ANOTHER DAY....ANOTHER FRAPPUCCINO

Another lovely morning in the land of sunshine and ocean breeze.  And I was all excited to go for my morning walk. The goal was to walk down Bacon, turn left on Santa Monica and stop by the post office to find out why one of my packages has not arrived at its intended destination, order and sip my special treat and go move my car from a block away where I had to park it the night before.

So, with my FREE COUPON in hand, I stopped on Newport and Bacon and ordered a Vente, non-fat, lo-cal, no-whip Java Chip Frappuccino. Pure yummy-ness!

 So far, so good. I walked up Abbott Street and down Long Branch toward my car and then my home. Just as I spied my car, I also spied her. The dark woman. Remember the one that took my frappuccino? Yeah, that one.

As I walked nearer to the corner, guess what the first thing I thought of was?

How is she doing? ...no

Does she have food to eat?  ...no

Has she heard about Jesus?  *sheepishly* ...no

I THOUGHT ABOUT MY FRAPPUCCINO! Yes, I did! I thought, please Lord, don't ask me to give it to her again.

So rather than going to my car, I crossed the street and approached her. She was standing on the corner of Bacon and Long Branch (MY street!)

"Good Morning!"

She returned the greeting while staring off into the distance at something unknown to both of us.

"How is your day going so far?"

"I am waiting for somebody to pick me up." (while munching on dry top ramen noodles)

"Where are you going?"

"I am leaving here. Leaving California! I am going past the point of Mexico..."

"Are you driving to Mexico?"

"No! I said PAST the point of Mexico! All the way down..."

"That's a long drive. Are your friends taking you?"

"Is this an interrogation? I am a lawyer and will arrest you if you don't stop bugging me!" (at this point ramen noodles are falling out of her almost toothless mouth.)

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable with my questions. I was just curious."

"I can put you in jail and you will have to take the stand!"

"I just recognized you from the other day. I met you in the alley."

"Oh, you did? Well, YOUR friend knocked out my front teeth!" (more stray ramens on her chin...)

"Really? Hmmmm....I don't have any friends like that, so it wasn't my friend who did it."

 At this point, I could feel her agitation, so I decided to exit our "friendly" conversation.

"Goodbye. Have a nice trip."

"Thank You - Goodbye" (agitation disappeared.)

I decided to walk down Muir to Cable and approach my house from the other direction and save my car until later.  Secretly, I was nervous that she might take note of my car and I felt a little tiny bit jittery when she raised her voice to me (it could have been the caffeine from the frappuccino.)

Nonetheless, I walked a circuitous route.

I had hoped to see her again. I wanted to know if she would recognize me. I had visions of striking up an unlikely friendship and leading her to Jesus and helping her get off the streets and back to her life and family that she left. It would have made a tear-jerking Lifetime movie.

...and I would have smugly walked off into the sunset. Mother Teresa Cindie saves another life.

Instead, I walked off into the streets of Ocean Beach still sipping on my frappuccino.