Showing posts with label public transit in Baltimore. Show all posts
Showing posts with label public transit in Baltimore. Show all posts
Monday, June 2, 2014
"Looking back at 5/6/1996"
Author's note
I'm staying in a flat in Hampden, Maryland a white, blue collar Baltimore city neighborhood. I have had the flat for nearly 2 month and I'm struggling to pay the rent and utilities. At this time I do not own a car. I lived in fear for the nearly 15 years I lived in Baltimore after my relationship broke up in 94.
5/6/1996
Sitting in the Charm City Diner Rotunda Mall.
Totally mentally fatigued after today. The actual interviews were o.k. but the urban experience is hell.
I left the house at 8:25 a.m. I called the MTA for instructions on how to maneuver the busses for today's trip. They told me to take the route 22 to route 19. I walked to the Rotunda to catch the 22. A Jehovah's Witness offers me "something to read" I told her that I don't need anything to read. Nonetheless she began to babble incessantly. A very large 14 ear old boy enters the scene. He has a very dirty mouth which I'm sure "Ms. Jehovah" loves! He talks about beating people up who say offensive stuff to him.
Says his dad told him: "If you fight, you'll prove you're a real man!"
A good looking guy mid 30's enters the scene. He and the Jehovah appear to be in concordance. They agreed "A real man would walk away!" I agreed but didn't voice it out loud.
I told the boy that I need to get to "Harford and Alameda"
He said: "You wait for the bus at that corner and you're gonna get a few holes in your head!"
Great! Fantastic! Just what I need! I think to myself.
He offered to escort me to a better intersection. I accepted. He went on to say that he sells crack, drinks and works on the weekends making $450 in one weekend! He seems to really like me.
My interview was at 9:30 a.m. at the Children's Guild but the entire one way trip took me one hour and 40 minutes so I didn't arrive until 10:10 a.m.! (It's maybe a 20 minutes car ride) One of the bus stops where I was waiting had a sheet of plastic missing from it.
My escort told me that is because someone was thrown threw the old glass/plastic just a couple of days ago!
At the children's guild the children displayed a lot of serious behavioral problems. Children screaming and teachers using physical restraints. One employee who I know from a past job, was very rough with one of the boys. Most teachers however were real good. The physical environs of the school were so positive.
Ms. H. said that she would get back to me by Friday and that as long as my references come through o.k. that I would be hired.
I also got the info. from the Vista program they are trying to place me. The vista jobs that I found most appealing were in New Mexico however and they all require a car.
When I got out of the interview I waited one hour for a cab!
I took the cab to the food stamp office which cost me $9.60 in cab fare. Mr. L. told me I'll have to come back tomorrow! The dss/welfare office is horrible. Between them checking me for weapons and overt parental abuse, I'm totally emotionally drained.
I do not have the rent in it's entirety yet and the landlord wants to see me face to face before I go back to welfare.
Monday, August 18, 2008
"Getting There"
8/18/08
It's bloody amazing that a single one of these buses arrive "safely" to their respective destinations.
Today, the female driver spent the entire 2 miles driving while manicuring her nails! Not just while the bus was at red lights but also while it was IN MOTION! She bit away feverishly at both hands pulling the nail parts off and throwing them on the floor. At one point she spit some of the nail pieces out of her mouth onto the window! I'm naucious, and feel very endangered.....................but somehow I have arrived in one piece!
It's bloody amazing that a single one of these buses arrive "safely" to their respective destinations.
Today, the female driver spent the entire 2 miles driving while manicuring her nails! Not just while the bus was at red lights but also while it was IN MOTION! She bit away feverishly at both hands pulling the nail parts off and throwing them on the floor. At one point she spit some of the nail pieces out of her mouth onto the window! I'm naucious, and feel very endangered.....................but somehow I have arrived in one piece!
Thursday, June 21, 2007
DESPERATE FOR SHELTER/PART 2 (11/11/95)
At Eric's* place:
It's noon. What a day this was. I didn't go out until 1-1:30 because I was trying to make emergency arrangements to get out of here before I get evicted using Eric's* landline. I did find something short term.
I left my "room" after an 18 hour stint because I was starving. Eric was in a good mood thank god because it was his Sabbath. So he apologized for the way he has been treating me and says he'll be better by Monday. He says he hopes I still live here then.
I contacted a progressive church that I don't attend and told the pastor I was desperate for a safe place to live. It took her a few days of research but she found a member of the church named Debbie* who will put me up for 200 a month. Unfortunately, Debbie lives within city limits in Hampden.
Mandy told the pastor at the church that she'd put me up again when he called her for a reference.
I'm practically paralyzed by all of this stress. Good night. Tonight and today was 68 and sunny in the morning, showers and high winds in the afternoon, tornadoes, then a snowstorm at night! I'm thankful that I'm warm, but I feel like a prisoner.
11/14/95
Debbie comes to get me, Eric sees the whole thing happening, we tell him nothing, I grab as much of my stuff as possible while he questions us, we hurry and leave for her place in Hampden.
