on the streets

I've had some pretty interesting run ins with homeless people/bums this week.

I stopped at a gas station the other night to get gas on my way home from work, and a homeless man approached me, told me he was an ex-con and recently out of prison, slept at the White Castle across the street, and asked if I had any money I could give him for food. (Mind you he approached me in a way that can only be construed as forcing himself on me.) I honestly (seriously) didn't have any cash on me--I rarely carry it, but I did have the remnants of my lunch on the seat next to me. I offered him my unopened bag of cookies (100 Calorie Oreos), and he turned his nose up at them. He told me they weren't good for his teeth, and didn't I have any cash??? I said no again, to which he replied "ok, well thanks..." When I asked if he still wanted the cookies, he said no and walked away. Me thinks he probably wasn't going to use the money for food...cuz if he really was in need of food, wouldn't he have taken any free offer??? Or is that snobby of me to think that. I had an apple in the lunch bag that I probably woulda given him too, but cookies were the first word that came to mind.

There's also a homeless man that hangs out on the corner of Washington and Illinois downtown--a corner we all must use in order to get to work daily. I have heard tales of this man who says to every woman who walks by "you're the prettiest lady I've seen all day" but had never experienced it personally. When I was walking out a couple of days ago, he was walking towards The Theatre. I was on my phone, but as he passed I got more than his standard. I got "you're the prettiest lady I've seen all day! Smile, you're on candid camera!" Crazy.

Then today, something weirder happened. Across the street from The Theatre is a giant banking building that takes up the whole block with a food court of some sort in the bottom. Plus it has a hotel too. On one of its corners (one I pass between parking garage and The Theatre daily) is a big sign that kinda makes a V so you can see if from both streets, and the point of the V is closest to the corner. Also, I was wearing my bright green tennis shoes today. So while I was approaching the corner, I hear "hey lady with green shoes. *pause* hey green shoes" come from somewhere. It sounded like it was coming from the other side of the sign...then as I passed the point of the V, I heard it again "hey there green shoes! green shoes!!" And I realized that a person had to have been sitting inside the sign and must've seen me coming. It was a weird experience for sure.