Tag: living within my means

Ghimeabragh

The Sheltered Existence, Pt 10 or, It really does take a poke in the eye

Posted on by The 40 year old magpie

So, Friday.

Friday, I returned from my weekly meet up with a friend for late lunch and margaritas. When I returned to the shelter, I rode the elevator up with another resident who was just back from the hospital. She proceeded to tell me that the “Indigenous” Bigot[1]attacked her and  bit her so hard,  she required a tetanus shot. She was holding yellow paper.

Saturday, I had the day off, so I hung around, which was wise, as I don’t have a winter coat, and it was helacious outside with the snowstorm that blew through. I didn’t see either of them.  So, I asked where “I.B.” was, and I was told ALMOST the rest of the story: I.B. sees her victim and calls the cops. Cops arrive, and she starts calling telling the white cop to “go back to where he came from”. He tells her to be quiet. She takes this as an acknowledgement to continue her anti-EuroAmerican rant. THEN she sees the person she attacked and started in on her. The cops tell her not to speak to the victim. Again, she takes it as an acknowledgement to continue. She ends up under arrest, as does the victim.

On Sunday, on my way  back from work, I run into another from the shelter on her way home from work, who proceeds to tell me that the I.B. is at Bellevue for Observation and Evaluation. The victim was also stabbed in the eye with a pencil, a a piece of lead is still lodged in her eye.

Others had been repeatedly telling their caseworkers that the I.B. was close to harming someone, but they didn’t listen. A lawsuit may change that.

 

 

 

[1]The “Indigenous” Bigot (I.B.) is not First Nations. She’s German, Asian Indian and Black.

Image via Glasgow: Emblem: IUSTA VINDICTA

Activism

Wherein I out myself on Facebook as Being Homeless

Posted on by The 40 year old magpie

I just wrote:

I am the 99%.

I have a single paycheck job, while trying to make it in the theater and in Real Estate. and, with that single paycheck, I pay my phone bill, buy my medications, pay for a permanent mailing address, and to hear the caseworkers talk, that is a “skewed set of priorities”.

I live uncomfortably in a shelter with 99 other women, some of whom are incapable of holding down even one job. I do not earn enough to rent a room let alone an apartment.

I do not get anything more than food stamps, as even with the little I earn, I am still making more than I’d get on SSDI or SSI. I prefer to be working. So would those who are #occupyingWallStreet. Like the young man who lost his home when he lost his job. or the Vets who are treated like shit upon their return from too many tours. or the Seniors who are seeing their life savings piddled away by Banks shifting derivative risk over to their insured savings.

The only student loan I have is for a now defunct Theater Conservatory I attended over a decade ago. I have no car, no credit card, nor good credit (Thanks, VESID & SAE). I have a smart phone as adaptive device and a computer so I can work.

I worked for those fuckers on Wall Street @ the PSE and for Investment Bankers in NYC.Let me tell you,  their cocks got harder talking about money than they did talking about their wives and girlfriends.


Ghimeabragh

another three months

Posted on by The 40 year old magpie

and, my head is back to where it was before I hospitalized myself. I am once more, “functionally dysfunctional” EVERY damn thing in this system is a three month timetable. get housing packet together, Three months. Send it off and get appointment: THREE FUCKING MONTHS later.

It’s about dragging it out for the dollars.

Fuck this.

Activism

Did you know

Posted on by The 40 year old magpie

that if you google “human stress” shelter, it asks if you meant “humane shelter” stress? It seems treating shelter animals for stress is more important that treating humans in shelters for the stress of residing there.
BUT!!! type in “homeless shelter” stress, you get one article dealing with the stress of living in a shelter, and it’s in Journal of Leisure Research… oh, yes, in fact, homeless women need MORE downtime to deal with the stress of having no or so little income, that they live stacked like cordwood in places you wouldn’t put a dog. In point of fact, shelter dogs are treated better – they get complete medical care, a balanced diet and a fast track to re-homing.

