Be careful what you wish for....

Let's just get it out there. There is no pleasing me.

You have all read my various posts about Maggie being ignored or invisible to society. You've probably gagged over my gushing love of San Francisco's quirkiness. Both of those were turned a bit on their head on Saturday.

Part of San Francisco's quirkiness is the homeless population which contains far too many people with mental illness who wander the streets lost in their craziness. This is a population that sees Maggie very well and always stops to engage in conversation with her. It's fine, though a bit uncomfortable at times Saturday was definitely uncomfortable.

We decided to go to the main library to check out the selection of books for the "Visually Impaired and Print Disabled." Maggie's vision teacher arranged for her to get this book reader specifically designed for the visually impaired. It could be a great thing for Maggie but so far she has shown very little interest. It didn't help that the two books they sent were about George Washington Carver and Growing your own vegetables. I thought if we found some stories that interested Maggie she might really take to this medium and could get interested in all sorts of books.

The main library is in Civic Center. City Hall, the Civic Auditorium, the State Court building and the Asian Art Museum, all fantastic buildings surround Civic Center Plaza. It looks very stately. It is also a haven for the homeless, who have nowhere else to go. Generally the area is teeming with people because there is always something going on. Saturday was strangely quiet and the more colorful individuals, who are generally part of the background ambiance, were front and center.

First a woman in the library asked a ton of  too personal questions and sort of followed us around. She was harmless, but a bit intrusive and inappropriate. Later, a man in the audio books department told Maggie and I to watch a certain move so we could grow spiritually, emotionally, physically and mathematically(?) and every other way. OK. A close talker with strong opinions but still harmless. We were polite, but kept moving.

We decided to walk over to City Hall. As we approached there was a group of well dressed people with large bouquets of flowers waiting on the steps. They were kind of blocking the wheelchair ramp but before we asked them to move, Steve popped up the steps to see if the building was opened. It was not. I stopped pushing Maggie while Steve went to check. Big mistake.

In the moment he ran up the five steps, a woman standing with the group came bounding toward Maggie and I. I hadn't noticed her before, assuming she was part of that group. But she was not, and I dare say that group was probably relieved that we happened along to draw her attention away from them.

She was shoeless, though, curiously, she had on what appeared to be brand new socks that matched her pants perfectly. Both were bright orange. She was missing a few teeth and her bare arms, visible because she was wearing only a .tank top, were badly scarred as though she had been terribly burned at some point. She started talking to Maggie as though I wasn't there. She was squatted next to the chair holding onto Maggie's tray with her face very close to Maggie's. "Hi baby, how are you. you are beautiful. I like you." I was very uncomfortable and then she started stroking Maggie's arm. Steve bounded right back down the steps and we looked at each other sort of stricken. We don't want to be unkind, but touching is NOT ok.

The woman wasn't doing any harm but she was way past the boundary and she was kind of freaking us out, Maggie included.  I just started pushing the chair making goodbye sounds. She didn't want us to leave, telling us to slow down and where are you going.  Why are you walking away? What's your hurry?"

We just strolled along as though nothing untoward had happened. It was just a couple of minutes. I never moved from the back of the chair because I wanted to get out of there. I could not see Maggie face. When Steve came back down he was as horrified as I was that this stranger, of questionable hygiene, was touching Maggie. He told me later that Maggie was giving her the "stink eye."

 I felt sick to my stomach. It was disconcerting on so many levels. Steve and I were both bothered by this tremendously. It's so wrong that this woman has to live on the streets and it's not her fault.. She was clearly mentally ill and obviously had gone through a lot of things in her life. But it's still not ok and I didn't stop her and that bothers me tremendously.   She was not violent, but she could have been. She did not hurt Maggie, but she could have. I just stood there trying to be polite and wanting to get away as fast as I could.

After this I will not complain (for a while) about people who ignore Maggie. In fact, the next twenty people who ignore Maggie or treat her like she's invisible might just get a big kiss from me.

Because that's not inappropriate at all.

Civic Minded Maggie

Yesterday we joined our friends Lori and Lily at the inauguration of Ed Lee as Mayor of San Francisco Mayor. Lily is 16 and a member of the Youth commission. Lily's mom Lori told us they were going and we rode Lily's coat tails right into City Hall for a fun and different outing on a Sunday.

As we approached City Hall. I was sitting at a red light wondering where in the world I was going to park because it was gong to be crowded.(found a blue zone easily though) I looked up and saw this and I am always taken by the beauty of City Hall.

