First night at Simpson
My first night at the Simpson Housing was a great experience. Although there was a lot of downtime I found that everything I did was worthwhile. The first job that I did was working in the supply closet. Here I distributed basic toiletries and clothing to men at the shelter. Every time one of the men came to the closet I was supposed to mark their name on the sheet to ensure they only used this facility once a week. Or to tell them that they would have to come back another day if their name had already been marked. I was fairly lenient here. Shortly after it was time for dinner. The meal was great, there were cheeseburgers, potato salad, green salad, chips, brownies and ice cream. I heard joking among many of the men that this shelter allowed for the fattest hoboes in the state. One man I talked to during dinner had a fascinating story. He had only been homeless for one month, and had held jobs in como park for his entire life. He had only recently lost everything to gambling and cocaine. During the night I had a chance to talk to many other people. I found everyone there, with no exceptions (which was a bit of a surprise) to be extremely kind and cheerful. The breakfast at the shelter was also very good. I felt that speaking with these men was a very positive experience for me, and I believe that I also had a chance to tell some jokes with and have a good time with some of the men.