For example, After three months, at this new shelter, I completed a second housing packet since I became homeless. Apparently, the first one wasn’t any good, because it came via the ASSESSMENT SHELTER, where I had a place inside of  two months, wasn’t sent over, and therefore, redundancy was in order, now where it will be three months before I even talk to DHS (Dept. of Homeless Services)  about housing. Happy Fucking New Year. It’s all about the money.

And, they wonder why I am so stressed out. Got an idea for you: Check your asses into a shelter for three months, the time it takes to get all the paperwork done, since the shelter works under the premise you have nothing better to do with your time than sit around tending hemorrhoids, as you’ll only see your caseworker once a week. lots of luck seeing a nurse, by the time you get to the sign-up sheet, you’re either waiting all day  or shit out of luck. Weekends, you’re shit out of luck anyway, since there is no medical person available.

Or, we are viewed as “object lessons” for spoiled brats like the Kardashians:

…The teens were shown refusing their food because ‘It’s not my fave,’ texting at the dinner table and leaving the family dinner to go out with their friends.

When the girls steal Bruce’s credit card to go shopping, the former Olympian can’t take it any more and decides to take them to a homeless shelter to give them some perspective.

‘Kendall, 15, and Kylie, 13, have been very blessed, we’ve given them everything they want,’ he says. ‘My responsibility as a parent is to show them what reality is.’

Speaking to the girls, Bruce says: ‘You don’t understand the value of a dollar, so we’re going to see something that will put you life in perspective and maybe you’ll appreciate your life a bit more.’

See? We are homeless because we “don’t understand the value of a dollar” Fuck you, Bruce Jenner.

Kim reveals that when she was their age, her late father Robert Kardashian took her to Skid Row in Los Angeles to show her how privileged her life was.

At the shelter, Kendall and Kylie are shocked to meet a girl who lives with her entire family in a room the size of their bedrooms.

‘It’s kind of eye opening,’; Kylie says. ‘Their whole home is the size of my bedroom. Their whole life is in that room, that is so sad to me, that people live their lives in this tiny space.

Kendall adds: ‘The girls at the shelter showed us what life could be, and made me really appreciate everything we have.'[1]

Translation:

I am the Few, the Proud, the Motivated to get my ass out of there.

Notes:

[1] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2020989/Keeping-Up-Kardashians-Kris-Jenner-turns-incontinence-problem-money-spinner.html#ixzz1bGG9USQ4

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Activism, Reprints & Crossposts

The Sheltered Existence, Pt 9 One Paycheck Away

Posted on by The 40 year old magpie

EveryoneIs
Yesterday, Sunday Sept 25, I was down occupying Wall Street. I saw a wide range of Americans – young, old, middle-aged, Veterans, New Yorkers, out-of-towners, and we all were there for one reason: To bring attention to the rising inequity that is occurring while the Foxers try to mock with outdated insults like “hippie” and “get a job”. Yeah, I am homeless, and I work. Just not earning enough to pay the rent.


When a group of NYFD walked through the plaza, a cheer and applause rang out.

Until the night fell, the NYPD were cool. Yes, there was an attempt to intimidate, but it didn’t quite work they way the Commanding officers hoped.

No arguement

I met people who were respectful, well-spoken, and quite concerned for all Americans. Why should we be mocked for exercisng our First Amendment right to gather, express and petition? I mean, isn’t that why we’re “fighting ‘them’ over there”?
DefendingOurFreedoms
Shadow2

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

So, WHY were members of the media arrested? Why is the NYPD arresting citizens for taking photographs and videos?

