The Eight Dollar Request

A few weeks ago some friends and I were walking around the U District in Seattle when we were approached by a homeless man asking for money. Nothing out of the ordinary there. But as we all reached for our coin purses in anticipation of "can you spare a quarter?" the man asked us if we could spare eight dollars for dinner. EIGHT DOLLARS! I don't spend eight dollars on dinner for myself. I realize that inflation affects us all, but come on! I have to work an entire hour to even make eight dollars and even then, some of that goes to taxes. Needless to say his request was denied. Had he not been so greedy, he probably would have gotten at least a couple of dollars out of us, but we were afraid that if we gave him a dollar he would look at us and say "where's the rest of my money?!?" And we were not up for a fight with a homeless man that day. We seldom are.

It's All a Blur

Ever notice how when a movie is out of focus at the theater everyone will complain about it, but no one will ever go tell anyone to fix it? We all just sit there annoyed, occasionally throwing popcorn at the screen instead of leaving to fix the problem. It's a little like a staring contest. Who can go the longest without getting up. It gets a little tense as we wait for someone, anyone, get up. Our attention is diverted from the movie as we throw shifty glances around the room wondering why no one is doing anything about the fuzzy picture. It's as if we all assume there is one designated movie focuser in the crowd and we are pissed that he or she is not fulfilling his or her very important responsibility. We have an attitude of "I paid for this. I shouldn't have to get up," like we're all so worried about missing 3 minutes of a blurry film. The guy who finally gets up to tell someone about the problem usually gets applause. I always wanted to date that guy.