11/15/95
1:30 a.m.
Yesterday I did nothing BUT commute. I had to go to Eric's to return his mother's clothing. I took the route 27 bus from Hampden to Rogers Station then on to the Owings Mills Metro Station. That was a long, cold wet wait but the ride itself was pleasant as we went through Mt. Washington, Cross Keys, then on to Rogers Station.
As we began to approach Rogers Station it became less pleasant. The people who ride public transit for the most part are poor and look miserable. Baltimore is even more depressing then Lafayette, just like Sheryl feared might be the case. (Sheryl was my neighbor in Laf. and warned me against coming to Baltimore for a "better life")
What's the point in applying for work as a social worker right now, I can't even barely even think straight. I'll have to job hunt while I'm staying here at Debbie's, since she will be expecting me to show a real effort to get back on my feet.
Today, I sat on the ground (there are no chairs) in the Owings Mills Subway Station waiting for my friend Mandy to pick me up. I heard one of the passengers telling her friend that she carries an umbrella solely as a weapon. Then at Rogers Station a man comes up to another man who was sitting next to me and says: "DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE "YO GIRL" THAT WAS STABBED AND RAPED AND HAD HER EYEBALLS POPPED OUT OVER ON BELVEDERE?"
"YEAH, IT WAS A 19 YEAR OLD WHITE BOY WHO DID THAT TO HER!" (author's note: after 10 years of using b-more's public transit, i believe the loud reference to "white boy" is an attempt to make me feel intimidated) The man went on to say that the wife of the murdered man has filed assault charges against the white boy.
NEGATIVE! CRIME, CRIME, CRIME! It's brought up within the first 5 minutes of every conversation I've ever been in since I've arrived in Baltimore. I'm thinking more and more seriously all of the time about trying to move back to Australia.
THERE HAVE GOT TO BE PLACES OUT THERE THAT AREN'T SPIRITUALLY DEAD!
WHERE?!
Life is such a DRAG!
It's noon. What a day this was. I didn't go out until 1-1:30 because I was trying to make emergency arrangements to get out of here before I get evicted using Eric's* landline. I did find something short term.
I left my "room" after an 18 hour stint because I was starving. Eric was in a good mood thank god because it was his Sabbath. So he apologized for the way he has been treating me and says he'll be better by Monday. He says he hopes I still live here then.
I contacted a progressive church that I don't attend and told the pastor I was desperate for a safe place to live. It took her a few days of research but she found a member of the church named Debbie* who will put me up for 200 a month. Unfortunately, Debbie lives within city limits in Hampden.
Mandy told the pastor at the church that she'd put me up again when he called her for a reference.
I'm practically paralyzed by all of this stress. Good night. Tonight and today was 68 and sunny in the morning, showers and high winds in the afternoon, tornadoes, then a snowstorm at night! I'm thankful that I'm warm, but I feel like a prisoner.
11/14/95
Debbie comes to get me, Eric sees the whole thing happening, we tell him nothing, I grab as much of my stuff as possible while he questions us, we hurry and leave for her place in Hampden.
11/15/95
1:30 a.m.
Yesterday I did nothing BUT commute. I had to go to Eric's to return his mother's clothing. I took the route 27 bus from Hampden to Rogers Station then on to the Owings Mills Metro Station. That was a long, cold wet wait but the ride itself was pleasant as we went through Mt. Washington, Cross Keys, then on to Rogers Station.
As we began to approach Rogers Station it became less pleasant. The people who ride public transit for the most part are poor and look miserable. Baltimore is even more depressing then Lafayette, just like Sheryl feared might be the case. (Sheryl was my neighbor in Laf. and warned me against coming to Baltimore for a "better life")
What's the point in applying for work as a social worker right now, I can't even barely even think straight. I'll have to job hunt while I'm staying here at Debbie's, since she will be expecting me to show a real effort to get back on my feet.
Today, I sat on the ground (there are no chairs) in the Owings Mills Subway Station waiting for my friend Mandy to pick me up. I heard one of the passengers telling her friend that she carries an umbrella solely as a weapon. Then at Rogers Station a man comes up to another man who was sitting next to me and says: "DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE "YO GIRL" THAT WAS STABBED AND RAPED AND HAD HER EYEBALLS POPPED OUT OVER ON BELVEDERE?"
"YEAH, IT WAS A 19 YEAR OLD WHITE BOY WHO DID THAT TO HER!" (author's note: after 10 years of using b-more's public transit, i believe the loud reference to "white boy" is an attempt to make me feel intimidated) The man went on to say that the wife of the murdered man has filed assault charges against the white boy.
NEGATIVE! CRIME, CRIME, CRIME! It's brought up within the first 5 minutes of every conversation I've ever been in since I've arrived in Baltimore. I'm thinking more and more seriously all of the time about trying to move back to Australia.
THERE HAVE GOT TO BE PLACES OUT THERE THAT AREN'T SPIRITUALLY DEAD!
WHERE?!
Life is such a DRAG!
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