Ghimeabragh

The Sheltered Existence Part 8: About Last Night…

Posted on by The 40 year old magpie

So, last night. R comes back in rip-roaring drunk and singing rather loudly. She nearly falls backward but is caught, by another resident, who suggests she lay down, which of course, the drunk one does not agree to, and starts to complain that no one likes her. About 10 minutes later, a couple of other women come up and say that she has bitten someone and it’s crazy downstairs. So, for lack of anything else to do, I wander down to the third floor to watch. Get down there, and there she is, sitting in a chair with two cops around her, being loud, and as I walked past her, I noticed she was cuffed.  She kept getting up and the cops would have to move her back to the chair, where she would start complaining about her arm. The N.P. was treating the victim, some of the ladies were peeved at the N.P. because she called the cops and the EMT’s on the drunk. Well, what else was she supposed to do?

The EMT’s arrive, they ask her her name, which she responded to with the correct answer, and they all began to walk out, with the biter admitting to the violence as she was steered toward the elevator.

Woke up this morning, and she was back. So much for the rules. She’s violent when she’s drunk, and they won’t do a damn thing about her.  I guess, it’s about money and that she’s got mental deficits.

G, who finally is getting an apartment, started in another, who she has been tormenting. Listening to G and what she plans to do, I fear for anyone who ends up with her as a home health aide.

Ghimeabragh

The Sheltered Existence; 7 Live blogging the “fair” or, Shelter Standard Time

Posted on by The 40 year old magpie

It’s 9:56 am. There’s supposed to be a “Housing Fair” starting st 10:00 am. No one is here but us chickens. I guess they don’t see keeping to schedules as important. But then, I guess they see this as doing us a “favor”.

10:05  no sign of any DHS people.
10:07  2 women have appeared, and are ignoring us.
Did I mention this is a two hour affair?

10:15 SURPRISE!!! THERE’S ONLY ONE PERSON TO DEAL WITH ALL OF US

10:21 Wait! More people have arrived and are huddling. Now, they have walked away.

10:30 and it’s still only one person from an assisted living place. No kitchen, shared bath and bedroom

10:45 if I get asked one more time if I want to talk to the nice lady from the Briarwood, I will consider it harassment.

10:50 Three thuggish men and a woman who looked like she belonged here have arrived. Got s muffin and walked away.
Dude in a suit looking like he had a rough night.

Was just informed this circus ends at 12:30, so, we will be zoo-like entertainment when lunch rolls around.

11:15 I left. It’s all SRO and Assisted Living. What this means is that I have to do it myself, as this shelter is not capable of dealing with my situation.

Uncategorized

Sheltered Existence: Part 6 – WHAT? There’s a suspension for that?

Posted on by The 40 year old magpie

When you enter the shelter, you’re given a “contract” that spells out  one’s responsibilities while there. Basic rules of civilized behavior, such as no smoking in the building, no repeated verbal abuse/violence nom booze/drugs/weapons. One is can get suspended for violating the rules, and I have yet to see it happen. The woman who threatened me, comes. goes. The rules are not enforced, and the residents know nothing will happen.

Sure you’ll get arrested for calling in one too many false alarms, but hey…..

Ghimeabragh

The Sheltered Existence, Pt 5, Bully Edition

Posted on by The 40 year old magpie

Won’t be nice about this entry,

G has been taken away, and staff is complicit. I came back from the ER to find cops in the dorm at G’s bed, with one of the staffers standing apparently telling them she’s crazy. So, they took her.

G was bullied into her breakdown. G is maybe 60ish.  Sobriety is an unknown quality to the wom en who bullied her. Mean? Only to those who were mean. Get respect? She’s been bullied, called “drunk”, bullies are always the victims, and always howling about how she deserved it. never the victimizer. Take AY-vah,  comes and goes as she will, and last monday, as I was doing my wash, started in on me. Yapping that I was here because I had diddled some kid, or fucked someone’s man. Threatened to knock my “nice dentures” out. Staffer was standing by the door listening, and instead of stopping it, let it go on until he realized I wasn’t taking the troll-bait and put a stop to it.

“Is anything wrong, “ladies”?

“Oh, no.” says the troll with a fake innocence.

They will find another. Won’t be me, as none here exist to me any longer.



Oh, W. yer going to get your comeuppance.

Lashon Hara. comes back to bite.

