Hard to deal with, yes, but I did something

The theme I've set for myself here is roughly these things: don't hide from problems or life in general, DO speak even if I think I'll say something stupid, don't give up when the going gets rocky. I get enamored of an idea, like starting a blog or trying to change my behavior and perspective, and I won't continue. I get discouraged too easily.

I was worried that figuring out how to operate this blog was going to be too hard, but I persisted and managed to show links to some of my favorite blogs to visit. Woohoo! The problem was actually simple, refresh my page after changing html. The previous posts on Bloggerhelp were, yeah, helpful. I'm often surprised when things are simple. Now I'd like to try learning more about html.

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What I really want to share is an incident that occurred at the pawnshop yesterday. Yes, people who use drugs come to the pawnshop. They come to where you work, too, although you may not realize it. I will go into some thoughts on this later. Anyway, this girl came in, high as hell, and asked to use the phone to call her mom. Fine. Sometimes it's better to manage a scene like this without making a bigger scene by just kicking someone out.

It became apparent from her slurred conversation that mom didn't want to come pick her up, didn't want her to come "home." She told her mother she was cold where she was staying, she couldn't figure out how to get the thermostat to work. There's a good possibility that if she has no phone, her gas & electric is also turned off. After she got off the phone, she started asking employees to give her a ride to her mom's. As asst. mgr., I watched, exchanging looks with my coworkers, trying to determine what, if anything, I should do.

We determined that mom didn't live too far away, she knew where and how to get there, and a coworker suggested she walk there as no one was going to give her a ride. At that point I quietly suggested that if she needed help, I would call the local police. They are a city within the city force, well-respected, and I trust them more than cops in general to handle things rationally. She opted to walk and headed off in the direction of her mom's place.

I think she may have been asking customers in the parking lot for a ride, as a lady came in and expressed fear of this 5'5" slow-moving woman. Crackheads, methheads, they can be scary, but not this girl. I found out that last week, she was the person who had asked my husband in the parking lot to take her to the hospital. Coworkers said they thought she was living with a guy who was mistreating her.

Enough! Yes, this is sad and all too common. I've worked at other pawnshops, and at ours we are trying to buck the cold, bottomline, quasicriminal rep of this business. We are not separate from the community in which we operate. She was going about it the wrong way, but she was asking for help. I called the police anyway, gave a description, and asked them to keep an eye out for her. I see a lot of unhappy people and I can't, nor should I try, to save them all. I firmly believe that I can only save myself. If I do right, it is a purely selfish act for my own redemption; but I still hope that woman has the will to save herself.