Caution.

Hi peoples.

I'm thinking I should really change the theme of my blog, for a while anyway. There's just no time for Pinterest and crafting anymore. I'll think on it.

As another off-topic bolg, I decided to get a little more opinionated than usual (I can hear my mom thinking "is that possible?" Yes, yes it is.) and talk about Winnipeg downtown.

Usually Winnipeg downtown is an alright place to be, during the day anyway. There's tons of people around, lots going on, a lot to see, and you know, school and work and all that. But yesterday it was not the place to be. Yesterday it was the worst place to be. Ok, here's my story.

Well it's no secret to anyone that I'm a bit of a germaphobe. Ok, I'm a major germaphobe. I guess it's a sign when you have bottle and bottles of hand sanitizer, tubes and tubes of lysol wipes, and wash your hands 50 times on an average day that your excessiveness to stay clean is just that, excessive. So what I'm about to say probably won't mean quite as much to anyone else as it did to me. Anyway, I was walking to work after school and looked down at the sidewalk to see I was standing a huge puddle of blood. Honestly, someone could have died right where I was walking because that was not a good sight. But I kept walking and inside I could feel my stomach churning. Churning! I was thinking "I'm going to have to wash these boots, because that's really not cool." I'm so sensitive, I know.

Then when I got closer to work a man I know to be homeless was walking toward me and had a huge gash on his forehead. There was blood all down his face and front and he looked as though he had been dragged down the street on his back. The woman in front of me stopped and asked if he called an ambulance and he replied no. So she did it for him - such a nice woman.

I found out today that when my friend continued on to her car, she saw another man who was equally bloody and out of it further down the street. What is going on?!

I realize that I might sound awful here, but I just don't handle things like that. You need me to help you dig a hole for your inground pool? No problem. You need someone to take to your sister's 4-hour long dance recital? I'm your girl. You need me to put a band-aid on your paper cut? You'll have to ask someone else because I will not do that.

It was a lot to handle in a 2-block walk. Too much to handle and more than that today when I was walking to work I saw the same guy with the head gash standing on the street begging for money. Same place he always stands, wearing the same blood-stained jacket he was wearing yesterday. I don't understand. And I never will so there's probably no point saying anything about it, but why is it like this?

There has to be something we can do to make it better because having it like this is just a waste of a could-be wonderful place. It's not fun to see all of that in a matter of 10 minutes just like it's not fun to be afraid you're going to be mugged when you're walking from the bus stop to school in the morning or to be harrassed for money when you're clearly a student and clearly dirt broke (I did not wear a boot with a forming hole in the toe for fun).

I don't really know what I'm trying to say, all I know is something has to change before no one goes downtown. Where to start? I"ll have to start looking into that.

 M