the jackmans

This evening Tom and I were wandering around Westwood and we noticed a group of policemen arresting a homeless man for drugs in front of a Starbucks. There were several people standing around watching the old man be handcuffed. It was an incredibly sad thing to watch. After living in Westwood for several months, I have become pretty familiar with the homeless people who live in the neighborhood. There are A LOT of them. Some of them come and go, but most of them are always around and always talking to themselves. There is one guy who usually sits on a bench on Broxton and he wears about fifteen sweaters at once. Even in the summer. There is another guy who sits on a crate on a corner that I pass on my way to work everyday. He sounds like he is preaching, but his speech is so slurred that I can't understand what he's saying. Before living here, I had very little interaction with the homeless. In Pittsburg I knew plenty of really poor people, but I don't think any of them were homeless. In Salt Lake I lived in the suburbs and even though I tried to go downtown pretty frequently, Salt Lake is so nice and clean that the homeless people didn't really seem that homeless. Now, I see homeless people everywhere. And it is just unbelievably sad.

I don't really know how to segue out of that subject so I'm not really going to try. Tom called me yesterday with some exciting news: he had fit into his pre-mission shorts. This has been a goal of his over the last few months, and they finally fit :) He still wants to lose about five pounds, but I think he looks absolutely fantastic the way that he is. I couldn't be more proud of him. Speaking of Tom, he finished class a couple days ago and now he is just getting ready for finals. His last final is on May 14th and then we are going to go on a nice little vacation to San Diego. I think we both really need one.







I continue to be glad that we don't drive our car very often.
I keep seeing this articles on msnbc.com about how gas prices are supposed to be going down, yet they continue to rise. Speaking of msnbc.com, I hate the new layout of the website. Tom and I both read their articles frequently, but the new font they are using for their headlines is driving me crazy. We actually both read several articles from the website and then enjoy discussing them when we get home. I think the new msnbc.com font is ruining my life. I am so glad tomorrow is Friday.