Was panhandling with my friend Jessie today.
I was initially there just to chat with her, but you know one thing led to another (no we didn't have sex), and I started begging with her. Help a sister out, you know (although I prolly was a burden to her). But but but... Okay to be honest, I kinda just wanted to see how it'd feel like to be the one at the bottom (no sex reference here). #socialexperiment

Tangent time. The whole experience reminded me a lot of my one-week hitchhiking trip with my bro Kyle 2 summers ago, when we had to hitch for rides and subdue ourselves to the mercy of strangers and nature (would write a post about that one day).

Anywayz.

I only got to stay for a bit though because Jessie asked me to leave at one point. She said it'd be much easier if it was just her. People would have more compassion on a girl you know. Plus, she did mention at one point that I looked too clean. I mean I really tried guys. I messed up my hair on purpose. Even poured some water on my face to make it look more oily, but Jessie told me that the water only made me cleaner. #sadface Nonetheless, I really enjoyed the short time I got to spend with her. She is a real candid gal, all the way from the far west (insert cowboy accents). Jokes. She came from Nova Scotia. And she is really sweet. #apuresoulifyouaskedme And man I just love talking to her. She will literally answer all my invasive questions, mostly me attempting to understand homeless peeps' lifestyle. #fascination Have you heard that two weeks ago, 14 people died on the street. You know. When it was like -30 outside. COLDDAMN. Breaks a bro's heart. You don't hear those kinds of things on the news I bet (I don't watch news, so I wouldn't know).

Anywayz.

I picked up some realz skillz today, but I also made a bunch of rookie mistakes. #rookiemonsta Right off the bat, I told Jessie to correct me if I did anything wrong. She told me that I can't possibly panhandle wrongly, but she did end up correcting me on several occasions.  

So first, I had my phone out (someone called me). 

"Never ever show people your technology!" (Jessie)

"Right!" (me)

And I also had my subway sub in front of me that I couldn't finish.

"Put that away please!!" (Jessie)

"Yes bauss!!" (me)

And in my over-eagerness, I started hollering at and cat-calling everyone who was walking towards us from the distance.

"Talk to them only when they get near you!!!" (Jessie)
"알았어*!!!" (me)

*understood

In the short half an hour I was there, not a lot of people actually gave. Only this one guy dropped 35 cents in her cup. HOORAY I went. And I asked her if that was a lot. She said that it was not much. #duhme She said she'd rather have loonies and toonies (understandably). I asked her how much she makes per day. She said on a good day, about 50-60$. I told her that is amazing because I make only about 120$ per day, minus the tax, 100$. Then our convo would get interrupted some more because people were walking by and we needed to holler. Can't just sit and converse uno. #gotwork?

Something I noticed is that a lot of people didn't even look at us when they walked by, even when I waved my hand at them. That made me kinda sad. I remembered one time Jessie told me how the society doesn't really gives a F about the homeless. According to her, people consider homeless as nobodies. There's defz truth in what she said, but nowadays, I don't just accept any kind of general claims without first giving a bit more thoughts. Conversely, I did remember my friend Katrina telling me once that she had bad encounters with the homeless and ofc I believed Katrina too. So I guess not all homeless peeps are as nice as Jessie. In summary, us homeys who experienced the homeless in a negative way would probably view all of them in that same way. #fearconditioning #makessense But either way, I think we all deserve some respect at the end of the day, homeless or not. And more hollering. At one point, I saw this girl who used to come to my church. I was sure she'd give us some money. But she didn't even dare to look at me. I was kinda disappointed, but what can you do. I guess not all Christians love the poor, at least not yet, but I am sure God can change that.

Anyway, I am pretty excited for tomorrow because I will bring Jessie to Innovation Youth, an organization that offers high school courses to young adults who weren't able to graduate. I am also hoping that Jessie would get some help concerning her housing and welfare situation. But we will see! I feel like there are a lot of good schtuff in store for her in the future, but don't tell her that just yet! It'd be a surprise. Surprise for everyone that is! She seems pretty excited anyway to go back to school. I know because I can just see it in her eyes. I mean she is 18 after all. Give her a shout if you ever pass by metro Peel (Saint-Catherine exit)! She is the one with the cat. And do drop some coins for milady. It'd help her a lot! 

+++ Let me know if you would be interested doing rounds in the McGill Station with me (looking at you Katrina, meow/catcalling). Pretty simple. We give out Nutella sandwiches and we chitchat with the peeps there. So far, it has only been me and Becky (and my friend Paula at one point), but we witnessed a lot of cool things already. And trust me when I say that it is actually fun, if you like talking to people that is. I mean they all have some interesting tales to tell, but don't we all.

Aight, thanks for tuning in.