miss dewey d: successfully crossing the street since kindergarten

as one of the only two white women in the neighborhood (the other being at least 35 years older than i am), i am easily recognizable to just about everyone. i am the white woman. i am the librarian. it's cool. no big deal. but sometimes people come up to me and ask me library related questions, as they know exactly who i am. i typically have no idea who they are, and suggest politely that if they come into the library i can look them up and all their problems can be solved. all of their problems. all of them.

so as i am walking back to the library from lunch today, a woman moseys (yes! she mosied!) up to me, standing beside me in the crosswalk. i don't want to get into the habit of calling people crackheads willy nilly, but i think she might have been a bonified crackhead. thus making the official crackhead count at library-in-the-hood now stand at two. there are two crackheads. (this would make for an excellent children's book about counting)

anyway! this crackhead moseys up to me and she asks me how i am and other social niceties. i am polite back to her, assuming she is someone who must know me from the library. then she suggests that when the light changes we should cross the street together. what fun! i have never crossed the street with a crackhead before! at least not intentionally. so i say sure, that's a fine idea. let us cross the street together.

but then dear blog readers, as the light changes something goes awry. this crackhead turns to me and offers that i should give her $.50 for her "services" of helping me cross the street.

well! i never!

i am perfectly capable of crossing the street on my own. and i am highly insulted that anyone might think otherwise! now, maybe if i was in a foreign country and cars were driving on the opposite side of the street and it was one of those complicated 5 or 6 point intersections and there was a gang of gypsies on the other side of the street ... then maybe, just maybe, i might need some assistance. but probably not. i'd probably still give it a go on my own. but i definitely do not need assistance crossing the street in the hood. i do it everday. usually 4 times per day.

so i tell her thanks but no thanks, i will not be needing her help. and with that the little walking man lights up and i safely crossed the street. all by myself! amazing.