and Columbia where the building is supposed to be but I can't find it. I ask directions from people in a different building. They look at me and just go, "Uh, try across the street." I do and eventually find the right building but then I can't find the right floor.
Almost three hours after I originally left downtown I find myself finally in the right spot to get my records. The lady asks me, "So at any point did anyone tell you that we charge to get medical records?"
OH MY FUCKING GOD!
She gives them to me even though I can't pay because I went through so much trouble to get them. I go back to #1 where I use the bathroom and catch my breath for a little bit. I cannot believe my luck the past few days. I go to the library where I hide until it closes at 8pm. I decide to head towards shelter early to hang out with everyone before it is time to go inside. I see Kitten Lady and Houdini at McDonalds so I decide to check in and see how they are doing.
Kitten Lady tells me that she got her health insurance back and she is now on medications so that she isn't using heroin so much. She apologizes for flipping out on me a few nights ago when she overheard me talking to Flippy Hair Guy about her. She says, "I know you were saying the things a good friend would say. I was just having a bad day." She says she and Houdini have been doing chores at #2 so that they can get clothes upstairs and then sell the clothes. They've been making good money doing so. She isn't nearly as thin as she was a few weeks ago. Her face isn't picked at. She looks good. I believe her when she says she's doing better. I'm happy to be in her company again. When she goes into shelter I hug her and say, "You're still my family."
It's house meeting tonight when we get upstairs. Yougio and I came up with an idea that we think is pretty marvelous to present tonight. We want for one night a week to not have a movie and instead use the television room as a place to hang out and talk away from staff. It passes with the warning that we can't let it get out of control and we must self police. Yougio and I high five. We get to try it out tonight to see how it goes.
After the meeting Director Lady asks me if I will meet with her and the Ginger Clan. Even though I told Bernard I would I tell her, "Not tonight. I'm having a good night tonight. I want to hang out and just enjoy my night." She says I'm being rude but I don't see it that way. I'm not going to move something positive out of my agenda to make time for something negative. She says we'll have to meet Monday then. I agree to meet Monday.
Our hanging out in the television room isn't flawless. There are two guys pissed about the no movie policy who spend their time being rowdy in hopes of getting our plan shut down. When we try to self police them it doesn't work so we go to staff. Staff get upset at first saying, "What about your self policing policy?"
"We tried," Yougio says, "The next step is if we can't self police is to ask staff for help. We're following what we said."
I back him up, "They're doing this intentionally to get our thing shut down. If you close the whole thing you'll only be reinforcing that behavior."
Douche Guy looks down at me, rubs his face and says, "I know, we need to find a way around that."
In the end Director Lady pulls each of the boys out separately to talk to them. We are told a few times after that that our volume is too high but we all hiss "shh" at each other when someone gets too loud. When I go to bed I'm proud of ourselves. Even though it had its hiccups our plan still worked and we were able to execute it and have a good time. I enjoy just talking with everyone and getting to know my forty something roommates a little bit better. I'm a happy camper when I go to bed.
--mm
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