Life in the Ghetto

I have heard many people gasp and look shocked when they find out where I live. My apartment isn't in the best part of town. I am in Dallas, but just barely. Yet, for all the noise people make about where I am, I find it to be a very entertaining place to live. Even my new boss when he heard where I was said it was NOT the 'hood or the ghetto, I live in Beirut.

At any given time there are all kinds of activities going on in my complex...hell, they don't even feel the need to observe daylight savings so we are in our own time zone if you look at the clock on the complex sign.

Most of the illegal activity happens outside the front gates. However enough illegal activity goes on in my complex that Domino's will NOT deliver at all and Pizza Hut will deliver until 7pm. No one, not even the cable company wants to come into this hood after dark.

I have heard at least 3 incidents involving gunfire, one was really freaky as I sat on the balcony and smoked, one, very loud shot...I figured they got their man.

There are no less than 8-10 corner boys working the corner selling drugs in the evening...not so much in the heat of the summer day, but once the sun goes down it is on. They have even approached company of mine to see if they needed anything when they stopped at the gas station to get a drink before coming into the complex. Oh and what seems to be the drug most frequently sold on the corner...crack. That gives us lots of crackheads roaming around and cluckers willing to do anything for a couple of dollars to get a fix.

There are at least 3 known hooker who also work the corner...scary thing...one of them is a crackhead that was put in my cell back in April when I got arrested for the last of the possession charges...WTF?!? I didn't expect to see a cell mate in the real world...that was just crazy!

We have 3-5 regular homeless people (men and women) who work the intersection around the highway...I keep thinking I should get their names so I can say HI and greet them by name when I pull up to the stoplight...I mean....they are basically neighbors, right?? LOL

So....with all of this insanity (did I mention the trap selling drugs in my building??), there is something so simply beautiful in this place that I doubt many people pay attention to. I was here about a week and was on the patio and noticed on the buildings across the way that there was green parrot drinking water. Now that seems odd, but here is what people really don't know...there is a damn FLOCK of these birds!!! It is something I feel so privileged to get to see, a flock of 6-10 green parrots flying in a CITY!!

Peace out my peeps.....try to find the beauty in the things around you.