Thanks - giving reflection on an unexpected education

Spending many a night ranging from 10pm to 5am) at a local McDs where I went to use my time to work on projects, I became aware and awakened to a world unknown to me. Perhaps I may have been aware through literature or through a YouTube video about some of what I encountered. The experiences became intense, from just observing from a short distance to actually comforting and addressing situations directly myself.

Perhaps if you are a bystander and go there for 30 minutes to get a quick bite in the past, such as before the last month or so, there seemed to be an undercurrent life which existed.

Yes there were at times that there were those asking for money to buy some food at that time. It seemed it was from the population who did not work, slept in the restaurant or on the ground outside, was a user of some kind of drug, people passing through who had not gained a stationary situation where they were working and having at least some income.

Then, there were people who were in transit and would come in during the middle of the night as like an in between to train hub at Union Station or preparing to leave by plane in the early morning hours.

There were teens and college age students with their friends who would socialize there prior to Trump’s curfew and ICE restrictions.

People of all backgrounds would come through for food. A law graduate who had spine issues and would find a corner to eat, socialize, and relax. There could have been undercover agents or people there, but that was a sense and not a confirmed statement. One man was trying to talk a woman in working with him on handing part of a counterfeit business. In another instance, 2 boys and a girl were of high school age, who had just come from being drugged at a party they were invited to and sounded like were sexually taken advantage of and were pressured to participate in some sort of dark occult experience. The girl was really ill and the boys were thinking they needed to do a driveaway drop-off of this girl to her parent’s home, as they were scared of her true condition, more than feeling sick.

There were young men acting like a field person for a 3 letter agency, though it seemed they may have been on a contract project and not officially hired by an agency. His parents took crack while his mother was pregnant and later, and he had a difficult homelife. Another man decided he was ready to have a girlfriend now in his 50s, and he left home on his early teenage years due to a broken home. In his early years, he had been involved with collecting money from a version of a call girl’s income obtained from the customers she had sex work with. He is now using his artistic skills in a local newspaper.

Weeks ago I encountered a woman who seemed possessed with an entity or spirit other than her original soul. She had recognized me from McDonalds and spotted me walking on the sidewalk a block away. She came up to me in a voice that had a distinct low vibration and walked up to me and said emphatically, “I hate white people! I hate white women.” I am standing strong within myself to not let myself be affected by her or whatever was attached to her, and thought, what am I to say to that? That was her opinion but why was I her chosen target. Then 2 following nights/early mornings, she would approach me in McDs. One time went over to my things to view what I had in my 2 smaller carrying bags. I came up behind her but stayed quiet to see what she was going to do. She peered over to see I had technology and notebooks in my bags, and then walked away. Another time she came toward me and was about to start in the similar vein as the first time, and I said no, you need to walk away from me now (or words similar to that) and she left.

In the later months, I found myself talking with young men as they are grappling with what to do with their lives and what was important to them. I was asking them questions and guiding them to come up with their own answers, after I brought up of some ideas or solutions to meet the values they hold and to create a more solid foundation for themselves. They ultimately are the ones to act on and be inspired to act on an idea or ideas.

Now that I described much the later portion of a period of time where I am going through great change and having difficulty getting a steady rudder going in the water of life. In March 2025, I had run out of my available cash flow and any gift here-and-there supporting my apartment rental near the Wharf in SW of Washington DC and my many Airbnb reservations. So my plan was to work on projects to help support me going forward to produce a higher income and also to more fully use the temporary healthcare available to me to have a health review, though I had 4 ER visits which directed my managing myself and the discipline I needed to better handle myself and this unusual situation which I could not talk about. The reason for that was cultural, yes, but also it was a protection for myself. Vulnerability such as that can open a potential safety issue for myself, as some men and even women would enjoy the hunt on easy prey! While I am not cynical about humanity, there does seem to be pockets of humanity where dominance and control seem to be a problem. So I spent 9 months working on trying to birth projects - stronger body via a local health club I had been a member prior to leaving a rental situation - creating a course which I am now changing the platform which will be more automated for me - studying for a FINRA Series 3 Commodities Futures licensing exam - writing on my Substack blog - AND handling all the problems of not having a place to live and streamlining a storage space to be leaner. Sleeping or lack thereof was one of my biggest challenges. Much time later and after 2 ER visits, I found a place where I could go to sleep at least upright and in a safe, secure area. Initially I had stayed in the evenings awake and left for the gym around 4:30am to get to the gym by opening at 5:30am. That place was safe with regard to people, but there was a roach family that kept creeping up to me when sitting a bench on patio at a hospital entrance. There also was a rat who once discovered I was there despite how quiet I was, would start racing to me. I would talk to rat with a strong voice and point go over there. It would, but then felt the need to try again. So that made it hard to fully focus on what I was doing - whether writing a resume or on LinkedIn or trying to study for another type of financial exam, Certified Financial Analyst one.

Within this last week, McDs’s managers are sending out patrons now on much shorter timeframes, they disconnected the plugs where patrons would plug in their technology, and made it cooler to make it less hospitable to stay there at times. Now I am in a temporarily safe place locally, but let me reitereate temporary. So… my time now is to continue writing on my blog and perhaps it will be helpful to the readers. Also, it is critical to begin working with the public and receiving financial compensation to continue with creating a more solid foundation for myself.

The day I am writing this, I had just enjoyed an unexpected proper 3-course meal treated by a friend I had met when I had come back into DC after caring for my mother, her passing, and then, my own needed healing time in Charleston SC. I had been living sometimes comfortably yet not extravagant, to in the last 2 weeks, very frugal - which is hard to do if you are not cooking in your own home. Sometimes certain grocery stores have microwaves. Premade food can be expensive, yet having a food allergy seems to narrow the path to nutrition and sustenance - along with running out of cash flow until my government stipend i.e. SS. Numerically it is true to be of age, but I feel my life is just beginning and there is so much more I want to do before I pass from this earth.

Well that is my finally being able to talk about these last 9 months and perhaps they will shine a light for you in some way.

Today being Thanksgiving Holiday celebrated in the United States, I want to share that I am truly grateful for life. Having life allows me the possibility to create a new place in this world and to fruitfully produce which helps others around me to live a more fruitful life.

Thank you as a reader for being here on my blog and I appreciate your energy and time to read!

With warm regards,

Renée