Read this disclaimer first!!
Thursday, May. 30, 2002 - 11:09 p.m.
I don't enjoy eating babies, but I will if I have to

I'll see if I can continue the "I eat babies theme" started by TV Zero and continued by genghis jon.

In Montreal, there are homeless people everywhere downtown, and there are many different places where people can go for help. The Old Brewery Mission is one such place. It is the last resort, actually. Its rules are more lenient than anywhere else in the city. This place is full of "'the lowest common denominator' of the homeless. People that, by and large, aren't curable."

After having had a relationship with S for a year and learning a little about the mentally ill of this city (and what it is like to deal with them daily) I haven't really changed my view of them at all. Most of these characters (and they really are characters) are simply nuts. I knew that already, and I gave them no heed then, and even less now that I know what kinds of illness these people have. I am glad that there are people like S who can care for them, but I will still pass by the miserable wretches I see every day without a second thought.

On the other hand, I might give some change to a really cute street girl who does not obviously have some sort of disorder. You can go ahead and say that I think with my cock and that I am a hypocrite. I don't give a shit. I don't give to just any one that fits that bill. I have to be in a damn good mood, too. And she can't be too needy-looking.

One time, an enterprising young man said to me that he needed exactly 13 cents. I knew that it was a clever marketing ploy, but I couldn't resist his resourcefulness. I mean, who asks for 13 cents?

Back to the mentally ill, there are some who are enterprising, but you get tired of them pretty quickly. They might as well be actors that you see every week. Like the guy that hangs out at McGill and at Guy and Ste.-Catherine. He's tall and skinny with thinning and stringy salt-and-pepper hair. He asks in an almost monotonous voice, "Spare some change for food not alcohol. Have a nice day." Sometimes he varies it. A cup of coffee, occasionally. I've never seen him actually look at anyone. But then, he's mainly just part of the scenery to me now. Ten years ago I thought that it was an interesting way to get cash. Address people's doubts directly. But then I saw him two days later and thought,"I GAVE you money already, dammit!" And now I write about him here. This man has been doing this for ten years while I've been here, and God knows how many before that.

I have too many of my own problems. Sure I am mentally sound and don't sleep in shelters (although I have, remind me to tell you about my Ottawa experiences), I still have my own problems. So sleep on your stone pillow and take your meds, just don't get in my way while I try to earn enough for a mini-disc player, or to pay off my student loan.

0 scrawls at the end of this hall

The look:
The feel:
The taste:
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