This past weekend, I was in Portland for a wedding. My hair normally takes like, 4 hours to dry and I prefer to air dry it, but I wanted it to be done by the wedding time. As I was roaming around the streets, I suddenly found this laundromat vent blowing hot, laundry-scented air out onto the sidewalk, and I hatched my plan.
I splayed out on the concrete underneath the vent, took some things out of some grocery bags that sat by me, and started texting on my phone. I sat there for some time drying my hair, when around the corner came two clearly, homeless men with plates of food in their hand.
”Uh, can we have our spot back? You’re sitting in our spot” they said.
I apologized, nervously packed my stuff into bags and realized how crazy I must have looked.
”If you’re cold, you can stay here with us” one of them said, and embarrassed, I wished them well and headed back for my hotel.