I've become obsessed with fotolog much the way I used to be obsessed with diaryland. It is more my style as I'm more visual than verbal. But I still like it here. I'm just finding things difficult to write about. Things in my personal life (relationship) are going well but other things are getting me down. My cat dying is really shitty and still so new. Last night I dreamed about her. She hurt her leg, much as she did in real life, and ran away (which she didn't do). After we'd decided she was gone for good, she came back but was still in a lot of pain. The dream was sad.

I've been going into work at noon every day this week in order to cover someone who is on vacation. I have to work late. I don't like it. Yesterday I decided to take some pictures and leasurely make my way downtown before I caught MAX to work. Walking down Yamhill street an older man with a backpack and cane commented on the picture I was taking. I explained it and we each kept walking in the same direction. I paused to take a couple more shots and to lag behind him. I don't generally like talking to strangers, maybe because of "stranger danger" as a kid, but probably just because I'm antisocial. When I got to the I-205 overpass I noticed the man drop his cane and backpack and rush over to something. My vision was obstructed by parked cars but I could tell there was something wrong. I hustled over to find him kneeling over a woman, naked from the waist down, splayed out, face bloodied, and unconcious. I called 911. Someone else already had, but by the look of it nobody else was around. I didn't know what to do. The man, who I later found out was a former paramedic, was trying to help the woman regain conciousness.

I stayed there until the police and the paramedics came. I didn't know what to do but I couldn't leave. The woman eventually came to and the paramedics took over for the man. I did the only thing I could think of, I picked up the man's belongings and gave them to him. And then I kept walking.

Images keep going through my mind of the woman. I see her lifeless body, half naked, bloodied. And then I see her come back and try to sit up. Try to understand what's just happened to her. Wondering who these people are standing over her. Wondering why she didn't have pants. Not understanding.

In the end, I can find many negatives about this situation. But the man who was just walking, minding his own business saw someone who was obviously homeless, obviously with drug and/or alcohol problems, and didn't even think twice before rushing to try and help her. He's a very good man. I wish I'd thought to tell him that before we went our separate ways.