Another one of my truncated posts due to time constraints at the library. Just wanted to touch on a couple of items in brief. I know the language in this blog (and the subject matter) can get a bit dicey for some tastes. Some people might even be offended by the material. While I'm not trying to repel readers or gross anyone out, I do try to present the situations I've experienced in as true a fashion as possible. That means I try to reproduce the language used in such situations as well. Of course, this includes profanity. As it happens, I'm not the biggest fan of profanity. I try to use it as minimally as possible when I'm in public because I don't want to present myself as some common, foul-mouthed street miscreant.
In my experience those people who curse constantly tend to be the most ignorant people. But since many of the characters I've encountered during my homeless sojourn have little if any education, and because their life experience has largely been on the streets, they express themselves with profanities. Hence, that's how I depict them when representing them in this blog. So if you see things like f**k, or motherf***er popping up fairly frequently, I'm just trying to delineate the person for you, not get my jollies by stringing together every obscenity I can think of. After all, I can hardly have these guys sounding like Harvard professors or elite literati.
I'm actually sorry to see profanity used so often -- and this cuts through all classes. I think the country (and the world) has become a much coarser and vulgar place because of the prevalence of profanity. As a writer I hate seeing this happen because profanity loses its capacity for shock value. The f-word and permutations thereof used to be strictly verboten; now it's everywhere, uttered causally by anyone from 7 top 70 years of age. I'll put myself to the task of inventing new curse words that will cause your ears to spontaneously combust from outrage. And you're welcome.
As for what I've been up to? Well, more of the same at Salvation Army. I told you last time that I was accepted into their vocational program; it's now been approximately a month since I started. I'll finish up the backstory and some of the tasks I've been involved with in the next installment. For now, think of this as my blog's version of a coming attractions trailer:
In the next few installments of "Homelessness It's Not Just For Crackheads Anymore:"
THRILL to the new characters your humble narrator encounters. You'll never forget the nameless, bug-eyed Junkie With No Name who battles for supremacy of the TV in the common room! Or how about the Big Guy Everyone is Scared Of because he sits in the corner and constantly talks to himself?
MARVEL at the ex-meth addict and drug dealer who transformed himself into a beatific, Yoda-like sage who dispenses wisdom while pushing a mop! He'll make you believe illegal drugs are good for you!
YOU WON'T BELIEVE the lead cook in the kitchen who bellows orders in a voice so loud he can be heard across Nevada into Arizona and beyond!
OGLE the sultry sirens your humble narrator meets while traveling through the wilds of the Salvation Army campus. Will these lethal lovely ladies seduce your narrator with their womanly wiles?
SEE the various characters of the Salvation Army as they struggle to stay awake during class after class of nerve-wracking methods on how to reintegrate themselves into society -- you fell asleep right then, didn't you?
STAY TUNED! In the coming installments you'll have a first hand glimpse into the petty annoyances of communal living! See if your humble narrator can fend off the malevolent microbes expelled by his fellow dorm inhabitants! Find out if your narrator can weather the senses-shattering racket of grown men snoring like bull elephants on the rampage! Will he have the fortitude to withstand the rotten-egg stench of intestinal gas that pervades the dorm room on a constant basis? And can you predict the mind-numbing secret your narrator uncovers while innocently pilfering a banana from the SA kitchens? Neither can he -- that's because he hasn't written it yet!
All this and more will be revealed as your humble narrator continues his journey through the netherworld of ex-cons, shell-shocked veterans, recovering booze, drug and alcohol addicts, and oh yeah -- the hordes of homeless looking to score free stuff!
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! Believe it or not, everyone your humble narrator has met during his Salvation Army tour IS ON MEDICATION! EVERYONE! Including your humble narrator!
So there you go. Stay with me as we travel down this dark road together, and slowly make it to the other side. Remember, it's only a thin membrane that separates the fortunate from the unfortunate. And if you believe that, I have some old Enron stock to sell you!
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