Open Door with Ruby and Potatoes

January 25, 2024

Today I was surprised by one good conversation I had at Open Door. It was with someone named Ruby, who I’ve seen work as a greeter many times before and never really spoken to. They told me that they don’t work, so I was able to ask some questions about how they fill their time. It was things like volunteering here at Open Door, yoga, and support groups. I’m always curious to know what other people who are in a similar situation to me are doing with their time. They said that they met their wife ten years ago now. 

The other notable thing that happened tonight was a girl named Julia and I both had our BeReals go off at the same time, and we both got them on time I think. She’s the one sitting nearest me in the bottom right photo. I also talked to Julia a bit about the fact she’s currently studying political science in Massachusetts. I believe that she’s just on a break right now, which is why she was there.  Julia actually does work there, very part-time, and is beginning to learn some Spanish to help check people in. There was also a volunteer named Jehslen who also spoke Spanish. At one point she commented that she liked my sweater. I also randomly had a client comment that he liked the way my eyeshadow matched my earrings, which I said again was on purpose. 

Just looking back at my notes. tonight I had a longer conversation with Wendy about my role at the location and learned that Owen is from the East Coast, which came up when we were talking about Julia studying in Massachusetts. Today,  had been planning on just using pictures of the food on display at Open Door, but then I had the good conversation with Ruby and I literally gave them one of my blog business cards. Today, we ended up having 13 no-shows, most of which were at the end of the night. 

After I did my Open Door shift, I went home and had a third of a pizza (for the meds) with Papa, which reminds me that I did them this morning at 8:26 am with avocado toast. I’m trying to do more of the medication food by myself, and I think I did that this morning. 

Oh, and in the last photo, I have a picture of the pantry manager Sean talking to a brand new volunteer whose name I forget. Now at night, I’m just reflecting on the fact that this blog is one of the few things I can care about in the midst of my depression. I even showed it to Ruby tonight, highlighting the picture of Lee working as a greeter, which I took the day before yesterday.