I went to the nail salon a few weeks ago and I noticed a man sitting in the corner of the parking lot so I decided to donate some money to him.  He was friendly and thanked me.  He tried to hold a conversation with me as well.  However, I was running on a tight schedule that day so our conversation wasn’t very long.  I went inside the nail salon and was able to sit down at a pedicure station right away.  About 20 minutes had passed when all of a sudden the homeless man I gave money to earlier, walked into the nail salon that I was in.  The workers asked why he was there and they seemed startled that a homeless man was walking into their business.  The homeless man reassured them that he was waiting for the “pretty girl” and pointed at me.  This made me very uncomfortable and honestly, a little worried.  The workers didn’t think anything of it and offered him a seat.  My nails were now done and I went to pay for them.  The homeless man was nowhere to be seen.  However, as I was walking to my car I hear a man call out “hey!”  I looked and it was the homeless man waiting for me.  He started walking towards me and making small talk again.  However, he began to ask personal questions like what my last name was and where I was going.  He even asked for my number.  At this point I decided to cut him off and get in my car and drive away.

This entire experience was actually very nerve racking to me.  Being a female and alone, I didn’t feel very safe talking to this man.  However, I did give him money and I understand why he wanted to talk (I don’t mind being polite and making a little small talk) but it gave me a negative experience with the homeless.  It’s somewhat disheartening that these kind of homeless people are the ones who give the homeless communities bad reps but it was something I won’t forget.