Ho Ho Ho Trader Joe!!

Ho Ho Ho Trader Joe!!
January 4, 2009

For the holiday I found a package on my desk at work from my old boss! God I miss her every single day! Well in the bag were a variety of things, including a gift certificate to Trader Joes! But more on that in a second!

This past Saturday I went on to the Dime Store, yes there is a Dime Store in my neighborhood, not a ubiquitous Chain Dollar Store and anytime I can I give this small store my money instead of say CVS or any other big box! And the guy and his family who run it are really nice and he and I chat about all the odd things I am up to as he is always interested! He asked me if I went to any crazy parties on for New Years and I told him no that I did a sweat lodge to which he was very confused so I explained to him the Native American tradition and he was just fascinated and wondered how I find about all the stuff I get into. I just told him I am curious then I asked him what his nationality is as I had assumed he was Mexican which if he was he would have understood the lodge but he was not, he is from Pakistan. So much for me being able to tell anything about a person from their skin or accent, and its not like I care as long as someone is nice, that’s all that matters and he is very nice! I buy the aspirin, 325mm and I head out but not before I noticed a 24 pack of water single bottles on sale so I grab those too!

I head down to Eastern Market do my recycling and head to go see if can find Victor to give him the aspirin. But he is not there so I go do the rest of my errands and hang out with my cousins knowing I will fit that in later when I head back to the area.

So after dark I head to a bon fire down town but I go to see if can find Victor first and yea! He is there as is Albert and another gentleman. I hop out of the jeep grab a handful of waters and head over to them. I show victor that I have the pills but have not opened the foil; I already recycled the cardboard in the afternoon! So I opened it up for him and asked him how many he needed. I gave him what he requested.

The three of sat around and chatted for a while, the fourth gentleman was not involved with us and was trying to sleep. I did say hello to him and give him some water and I told him my name!

Alex and I talked mostly, he told me about his gambling addiction and how he tries to stay away from the casino, which cant be easy considering where were sitting you could practically hear the machines if you tried hard enough, guess that is anywhere in city now. He also confessed to me about having started to drink again even though he knows he should not and that he needs to get his stuff in order and go get an ID so he can get some help and disability and that he wants to do this and plans to. I asked him if there were agencies around to help him with this goal, he told me there were. That made me happy to hear that.

I didn’t have any food to give them as I had given it all them on News Years day. But I promised them I would be back the next day around late afternoon with some food as I planned to head out to the burbs! They thanked me!

Well last night after Stitch and Bitch hosted by Ms. Faith….and no I don’t stitch but I do bitch..and after the gym..I went to Trader Joes to spend my gift card.

Oh boy… I get cans of tuna, and plastic jars of creamy peanut butter and cans of beef chili and single serving apple sauces 6 to a package and some cereal bars! Then I got myself a few things like cereal as I pretty much live on it and it so cheap there!

The gift card covered everything I got for the guys! Thank you Pat!! I head back to where the guys are staying and hope they are there..and they are!

Alex and Victor are there with another gentleman whom I introduce myself to and he tells me his name is Stefan! And has an elegant accent!

I asked him if he needed anything in the way of clothes and he told me needed gloves and I said I may have some, he was surprised and I told him I had a jeep full of stuff. He was even more surprised! I went and found a pair of gloves and a scarf in the box from R&R and the gloves fit him. He was totally surprised, I asked him if he needed any sweaters, he told me no and said he already had two scarves so he would not the one I had!

The guys told me they had almost given up on seeing me. I explained to them I had had a busy day and with just one person being late to meet me for coffee it put my whole day off a bit but I was making it all up and getting to everything!!

I give them all equal amounts of the loot and we chatted for a bit. Albert told me he found the can opener in his backpack that we could not find on New Years Day, Yea! I didn’t stay too long this time, as I too was getting hungry. I did though as Victor if he would be interested in a multi vitamin and he said yes and Albert told me he would even make sure he takes them! Those two were sharing a cigarette and at this moment it was hanging out of victors mouth as such an angle that is was just hilarious it was like parallel with his face instead of sticking out straight, I giggled at him and told him he looked cute!

We all said our goodbyes and blessed each other!