My roommate Chris (punk-rawker with more holes than textile in his jeans) fell out of sleep to the sound of the alarm from his watch. I did to but I didn’t have to do much until an hour later. He went to the shower and I didn’t go anywhere. Suddenly people start screaming somewhere on the outside.
“Get your &#€”&@? hands off me, cop!” says the drug dealer.
“Wiioooooo, wiioooooo, wiiooooooo!” the cop car siren sounds.
“Get down!” yells the cop.
I jumped out of bed (2 m above ground) and got my camera. Chris came back from the shower as I started explaining: “Cops… drugs… outside… hurry!”. So the two of us got outside on the balcony – sneaking – and I was able to take some pictures. It was like, you know… undercover stuff. Because we didn’t want the cops to see us.
At the moment I’m doing the night shift at the front desk at JPUSA (Jesus People USA). This basically means that I answer the phone and transfer people. Some of them know the extension number and some don’t. Some don’t even know who they’re looking for. The job also includes handing out snacks and food to the poor and the homeless who happen to stumble into the lobby. Unfortunately no donations came in today so I sit here without
anything to give them. There’s a black man in a superman t-shirt wandering around the lobby asking for “two grabs of water and sugar”. Doing the night phones is the graveyard shift. Basically it means sitting at the desk between 8 in the evening and 8 in the morning. This is my second night. I have five ahead. In the middle of the night I get very tired and go crazy.
When the Chicago Cubs have home games we always give away hot dogs for people and I would guess today was gamenight because everyone comes in here for hot dogs. Unfortunately I don’t have any. Some of them come back and ask again.
We got a neighbour yesterday. I don’t remember his name but he told me this morning. He doesn’t bother us much (even though his jokes are quite boring) but we still might have to ask him to move on in the morning. He sleeps in the parking lot which isn’t a very safe place to sleep.
I went to the Robert Earl Keen show last thursday at the House of Blues. That was really something else. A great show and a cool place. I do hope I get to see Robert again cause it was splendid.
Apart from the roaches and mice that live in our room – one mouse fell down the waste basket last night and it sounded like he had the hardest time getting out of there – we also have squirrels. Not in the house but outside of it. One of the guys here at JPUSA (Charlie, he came about 2 weeks ago) claims he has a way with squirrels. I have yet to witness it but he says they come when he calls for them. I think we have a way with mice because they come when we leave dirty socks on the floor.
We went to see the White Sox two days ago. That was just great. We had sucky seats but kinda hung around after watching the practice and ended up at 3rd row.
The people next to us said that they had paid like 300 dollars for the tickets.
At the moment I’m siting in the coordinators office eating grapes that belong to this Aussie chick called Brianna. She’s been doing kitchen work today and got really stressed earlier and threw me out of the kitchen! I think she’s here at the moment to make up for it. Pretending to be interested and stuff.
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