The other day (before Christmas, actually) I went to buy my lunch at the Hoagie Hut about a block away from my office, across State Street. As I was coming back, jaywalking across Jackson to avoid the light, there was an old woman teetering half-on, half-off the curb. She was sort of half-leaning over, seemed to be looking for something she’d dropped in the gutter. It took me a good ten seconds to realize she was peeing.
There’s also this guy who sells Streetwise out in front of the Dunkin’ Donuts that’s a block from my office in the opposite direction. Most of the time he’s holding the door for the people coming in and out, but today he was standing on the sidewalk facing the people leaving. He’s always saying something but I’m not sure what – this morning when I looked at him I heard him: “God Bless You”. Even though it’s one of the most standard panhandler ploys, somehow today this caught my attention. There are a lot of homeless people living near my office building. Sometimes we forget, in the midst of our layoff scares and political game-playing. I’m just afraid I’m going to spot a dotcom refugee amongst them one of these days.