2019-11-02 - 3:51 pm
Dear readers:
The dinner party went well. The guest of honor was Diana, the CEO of TLP. She was very friendly and gregarious, the kind of person you *want* to run a charity. The dinner party, it seems, was a pretense to tell us in advance of expanding the administration building, where Cafe Joshua (the soup kitchen) is and where I go for Lunch and Learn.
Amy had an argument with Valerie the other day. I don't know what started it, but Valerie has a tendency to go on long extended bitching sessions, and Amy got the brunt of one. She made my poor roommate cry. I thought for a minute she'd leave Burckle. Fortunately, she eventually calmed down.
I was able to finally visit my mom on Thursday. It's a nursing home, but one out of a private home, I assume for people who need to be cared for, but do not like the impersonal feel of a home. Her place is in Royal Palm, and, since there's no direct bus route, Cornelia took me in the Burckle Place van and she chatted with my mom and the lady that runs the place for a bit before giving me some privacy. Mom gave me a check for $500, I was able to cash at the nearest bank yesterday (on my way to pay for the storage space). I ate at the Jon Smith's across the street, went to the storage space, paid another way (didn't use the money for the unit), bought bike chain lube at a local bike shop then went home. I would've used more of the money to pay my phone bill-not sure if I'll ever get the Obama phone-but there isn't a storefront for my carrier nearby, so I'll have to try tomorrow (stupid me, thought I had an activity today). Half of the money was kept in safekeeping.
You see, the whole idea of Burckle is to ease us into independent living. We don't have to pay rent and we don't have to buy food (we can use our food stamps to buy ourselves food, but once every two weeks there's a trip made to the local food bank, and they keep a stocked pantry from there for those of the house that don't have that, and we use that stock for cooking). If we have a job, we're supposed to give half of it to Burckle for safekeeping. The idea is to have a nice cushion for the inevitable transition to our own apartments (we get the money back when that happens). Since I don't have any income coming in, Cornelia suggested I give all of it for safekeeping, though I ignored that advice (I have a bike tire to fix and a cell phone bill to pay so I didn't give them *everything*).
We got free tickets to a ballet, but we're on our own about transportation, since the ballet performance will be tomorrow (our minders aren't in on the weekends, and are probably the only ones allowed to drive the van. I think I have a nice dress somewhere in this closet...
-psyche
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