i found a new “talk to us” friend! rachel and i went to westlake center today to hold up a sign saying “talk to us.” we went around 6, and initially, people were reluctant. i take it because it was rush hour.
THE TWO BLACK GUYS I COULDN’T REALLY UNDERSTAND.
the first two people to talk to us stopped by and talked to us but it was an awkward convo. one was wearing one of those handkerchiefs around his face and didn’t talk. the other one was friendly, but he was a little odd. he said he was going to stand on the street corner to be a “living, breathing stereotype,” and he was going to be the “angry black guy standing on the corner.” a little random and kind of funny. but kinda very random.
THE DUDE FROM LOUISIANA.
this guy was nice, nice. he walked by us at first (after giving us a smile), but came back right after. he asked us how many people had talked to us and we said not many. he said, “that’s seattle for ya!” and i said, “usually it’s a lot better than this.” and he said that if we were in lousiana, where he’s from, everyone would stop and talk to us and ask what we were doing and invite us over to their homes. kewl. he didn’t have much to say as he was meeting up with his friend, but just wanted to say that he thought things like this were great because they make people stop and think and make people understand that other people exist.
THE GUY I ARGUED WITH.
i forget this guy’s name but he was half-awesome and half-annoying. he had an extremely interesting way of looking at things. 4/4 on black male stopping to talk to us. 
anyway. he asked me if i was a citizen. i said i was. he asked how i knew. i said because they told me i was. then he said, “i don’t know if i’m a citizen sometimes,” and i asked him why. he said, “because i’m black.” and then i said… “well, at least you have some rights.” that brought a tear to his eye, cause he thought i meant that black people don’t have all the rights. i don’t necessarily think that, but i said some because i figured he was thinking that if he said he didn’t know sometimes if he was a citizen because he was black. bleh. some other stuff transpired, and then he asked me if i was in school. i said i’d graduated and that i was a sociology major. he asked me what the solution to the world’s problems were. i said i didn’t know. he said i had a sociology degree but i didn’t know? and then he proceeded to tell me i was a clone because i had a sociology degree — that having a degree and going to college made people clones. i said, “what if i didn’t think it was necessary?” and he said, “it’s too late. you’re already indoctrinated.” he went off about how no one wants to solve the problems in the world because then they would be without a job… that sociologists would go on to become social workers but they would only social work enough to solve the problem a little but not enough to solve the problem 100%, because they simply wanted to keep their own jobs under wraps, and solving the problem of homelessness or of the poor would mean that their jobs would be eradicated. i didn’t know how to argue with that. at some point while he was bitching and crying i kind of started to yell at him and i said, “you don’t like rich people. you don’t like people with degrees because you think they’re clones. you don’t like social workers because you don’t believe they’re really trying to make a difference. who do you like then? it’s not like poor people aren’t trying to be not poor anymore.” he didn’t have anything to say about that. sat there for a while, silently. and then after a while, i said, “nothing to say?” and he said, “popcorn that’s put in a pan is still popcorn if it doesn’t explode,” or something like that. i didn’t understand. then he said something about how martin luther king was once asked why he was looking melancholy, and he said he was looking melancholy because he was thought he was trying to integrate his people into a burning house. and he said some crap about how fire changes things and that for change to be made, america must burn. i was all a little confused by this.
at some point a few people interrupted — who knew him — and would come by. one large black dude and his? wife? came by and were yammering on about god. they asked the guy i was arguing with if he’d spread the word about god yet to me, and he said he was getting there. and the god guy said, “well, i’ll leave you to it, then,” and left. well the guy never did share anything about god, thank god, but if you’re going to talk to me about clones, what about religious clones?? TALK ABOUT CLONES. anyway.
THE HOMELESS LADY WHO WAS CONFUSING.
another lady came by, staring at our signs for a long, long time and not saying much. she finally came by and asked if we were in school or something and the guy i was arguing with (who knew the lady) said that i had a sociology degree. apparently they knew each other from a soup kitchen or something, and she asked me if i knew where that soup kitchen was. i said yes. she asked if i’d been there, and i said no. and then the guy i was arguing with said, “she wouldn’t ever be going there. she has a sociology degree.” bitter much? that’s pretty much the gist of it.
THE COUCHSURFER FROM FINLAND.
unfortnately, i didn’t get to talk to this guy because i was too busy arguing with the one guy and rachel was talking to him… this guy was from finland and was basically just couchsurfing across the united states (which is funny, cause i just signed up for that site yesterday…) and had just used rideshare to get a ride to seattle from wyoming or something. more details from rachel hopefully, since i cannot relay it, since i didn’t get to talk to him. which really sucks. because i want to couchsurf and i’d love to pick his brain about it T__T i actually juuuust looked him up on couchsurfing, though, and it’s pretty funny. i looked for people traveling in the seattle area and he was the third person on the list!! too easy!!
at some point here the security guards came by and shooed us away because we were sitting on westlake property and no one was supposed to loiter there (we’d long seen the signs but ignored them!). another homeless guy who had a sign asking for $20 was trying to save us, telling them that we didn’t want money and that we just wanted to talk to people, but we ended up getting shooed away anyway. nice of him. we just went to the planters across the walkway from where we were, and that worked out fine.
THE GAME PRODUCER FROM MASSACHUSETTS.
this guy was pretty much just trying to kill time while his friend was doing something else. he was here for a microsoft meeting and had just moved to boston. he was a producer? for lord of the rings online. didn’t talk to him that much… mostly just small talk. upper middle class white guy. he said it was cool that he goes into meetings and just discusses hit points all day. haha.
