I may come across as insensitive for a second here, but I don’t care.

The fact is I consider myself tolerant when it comes to Rochester’s homeless population.  I am sympathetic to a point.  And if I cross paths with a creative homeless individual, such as:

See also:

I might actually give up a buck.  I know times are tough.  Everyone is feeling the crunch of our economic crisis.  All that being said, what happened to me at lunch yesterday crosses the line and I have to share it with you.

One of my buddies needed to pay up on a bet we made through our Fantasy Football league.  Side note:  My team is still undefeated.  I may not lose a single game this year.  The terms of the bet were simple.  If he won, I would have had to buy him a delicious burrito for lunch.

We’re standing at the bar/counter, waiting for our food, and discussing guy stuff, when this guy walks in.  For a second I thought he may have actually been a patron.  Then he came over and stood by us.

He didn’t really say anything at first.  He just stood there.  Almost as if he wanted us to feel obligated to buy him some chips and guacamole.

So he’s just standing there making us all feel uncomfortable, and I start to prod a little.

“What’s up?”  “Do you need something?”  “Can we help you?”

These are questions that all came out of my mouth.  Now, if he would have answered by asking for a quarter, a dollar, or a chimichanga, I may have felt generous enough to help out a crack-head who’s down on his luck.  But that didn’t happen.

This was a homeless guy who didn’t know how to be a homeless guy.

After a few minutes of him trying to make friendly with us, while not asking us for anything, I finally bite.  “Dude, what’s your name?”, I ask.

His answer will remain legendary for years to come.

He pauses…looks at me sideways as if I asked him to solve a difficult math equation…pauses some more, and comes up with…

“Big Cheese”

Well, that set us off.  We all start asking to see Big Cheese’s I.D., because somehow we don’t believe that’s his real name.  I mean, think about it.  This guy didn’t do a single thing right to try and panhandle us.  And to top it off he’s a liar, and a bad one at that!

Again, I try to be sympathetic.  I try to think that if I help out a homeless person they aren’t going to blow it on drugs or booze.  Well, after Big Cheese, I am convinced.  They only want my money for booze or drugs.

So, Big Cheese continues to hang around until our food arrives.  I have absolutely no intention of eating my succulent burrito with Big Cheese staring at me.  At this point, he still hasn’t asked us for anything, and I am getting more aggravated by the second.  I finally snap, “Look, Big Cheese, do you need something? Because we’re just trying to enjoy our lunch.”

Big Cheese looks at me like he wants to do something, but doesn’t.  He turns and walks out.  I am shaking with anger.  Not just because my burrito experience had been tainted, but because I expected more out of Big Cheese.

I mean, when you are Big Cheese I’ve gotta think you can walk in to Xerox and demand an interview for the C.E.O. position.  That is the kind of tenacity that makes Big Cheese…well, Big Cheese.  But we did not see that.  Not today.  Big Cheese was clearly having an “off” day.

Maybe next time, Big Cheese.  Just maybe.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 10th, 2008 at 11:01 am and is filed under (d)Anger. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.