Late Night Ramblings...

Hey all! Gonna try typing a blog from my phone here so bare with me if I make a ton of spelling errors! Im sitting here in the dead of night, 3am. Im going to be up for the next 30 hours straight. Gas station shift ends at 8am. I have a long day ahead of me. Im excited to see my artist pals at the MSU Comics Forum, which ends at 5. Then im Excited for a little coffee date I have after that. Then back to another late night shift til 8am the next day. My mind is in about a hundred places all at once. Im jamming to the new Marilyn Manson album. A guy comes in obviously distressed. He lost his cell phone in a cab and he wants to use my phone. I let him. He calls his girlfriend and I hear his conversation. Apparently his roommate is drunk and destroying thier place for some reason. This dude is obviously distressed and bummed out. He buys some chips and them goes to his car, only tomfind that he locked his keys inside. He starts crying from the stress of his killer night. So i pull out some tools and play MacGiver and finally get his door unlocked. He shakes my hand repeatedly and is sobbing. He's grateful. And all I did is just help a stranger.

Its like that on the night shift sometimes. All us nighthawks have to band together and keep each other safe. Last night a girl got stranded at a party and she came in to get warm. I let her stand by my space heater. We talked about her classes and she said ahe was going into art. We connected on that level. I gave her advice and warnings. Its up to her to heed them. She told me about a creepy frat guy who was trying really hard to get in her pants. Luckily she fought him off. The asshole. She got safely into a cab and got home happy.

To many, im just a humble cashier on the late shift. But to some, I can be a savior. A person there when they needed someone the most. I love helping strangers. East Lansing is full of them. Young drunk kids who just sometimes need an ear or a coat hanger to pry a door open. I think back to all the strangers who helped me at some point in my life. Wishing I could go back in time again to thank them. But its what we all do for each other. We, the nighthawks. The late night fools. We survive together.