Desperately in need of a dress to wear to my brother's wedding at the end of this month, I decided to take the rail downtown to Macy's yesterday. The light rail in Houston can be quite the scene. Medical students, doctors, business men, but mostly just homeless people who ride to get out of the heat. Here is a snippet of the conversation that I heard between 2 passengers yesterday.
Crazy Homeless Lady 1: (staring at CHL2) You know why I'm staring at you? I'm tryin to figure you out.
CHL1: Do you smoke?
CHL2: No.
CHL1: Be honest with me.
CHL2: No I don't...I swear.
CHL1: I'm not talking about pot...I'm talking about coke.
CHL2: Where are you going?
CHL1: downtown.
CHL2: You know what you have to do? Go to the county hospital and tell them you are going to kill yourself. Act serious about it. Then you will get some food and a bed. They give you drugs too. That's what I did.
CHL1: I already was going to kill myself a long time ago. Last time I was at the hospital, the nurses beat me up.
CHL2: I used to be mentally ill...seriously! Then they fixed me. Now get off here - this is your stop for the hospital! Go to the ER...tell them you are from Katrina!
*Note: Unfortunately this conversation was in no way exaggerated, and pretty much verbatim.
There is an awesome nursing internship in labor and delivery that I really wanted to do at this particular "county hospital", but I think I changed my mind...
5 comments:
Wow that's weird. I love people watching and all, but that might be one of the strangest conversations ever. On a different note, did you find a dress?
YIKES! The rail is scary & it's stupid that it's on the "honor" system. Doesn't really make sense!! I used to take the light rail to work, but would literally run home, so that lasted all of 4 weeks when it would get dark before I would leave work.
Ummm... freaky. There are some strange, strange people out there!! (Hope you're feeling better)
Oh wow... I can't imagien having to pretend I didn't hear them talking. I think it'd be laughing. Maybe even crying.
Or just REALLY ready to get off of that train!
Wow. What a conversation.
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