The Madonna House

I definitely need to start being more productive with my life. Just being lazy and bum-like was fun for a time, but after a few weeks I just start to feel so worthless. I need to have some kind of meaning to my life. I need to be doing something...something that means something.
And so I found a place here in Quincy that works with pregnant woman who need assistance, as well as offers a food pantry, diaper pantry and clothing closet to those in the community. I was instantly intrigued and wanted to offer my services. I called them up, set up a time to meet and then I journeyed to the Madonna House.
Turns out, it's about a 30 minute walk. Google insisted that I walk down 9th street the entire way. I wasn't really sure why, considering that it was on 12th street. I could have just walked down the same street all the way there. But, I thought that Google knew something that I didn't, and I wasn't about to get caught in some kind of scary area.
Well, little did I know that Google was, in fact, taking me through a very scary area.
The further I continued to walk, the more nervous I became. You know you're in a strange neighborhood when men are half naked and pulling heavy objects down the road in wagons. Or when a vehicle is driving down the road, but slows way down when passing you up.
I was walking past this maintenance garage, when all of a sudden I saw this man practically running toward me. He got to the edge of the driveway and started mumbling at me. He stated that "You went the wrong way. You should have gone through the back door." He continued to mumble other things that I could not understand.
I walked away quickly, thinking that I had indeed gone the wrong way. And next time I will not listen to Google. I also decided that next time I will not wear such bright clothing.

I finally made it to the Madonna House, but I was earlier than I had anticipated. So I decided to take a stroll to the next block. Oddly enough, I found the John Wood mansion and log cabin. I decided to walk around. Apparently, one could tour the place. I thought it would be fun for Phil and I to go there someday. But then I realized that it actually seemed quite lame. It was just a big house, probably a little bit bigger than the one I am living in now. They had a tiny store next to the "mansion", and it also doubled as the visitor center. After about 5 minutes I was bored with the place. Plus, it was about 94 degrees outside and I felt I might die of heat exhaustion. So I went to the Madonna House.

The ladies that work there are extremely nice and fun to be around. I decided that the Madonna House could be my new hang out place. I told them that I am not doing anything productive this summer, so I wouldn't mind volunteering any day out of the week. My experience there was fun, and I look forward to going back.

On the walk home, I decided that I would take 12th street the entire way. And I discovered why Google had sent me down 9th street. The two streets were just blocks from one another, yet they were drastically different. While 9th street was complete with houses that all had 'No Trespassing' signs on their doors, unmowed lawns, dingy looking houses and broken sidewalks (not to mention the half naked men pulling heavy objects down the street), 12th Street was filled with Mansion sized houses, freshly manicured lawns, great looking sidewalks and streets that were made of gold. Okay, maybe the streets were not made of gold, but they might as well have been.
And maybe Google didn't intentionally send me down 9th street so I would be aware of the odd and almost tragic difference between streets, but it sure opened up my eyes.