ightwatch
OPERATION
March-April, 2010
 Newsletter
LIFE AT THE HOSPITALITY CENTER
Here are selections from our nightly log:
· “New Year's Day.  Expected to have only a modestly-sized crowd tonight, as we weren't sure that word got around that we would be open.  And a modestly-sized crowd it was.  It was pretty quiet for the first part of the evening as if everyone was pondering the significance of the new year.  J-- was bummed because someone had ripped off his wallet yesterday, depriving him of his bank card, food stamp card, etc.--and all of this on a long holiday weekend, when he can't do anything about it.” (Gary)
· “Very mellow evening.  Got to sit down and have some really SOLID conversations with C--and G--, and later with N--, S--, and S--.” (Jeremy)
· “The night started slowly, but picked up over time.  By 9, things were at normal activity.  There's been a lot of requests the past couple of nights for dry clothing, blankets, sleeping bags, as those sleeping outside have gotten wet from all the rain.  Because of the holidays, we haven't had the food from the deli's the past couple of weeks, so we've had to rely on our trusty baloney-and-cheese and tuna sandwiches—but everyone adjusted quite well.” (Gary)
· “Have some good conversations with C-- about politics and with some other folks about life in general.  E-- left at about 9:30 very upset.  I walked outside to try to talk to him but he didn't respond and just rode off on his bike.  The pleasant weather led a bunch of folks to hang out on the patio.  Only got one more sign-up for the scrabble tournament.  I will have to recruit during the week.” (Jeremy)
· “We thought it might be a quiet night considering the power outages earlier in the day, but we were proven wrong.  It was quite crowded right through 10pm.  C-- made a rare Thursday night visit, in addition to his usually strict Friday and Saturday night visits to Nightwatch.  A lot of people asking for blankets.  Also, a young man was standing outside the front door looking disoriented.  I stepped out to see if I could help him.  I had never seen him before and he had never been homeless by any stretch of the imagination.  I invited him in for a cup of coffee and he ended up staying to chat with people and helped to clean up at closing.  By the time he left he was much more cognizant of his surroundings, had a big smile on his
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face, and was quite grateful for us being here!” (Jeremy)
· “Tonight was amazing!  The staff and visitors were all so welcoming and engaging.  I will be back to play a full game of scrabble—thanks for everything!” (Mary)
· “Though we had a couple no-shows for the Scrabble tournament, we got people to fill in and the first two rounds went GREAT!  There was some good, fair, and fun scrabble-playing.  I heard a new one, though: ‘What's the rule for when a player falls asleep?’ Ben dozed off a little bit during the second round.  It was cause for quite a lot of