October 13

On Wednesday, I headed off to class and saw a father and daughter on the bus. I'd seen them before. The girl is about 4 years old and looks EXACTLY like my cousin's daughter; she's adorable. The father has piercings and paint all over his clothes and a crazy punk hairdo. The first time I saw them, I thought how cute - this punkrock dad is taking care of his daughter. What a cool little crazy pair they are. So, I was delighted to see them again. But this time, it was pretty clear he was out of his mind, high! And like on something bad. Where you zone in and out for a sec. She asked him about the goats that used to be in the park and he said something in response, but it made absolutely no sense, and I saw his head roll back in the middle of his speech. It was scary. At one point on the bus, he stumbled up to the front to ask the busdriver if this bus was still going to go to the valley (he lives around me, surely he knows the bus route by now). And he took a phone call from a friend whom he told to save it for tomorrow and shouted "you're my savior!" to. Very weird. I felt very bad for the little girl, who was dressed in over-sized boy clothes. I hate being one of those bystanders. I hate seeing something you know is wrong and not doing something about it. But what am I supposed to do? A. Am I 100% sure he's high? B. Even if I did want to turn him in, what would happen? The girl gets taken by child services - is that really better for her?! C. I don't have much information to tell authorities (I've only seen him on my bus, I don't know his name or where he lives). It's just frustrating. Anyway, it put me in a bad mood for a while, because I felt like there was something that should be done.

Class was very boring, and then I went to the library to pick up a book for my paper, but ended up staying in the high-use section, writing notes on two books. 2 hours later and 5 pages of hand-written notes, I stumbled out of the library and back home. Lina and Jillian were heading to campus to study, so I had the house to myself. I made some dinner, drank some port, took a relaxing bath, and wrote a letter. More study tomorrow!!