W is now going through the containers and locker with her clothes that she will never wear and is shaking out a dress. She was going on about G and her “alcoholism” as why she ended up here. Critter, YOU are here with a picture of the man who kicked your sorry ass to the curb, because you fucking slept all day, smoked and generally sat on your ass while demanding to be deferred to.

Even the 2 inch cockroaches run from you. Or was that the bug up your ass?

Ghimeabragh

The Sheltered Existence Pt. 4 A New Place

Posted on by The 40 year old magpie

I’ve been in the “new” shelter for about a month now, and things here work very slowly here. Like they’re in no rush to get you into housing (Week 3 of Social Worker will be to photocopy my passport and SS#, last week, my PyschoSocial, week before, GETTING TO KNOW YOU, GETTING TO KNOW NOTHING ABOUT YOU…). To add to the insult, I was actually punished for I don’t know what, by being transferred here instead of to the transitional housing. Even the evening case manger was shocked I was being “sent down” She asked if I had ‘broken curfew’ (I had not.) So here I am, I have a lovely Park Avenue address, starting the whole fucking process over again, and 64 roommates with varying degrees of mental illness from none to “holy shit! take your meds”.

There is a down side to being in a shelter: You get comfortable. No rent, no board, no worries about money for laundry, the beds are comfortable. No pressure to get even a part-time job if you aren’t already working, like a few of us there. It’s a trap for truly lazy people. I realized the “trap” when I first referred to the shelter as “home”.

So, here it is, August 22, 2011 and in the intervening weeks, there have been several verbal altercations and one actual physical confrontation between two women, one who was baiting the other who is a belligerent drunk. fist flew, they hit the ground, and the caseworker just stood there observing as we pulled the women apart and held them back. The woman who was attacked, first grabbed a can of hairspray to use as a weapon, then a cane, and finally a set of keys. They removed the victim, and left the belligerent drunk in the dorm to threaten to kill all of us. Cops came, listened to what occurred, and left. No one was arrested, No one was removed from the shelter. So much for rules. Did I mention one of the combatants is banging of the male staffers?

So, here we are today, sitting in the 5th floor common room, watching getting dusted (inspection is coming!!!)  the ladies piss and moan and draw their faces on. One is pissed that her purse and meds were taken yesterday and was complaining to the “indigenous” bigot. Wish I could snap her putting her lips on: outlines in a dark shade, and fills it with an obscene shade of pink. There’s a 2:00 pm “Light-Love-Laugh” meeting for a self-help/image program run by a Mission. I have yet to see a single outside program that did not involve a Cross. Isn’t this a SECULAR shelter?

The “indigenous” bigot was going off again. This time, after saying that more first nations served than Jews in WWII (did a bit of research, and lo! 500,00 American  Jews served, 11,000 died, as opposed to 25,000 first nation people), was paying for people there, and when I confronted her about my paying taxes, she said she is paying taxes too (yeah right).  A voice from the ironing board told her to get a job, wherein she said she  doesn’t have to work, or take any form of aid, she then went on to claim she makes $700,000/year, and was swindled out of millions by a “Jew investment advisor”, is waiting to collect an inheritance because she doesn’t want to “share it with her soon to be ex-husband”, and  Oh, she also has multiple advanced degrees. While we were watching Rachel Ray, she was going an about how superior her upbringing was including diet, and no tv. Body language shows she’s holding a lot of shit in.

Another woman, who came in two weeks ago, was initially all passive and “scared” and said she had no money for a lock, so I bought her one. She said her daughter would pay me for it, and what do you know?  She’s now highly aggressive and somewhat belligerent,  when she was told someone else was in line to do laundry, she more or less said “fuck them, I’M DOING MY LAUNDRY!!!!!!” and started cursing in Spanish, which I ignored til the word “ñetas” was uttered. The “Netas” are a drug gang. A rather violent gang out of Puerto Rico.

Makes me wonder if she’s hiding out in the shelter, like the bank robber, Rose Perez did.