Tight-Jawed. Tired. Restless.
It's 4AM and that cup of coffee I drank at 10 was not the greatest idea.
We're in an Emergency Shelter housed in a church gymnasium in West Saint Paul.
Snoring sounds like throaty sandpaper. It grates on my nerves. They all smoke and they're all getting sick.
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Another day and all-nighter of heavy fuckin’ research. There was another one before that that bled into 2 all-nighters and then well needed sleep.
A cop visited the shelter 2 days in a row, Friday and Saturday night. I took notes and recorded. Notes from listening back:
(0:33 ) Do you ever have people that do it by choice, just out of curiosity? Se we got this one guy … he works at … owns a minivan and has a generator on the back and he just lives out of his van, and um….you know it’s his choice because he’s renovated his van and he’s got a job and that stuf and some day I’m just gonna stop him and just (0:52) not ‘Stop Him’ but just as I see him parked some place, just knock and chat (0:55) It’d just be interesting to get his take, like ‘I’m saving for a house in 3 years… (4:36) ...Rumor has it there was an assault at the shelter…
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I woke up a little after 4AM in the main large sleeping area on the lower level of the church. I lay in bed (mat on the floor) for a few minutes and by 4:15-4:20, I was dressed and heading upstairs to check on Aiyana who was in the dining hall still working. As I walked out into the hallway and was approaching the steps, this guy me and Aiyana were talking with the past few nights who we have a raporte with asked me if I had a nice nap. I said “Yeah, it was pretty good.”
“ Your girl is upstairs,” he told me.
“Yep.”
“Your girl is upstairs.”
“Yep.”
“You should probably go see her,” he said.
“Yep.”
Then I took a left and quickly checked inside the men’s restroom to see if the shower was going because I was interested in taking a shower but anxious and wanted to do it when no one was around….and I’m shy about asking for a towel….
I heard the shower running and saw light steam like you would expect coming through the doorway. I dipped back out and went up the stairs to the dining hall. I watched Aiyana’s stuff while she went to the bathroom and when she came back, she told me about the night’s work and we hung out and talked.
The fire alarm went off between 4:45 and 5 AM. I went out into the main area to see what was going on. Billy wasn’t in the office, I think he went downstairs. Slowly, the other shelter guests started coming up the steps.
We were instructed to go out in front into the parking lot. Me and Aiyana went out, I didn’t have my coat or shoes. It was pretty cold. And we asked Billy if he would get Toby, he said he would.
4 squad cars showed up. 2 officers went with Billy into the church.
There was like a mob accusing this one Native dude of smoking in the bathroom and setting off the fire alarm, and he was saying he didn’t. The Fire Marshall showed up in a white SUV, followed by a fire truck. Then we were let back in.
Then around 7:30, a cop was in the doorway of the main sleeping area as everyone was packing up, I saw him talking with the Native dude. Not sure what the cop was there to do. Me and Aiyana can’t agree if he took the native guy or this other guy who’d come in drunk the night before.
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Today me and Aiyana went to the library. I finished a book I’d been reading. We’d talked a lot, then she went to work on the computers for awhile and I went to wander and look at books, highlights of that were an Emily Post Etiquette book, a bunch of cool books on tiny houses, a cool book on motifs, an idiot’s guide to the saints. I forced myself to look in the biographies.
Aiyana found a heavy rabbit hole I’d do a bad job of describing.
Now I’m working on shit, making lists and shit….it will probably be a late night.
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Aiyana said this some time in the early morning hours: “We’re about to drop of the
radar for a while. There might be some things I could be thinking about, I could be making
notes. Instead, I’m separating dog food and cat food because I don’t have five dollars for cat
food.”
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At a truckstop in Inver Grove Heights. The lights, towers, and smoke from the Koch Refinery reminded Aiyana of “Blade Runner.” The city dump is close by too. To the outside, square world, it looks like a place of decay and destitution, so for all practical purposes, it’s a good spot to lay low and car camp in the parking lot.
Matrix Emergency Housing ended last Monday, Tuesday Morning. The staff seemed to be in self-congratulations mode, not really acknowledging this was going to be a devastating blow for most of us.
We’d met some people we liked and we traded info. I said to Aiyana as we were waiting for the car to warm up - “All things considered, this has been the best roommate situation we’ve ever had.”
We tried camping at the Walmart in Apple Valley across from the church that Matrix ended at. There had been a bad snowstorm the night before. We got questioned by a cop, it spooked me. It was a cold night and we were not used to camping in the car, it had been awhile.
The first night and day at the truck stop we mostly slept. We had an awesome conversation with a trucker named Don. It was too much to write here, but it was affirming, to say the least. Then we stayed up all night. I wrote. Then at 11, we went to Burnhaven Library, I kept writing, then came back to the truck stop, worked more and then slept.
Then Sunday night we went to a dinner at the Native American Episcopal Church in South Minneapolis. It was amazing. Then we came back and slept for a whole day.
Then today, I got up by 11, went to Westcott Library, I wrote some shit to maybe get general
assistance.
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