Did I Get Played?

The Lunar New Year didn’t get off to a great start, what with the mass shooting a few cities over in Monterey Park, and plans to begin restarting my walking routine this morning also did not get off to a good start.

I’d awakened at 2:00 a.m. with stuff on my mind, didn’t get back to sleep until around 5:00, and slept until 9:30 with no desire to head out.

At any rate, one thing that popped into my head at 2:00 a.m. was a delayed "Did I get played?" reaction to an article on MSN I’d read two days ago.

The context of the article was … "Have you ever been in a strip mall parking lot, maybe outside a food store, and seen something like this guy passionately playing the violin for money. Perhaps they had a sign that tugged at your heartstrings; but they weren’t just playing any violin, it was an electric violin, amplified through a speaker. Well, there’s a chance that person was a faker, pretending to play the instrument and that sweet sound was just a recording. ICE recently arrested a 22-year-old from Italy who made $80 grand doing that over the last year …………… these scams have taken place all over the country. Police have put out warnings saying you need to be careful giving money to these scammers because they may not be musicians but they are certainly artists."

It wasn’t until early this morning when my mind went back to April, when I’d posted about the musical street performer I’d run into when exiting Sprouts Farmer’s Market, made a $20 cash donation to his box, because I’d enjoyed his playing and appreciated his hustle — using his talent to provide "For food, for living" as written on his donation box.

Did I fall for a scam? Did I get played?

It’s so difficult these days to know who to trust. Who is legit. What’s a scam.

I’d previously blogged about leaving Walmart and spying a woman asking for help with rent and food. She had a child with her, and I’d wanted to give to her but the flow of traffic had prevented my stopping. THEN, at my next stop I spied a man, with a child, holding up a sign with the exact same wording and handwriting as on the sign as the one I’d seen at Walmart.

Several of you commented at the time that they are all cons.

There is a group of three who work the area of the Pain Cave and the parking lot of businesses across the street — a woman and two males. I’ve seen them around for years and, more than a few times, have recently tried to capture a photo of the few times I’d spied all three together, to blog about their activities after having learned how much money they make.

I’d mentioned previously that Trainer is somewhat the same kind of sucker I am — melts and falls for it sometimes. He once gave the woman in the group a jacket from his car when he saw her out in the cold, gave her a hot soup cup to warm up and has gotten to know the two guys, who recently told him they make about $60 A DAY!!! in donations.

It's easy to see how people will feel sorry for the woman, walking around barefoot, barely clothed, give her cash — not knowing she’s pimping for the guys.

I’ve never gotten close enough — by choice, to see what’s on the signs the guys hold up, but sometimes one of the guy dresses in a uniform to pull heartstrings that he’s a homeless vet.

He may be; but $60 a day is a lot of money to con folks out of.

So, though I don’t know if I got played by the musician or not, I do know I won’t, in the future, be dropping cash into the box of street musicians.

Speaking of being played … Just as I was finishing this post, I heard the footsteps coming up the stairs followed by a knock knock at the door.

Oh No! thought I. Which, by the way, is telling in itself because dread is not a good reaction to have to a visitor.

I assumed Talker’s granddaughter just wanted to give me a hug, which she did. But then she stepped inside, began looking around and asked, "Where’s Sunny?"

OMG Bob!, you were right. She wanted Sunny back.

No problem returning Sunny but, just like that, my patience of accepting her knocking, giving me hugs, gifting me, and my tolerating it all because I did not want to hurt her feelings came to an end.

"You’re an Indian Giver" said I. "Do you know what an Indian Giver is?"

She did not, so I explained it to her.

"Okay" said she, as she calmly bounced on outta here with Sunny, LOL.

Grandma Talker looked helpless and embarrassed as she said, "She was just supposed to come up and say goodbye".

Talker thinks that, because granddaughter took to me so quickly that there is a deeper spiritual thing going on.

I can accept that and also believe that people are brought into our lives and we into there’s for a reason.

I also believe that though the Universe gives us these assignments with each other, we don’t have to accept each and every assignment. We can say no.

I've been patient, I've been kind because I didn’t want to hurt granddaughter's little feelings and also because, not to be cruel, but it has crossed my mind a few times that she’s so sweet and guileless because that’s the way she now is from that two-story fall that showed no "physical" damage, but my patience has come to an end. I'm opting out of this assignment.

I still don’t want to hurt her feelings, but I won't be accepting any more gifts from her and will be going so far as to not answer the door next time she knocks.

Talker will know I’m inside, but maybe think I'm too occupied to come to the door.

She'll eventually get the message, when I fail to answer often enough, and will stop granddaughter from coming upstairs for any reason.