We found our friends in the North Light Court, a room just off the rotunda, and tried to find a place that two wheelchairs would not completely block traffic. (Liliy is also in a wheelchair). We couldn't have two of them in the aisle or no one would be able to get through. I started to move to the other side of the room when I was approached by a woman who said, "I am with the Mayor's Office of Disability and we have some accessible seating in the rotunda if you would like to sit there." Sure! That's where everything was happening. Lily and Lori elected to stay where they were and watch it on the screen. That may have been the smarter move.

The accessible seating was very very close to all the action which would take place at the bottom of the grand staircase; however, it was around the corner from the front of the staircase and we were looking at the wall of the staircase unable to see anything. There was a screen, so I thought we would watch it there, but the screen was simply closed captions of the speeches etc for the hearing impaired. We are about 15 feet away from the Mayor as he is taking the oath in the top picture. We could hear it and we could read it, but we could not see anything. There was plenty to look at though. Just seeing all the people lined on all the levels was great.

It was fun. A photographer for China News Services was completely fascinated by Maggie's dynavox and kept taking pictures and asking questions. For all I know, Maggie is front page news somewhere. When the dignitaries started to arrive they had to walk right in front of us to get to their seats. We saw senators, congresswomen, mayors form various cities, tones of state officials and Sana Francisco officials as well.  I kept telling Maggie to wave and she did, but no one really even acknowledged her. Those politicians are something. They can move through a crowd smiling and shaking hands and never really make eye contact with anyone.  They move quickly too. I managed to get a shot of Pelosi and Feinstein but the others were by us in a flash. Maggie was unimpressed by the lot of them.

The speeches went on a little long and Maggie suddenly freaked out. I had to get up and move during the actual swearing in and the mayor's speech. The people around us were incredibly accommodating and let me stand off to one side with her. (It helps that Maggie cries silently.)  She calmed down and we stayed until the end of the ceremony but did not get in line to see the new mayor or anything.

Maggie was done with all the pomp and circumstance. She needed to get back to the center of the universe..

Government in Action

Mom Camp2.0 began last Friday because summer school ended last Thursday. Once again, it is my mission to entertain Ms. Maggie outside of the house every day.  We went shopping on Friday, went to Golden Gate Park on Saturday, walked with Grandma on Sunday and spent yesterday at Mountain lake Park.  I suggested numerous things to Maggie this morning and she was not interested in any. Museum? NO! Zoo? NO! shopping? NO!  Fisherman’s’Wharf? NO! Then I said, DO you want to go to City Hall and find out if Ed Lee is going to run for mayor? Yes!

Maggie is very civic minded.

San Francisco City Hall is a fantastic building. If you are local make it a point to go in there periodically. It is extremely beautiful and full of life, and today was no exception.  There were groups of people milling about, couples getting married and city officials running about. We went in to the Board of Supervisors Transportation committee meeting. It was cool to see the formal meeting taking place in the impressive chamber. It wasn’t exactly exciting, though. We stayed near the door,  I didn’t think Maggie would last very long. That meant we were right in front of the speakers. Every noise was so loud that Maggie kept jumping. I figured we better high tail it out of there before she freaked out.

We walked over to the Mayor’s office. (We did not see Mayor Lee to get the definitive answer on whether he will run in November.)There were lots of people milling about. One group in particular was about 30 strong. They were all large men, I believe from some sort of labor union. They were very polite, in fact several greeted Maggie enthusiastically. That made me smile.  Suddenly as we were standing right there with them, their leader huddled everyone together and said,  “Who are we?”  Those 30 men started exercising their right to free speech right there and then in unison and at the top of their lungs. It was some sort of demonstration and we were right in the middle of it.  Everything was friendly, quiet and orderly and suddenly they were shouting some sort of chant in unison.  Maggie and I both jumped about a mile.

The elevator door opened and I quickly pushed Maggie inside. She was really frightened and trying hard not to cry. A man in the elevator asked what floor and I said “anywhere but here.” I comforted Maggie and told him that the sudden yelling had frightened her. He said, “Hey, it scared me and I was upstairs.” For some reason that made Maggie laugh.

 So the civics lesson today was very thorough. We enjoyed the beauty of the showplace, saw the pageantry and formality of the committee meeting but had to admit it was boring and then were treated to a front row seat at a free speech demonstration. Mom camp can be very educational.

Now Maggie is contemplating a run for mayor.