Stories from the Mission... bit 18

I just got back from a walk with some sad news. The people over at Best Buy told me I can't be using their display laptops to get on line anymore. I haven't been in the program long enough yet to use the computer room at the mission yet, so I guess it's down to just a few minuets before service once a week at Crawford church. Dang, this very cute girl from Croatia had taken an interest in my artwork... it was nice to interact with her.
   Ok, check this out, this guy, Jose S. that when I first met him was a really slow walker due to an accident. He even described himself, with a mischievous smile, as walking like a penguin. Now, I've taken to calling him booker he is so fast. He still has trouble walking, but he has come a very long way.
8/18/11
   Had another talk with Pastor Green today... he still seems distant towards me, but we seemed to have a good discussion. heck, with so many guys coming and going here, most of them sucking up to him, I can see why he is that way at first.
   I noticed as I'm writing this that my hands are free from cuts and scrapes. Maybe only a mechanic would understand how strange this is. Normally I would have at least 5 per hand and grease that would take a week in Florida building sand castles to get out. It's been a while since I have turned a wrench.
   Heh, I wasn't going to write about this, but what the heck. last night at stage I saw a stunningly hot young lady. She was black with straight waxen black hair and wonderful bedroom eyes. I don't know how obvious it is that I am looking at her, but it felt really good when our eyes met, almost illicit. I'd turn my head away in embarrassment, then find myself drawn back like a love sick puppy. Then a guy sat down in front of me blocking my view, so I leaned over a bit, only to have a guy sit in that view. She had such a dreamy look about her, my thoughts weren't exactly pure, lol. I had to pray on it to just hear what the pastor was saying.  The the reality hit me... I am no where near ready for any kind of relationship, I'm a homeless schlump, what could she possibly see in me?
   I've noticed an odd thing happening here. The faucets are push button affairs that shut off automatically so the mission doesn't waste water, or so I thought. That would make sense. These though, turn of precisely when your razor gets a half inch from the water. Hmmmmm
   I may as well be in a different country here. I'm doing things I never thought I would, learning new languages, picking up nuances. In my old life I never wore shoes or clothes that I didn't have since new, and now most of my stuff is used and I even know some of the original owners. Maybe if I was in an actual mission abroad somewhere, the people from my old life might understand it better.
8/20/11
  I'm well over half way done reading 'The Shack'. Parts of it I'm having difficulty understanding, but there are so many wonderful concepts and moments of WHOA!
   Last night I hit into a bad funk. I'be tried to get people to see my art and/or innovations but am having a lot of roadblocks with it. I was close to giving up again frankly and all I could do is go to bed early. Then, one of the guys I had wanted to see it, Aaron, who had been rudely rejectional about it before, out of the blue, asked to see it. He has a smart phone and liked the stuff.
   Later on I was talking with Curtis, explaining how my creative side can cause a lot of difficulty. For every good idea I have, I have a lot of evil ideas I have to fight down. Unfortunately, the bad ones are what people find interesting. Anyways, we where talking about writing and I related how I have a Sci-Fi book i'm working on, but I'm no good at doing interpersonal conversations. It turns out Curtis is a budding writer and might help out with the book.  I'll have to read some of his stuff and maybe we can collaborate. Then I saw it... God had heard my anguish and gave me some hope again.
   We get an hour walk after you've been in the Program for 30 days, and while most of the guys head north to the stores or the Loop, I have been exploring south. Yesterday I went across a draw bridge on Canal street built in 1949, dedicated by a mayor I've never heard of.  It gave me a great view of a center lift railroad bridge I  sen from the deck on the third floor of the mission. The bridge is old and rusty, seeming from the same kit and era as the Eiffle Tower. It has these massive cement counterweights that run on the outside of two huge towers and there is a shed that sits in the middle of the span, above where the trains run.
I wonder if at one time there was a guy that lived in the shed, watching for the tall ships that used to sail down the south branch of the Chicago river. This is the branch that connects with the Mississippi, then on down to the Gulf of Mexico and on to the rest of the world. It sure would be neat to see that bridge in operation. There is another huge bridge to the north of here, or I should say a set of them. They are a completely different design with one permanently raised up in the air. Being a mechanic, I look at them and wonder which is the better design? Was one less expensive to build? Was the other more efficient or have a better track record? Or did one designer just have better connections?