Not So Much Bigger In Texas

I thought I would hate Texas. I heard it was all ten gallon hats and cowboy boots, but it isn't. I am kind of disappointed that Houston looks like every other city. I guess I kind of wanted to hate Texas - oh well. I will just have to continue on with my hating of California (though I have no real reason for that one either). I haven't seen a single Taco Bell though. But I guess that is along the same lines of eating at a Pizza Hut in Chicago - it just isn't done.

They do have a ton of homeless people. A group of us from work were walking downtown after dinner the other night, when a homeless man asked for money. One of the women with us (who told me that she has a degree in psychology and therefore she "knows the correct way to deal with the homeless") turned to the guy and pointed her finger in his face and told him he needed to go sit down - like the guy was a fucking dog! I was mortified. Then the homeless guy (we will call him Al) who was probably pissed, wouldn't leave us alone; he started walking along with us and trying to talk to us. The more everyone ignored him, the worse I felt about us acting like pompous jerks, so I gave Al a five. He blessed me and immediately turned around and left us alone. I had solved the problem of the strange homeless man following us back to our hotel, but everyone still scolded me for giving him money. Apparently generosity is a bad thing. I responded that my life was good and his didn't seem to be, so what was five bucks - they weren't feeling me.

The next night I was walking with MC when another homeless man we passed asked us how we were doing. We both answered, "Good, how are you?" and he stopped and mumbled a thank you for "not acting like [we] have 89 million dollars." We chuckled and told him it was because we DON'T have 89 million dollars. He was serious though and reiterated that it was nice that we had acknowledged him rather than being assholes (my words, not his). Then things went back to normal, he asked if we had anything we could spare - we told him we didn't have any cash on us and everyone went their separate ways.

Moral of the story - homeless people may be all sorts of screwed up, but you can still look them in the eye and see that they are alive.

Quote of the day - Russ: I like the warm, pulsating on my butt.

- lada's in a lone star state of mind