THE “JESUS LOVES YOU” LADY.
she asked us, “what do you want to talk about?” and we said, “anything.” she said, “did you know that jesus loves you?” and the massachusetts guy was still here — obviously uninterested when she came by. we answered in the negatory. she continued by saying that god would show himself to me sometime. i said, “i hope he does, because if he doesn’t, i will never believe him.” she left on that note.
THE CASUAL GAME AND TOY CREATOR FROM LOS ANGELES.
this guy’s name was ferad or something. he said he had tried to make up a story for his name before, since no one had actually heard of that name. he said he used to make up stories about where the name was from but that he’d forgotten it. i said he should say something about the fact that he is a prince, and he said it was something similar to that. lol. anyway. this guy was pretty laid back but still kinda cool. he was a freelance casual game designer and was just up here to crash some conference or something. he had bought an eyemask from daiso. i asked why. he said christmas. whatever that means. *__* he was very patient… when the christian guy (see next guy) was babbling on and on and on, he was obviously uninterested but still stuck around until the guy was finished. *__*
THE “JESUS LOVES YOU” MAN.
clones much? as if his wife asking us, “did you know that jesus loves you?” wasn’t enough, he comes by and says, “talk to you about what?” and we say, “anything.” he responds by saying, “did you know that jesus loves you?” i mean come on guy. nice thoughts but you’re a bit too um… clone-like. except whereas his wife backed off really fast, this guy shared personal stories for muuuch too long. there was the massachusetts guy still hanging around and ferad, and everyone was stuck listening to how he used to be an alcoholic but was no longer one and that jesus saved him blahblahblah. he told us that if we had a bible, we should read john 3:16, and i mean, come on. pick a better verse. any fool off the street can tell us to read that verse (and they do). he was nice and jolly though so i can’t fault him too much, and they didn’t argue about no one being interested in jesus… they mostly just spread positive vibes despite the fact that they were preaching, so i’m kinda mostly okay with it even though it was just a little boring. as they were leaving the wife regaled a story about how one of her friends got shot in the head and got in two accidents on the way to the hospital, and that he died and went to hell, and when he came back, he knew he didn’t want to go back to hell so he changed his life. she said he was a bad man prior to that. well, that’s certainly interesting. i thought she was going to say something about how he got shot and then started believing in god but at least this story has slightly more weight to it. then they went on their merry ways. they were, though, in my long times of doing this, the first couple that actually straight out preached to us. other people have given pamphlets or done run-by, “jesus loooves yoooooouuuu!”’s but they were the first ones that actually stopped and TRIED to make a difference, so kudos to them on that, although their plights fell on deaf years. the lady before she left also kept saying, “he’s going to make a difference in your life,” to me in particular, and she also said at some point that she wished she could witness it when it happened. if she were a little more um, not fanatical about christianity, i’d mighta’d give’d her my info or gotten hers to see if it ever happened. but no. no thanks.
THE FRIEND OF THE LOTR GUY.
the friend of the lotr guy had been buying a drink in starbucks and when he came out, he got me and rachel drinks (this all while the couple was preaching). he said, “you must be tired after listening to this guy yammer on!” and we thought it was very kind of him, even though the drink was sick as shit.
THE GROUP OF KIDS FROM BELLINGHAM.
this group of kids who had just graduated from high school — despite the fact that they looked older than rachel and i — stopped by after two of the guys, donovan and paul, noticed us and came by. their friends stood a ways away watching until they realized that donovan and paul were talking to us just fine and that we weren’t terrifying… and then it was all good even though the fact that we were surrounded by a wall of kids was kinda scary. *__* they were like this:
- girl 1 - guy who looked like john lennon - girl 2 - paul - girl 3 - donovan -
wow, now that i realize it, they were in perfect changing order. even though john lennon guy looked a little bit like a woman. initially, at least ;0 those kids had driven down two hours from bellingham or whatever JUST to watch “dark knight” in imax. that’s dedication right there. they all loved it. who doesn’t love that movie? pretty much everyone loves it. donovan works at colophon cafe (or at least i think that’s the right one) in bellingham. he told me to look him up if i went there this weekend — which i am going to. so i’m going to! this all because paul said bellingham was kinda hippie and that people would DEFINITELY talk to us there, and why not… i’ve never explored bellingham at all so i’d love the opportunity this weekend (sunday) to explore the place! anyway, when they first walked up, paul was mentioning that people did “free hugs” in bellingham and i said that wasn’t intimate enough, and the girl to the left of him said, “can i get a hug, though?” and i said yes, and we exchanged huggles. and then we talked a bit about donovan’s totally mangled shoes that were orange and green and looked like they had been destroyed, and they had been signed by flogging molly. he was also wearing red and blue socks. AWESOME. apparently paul’s shoes had been set on fire seven times — which i wanted to ask him about, but there was way too much conversation going on. all in all cool kids, and they asked us if there was anywhere in the westlake area to eat that was cheap. we said no and told them to walk ten blocks east to capitol hill to find something to eat. i gave them a redefine card telling them to check it out since they obviously liked music (at least, liked flogging molly). that was all after i said that people always thought we were selling things when we weren’t… but they said it was okay since this time the selling of things came after the talking and that it was an effective method of selling things. and off they went. i shall try to contact them this weekend. or something.
and that’s it for now. still have to recap on talk to us part six. i’ll try to do that another time *__* but now yay! rachel loves it and she will participate with me in such events in the future. finally, someone that actually likes it.
i think he was in the bathroom for like 80 hours. but i don’t know for sure. and i waited a little but then decided to leave.
