You sure got a pretty mouth

I work in the White Stag building, ie the Skidmore block, ie the “Made In Oregon” building. The door to my office is under the Burnside Bridge. Each morning I get off the bus to the sweet smell of urine and each afternoon I step over the folks camped out on the bridge so that I can get to my bus stop. My encounters with the people who call the Burnside Bridge home have been varied but not scary or particularly unpleasant. We get to watch fights from our windows in the office and a couple times the police have even used our lovely view to catch shady characters. Also, I’m complimented constantly. Some compliments are… colorful : ‘girl you sure got a pretty mouth’, ‘look at the way them boobies shake up the stairs’, ‘Hey! Hey you! Girl! Blondie! Pretty girl! Get your fine ass over here!” But, some are lovely: “you look very nice today”, “look at that smile! You have a great day”. The lovely ones come from the gentlemen outside the rescue mission. There are about 5 guys (the number keeps growing. It started with one guy-my bodyguard) that wish me a good morning every day. I smile at them and wish them a good morning and generally they tell me to have a great day or not to work too hard. When I first started my job about 9 months ago, I got off the bus and there was a fight about a foot away from the bus door. One of these wonderful gentlemen stepped in front of the fight and basically guarded me through to the stairs. “Don’t you worry sweetheart, they’re just being idiots” he told me. These guys have by back. And today, I get off the bus and everyone tells me good morning and then 5 or 6 different people warn me to be careful on the stairs. I get this confused look and my bodyguard tells me “I’m real sorry darling but someone uh, well uh, just be careful.” Someone shit on the stairs, is what he was trying to tell me. Shit. On. The. Stairs. And it was right in my walking path. If my friends hadn’t been so kind as to warn me, I would have been texting away and probably slipped and fallen in stair shit. I love these guys. I keep forgetting to ask their names but I will remember one of these mornings. Moral of the story is to make friends with the local homeless because they will warn you if there is shit on the stairs.