Wednesday, Oui? Tales from Manch-

So this might sound horrible but often on my way into work I will be accosted by different sorts of people who live on the streets of the City. I have a pretty long walk from my car to the building (about 3 looong blocks) so there is ample time to interact with the folks in the great City of Manchester. Quite often, to be frank, this frightens me. What's more frustrating is that it takes a while to get to either destination because I have to walk (shuffle) along the side walks due to the amount of ice the City of Manchester doesn't attend to. Needless to state it takes more than just a few minutes to get from point A to B and if, for any reason, I had to run... it wouldn't happen. This is especially scary at night when I am usually walking alone, at 8:00pm, in the dark.

In the past few years there have been a series of rapes and attacks either in the park or in the parking garage near the lot where I park. A coworker once had someone jump in the car with her, and refuse to get out! This terrifies Aaron, and myself, to no end. A few months ago, I had Aaron's parents meet me in the parking lot where I work and they were horrified/infuriated that I have to do such a thing each day, most of the time by myself.

Over the past couple years I have *sort of* become desensitized to all of it. Now, don't mistake, I am always on guard and prepared but often, when I am accosted, I just ignore the person and move about my day (Usually they are asking for money or food. I'll direct them to shelters or a food pantry in the area- they'll huff off pissed because they want $ for drugs or things of the like) Now this is a wide sweeping generalization, I know. Perhaps it's true that they generally need something; however, there are a lot of services available to them either through the City of Manchester or the agency I work for. There isn't anything I, as an individual, can do besides direct them to services.

So, to get to my point... the Oui. Yesterday, I was shuffling along the sidewalk (which are glare ice) to get to my building. When walking by Victory Park I noticed a few men gathered about the benches chit-chatting. Looking straight forward (as I was taught to do by the Police/ Safety Officer who recently did a safety training at our agency because of these types of instances) I paid no attention to them when they stopped their conversation as I skidded by.

"Hey!!!!!"

Keep walking, don't look over Jessi or they will see that as you engaging with them. Concentrate, if you look away you'll either slip and fall and knock yourself out, or you'll engage whatever it is they want to talk to you about.

"Heeeyyyyy, heeeeyyyy, I just want to tell you.... you're beautiful and it looks like you're dancing on that ice as you walk."

I stopped. Looked. Smiled and mouthed "thank you."

"Run along now. You have places to be, beautiful, and here can't be one of them."

That made my day and restored some faith in the people of the City. Oui?