homeless harassment

James had a high school beach bbq & bonfire tonight. The kids and I joined him at about 4:30 this afternoon, but poor James had been there since 7 am so he could get a firepit! Capri and JD thought it was so wild that we were on the beach at night, and they had so much fun. Of course there were tons of perfect picture opportunities - and yes, I forgot my camera. They were being so funny! At one point JD was rolling in the sand in just his undies, and Capri kept calling her little pool of water her "weasel pool". Later on, Capri (who had been eyeing these random cupcakes for so long), snuck over and grabbed a cupcake and came running by me at 100 miles an hour saying "I have a cupcake!!!!!". She promptly scarfed it in no time flat. She did this of course because I had told her not to do it about an hour earlier ( I didn't know whose they were!) but she couldn't take the guilt of being disobedient in secret! So funny! Then she started repeating lines from Pinkalicious. I'm telling you they were just hilarious. The baby was happy too, she just got passed around and held by all the girls and leaders. 

So here's the weird part:

I left the beach at about 9 ish. I drove away and toward the freeway. When I was approaching the corner I could see a homeless man with a sign in the center divider at the light. I noticed he was walking towards my car,but I just ignored him. Let's pause here for a moment. I'm not in the habit of just ignoring those in need. I prefer to help them. BUT - here it is really dark, I'm alone with the kids(no james) and I've been told by James repeatedly not to stop and help homeless people alone. So - I can't see the guys face, or his sign, because the streetlight is behind him shining in my face. Then I see him stick one finger out at me, then two, like he's counting - then shake his head and walk further down the divider where I can't quite see him. All the while he's talking to me, but I can't hear what he's saying. At this point I realize that my back car window is missing on the side he's on so he could reach in and grab the kids or my stuff with no effort at all.! I start to panic and grab my phone, it's dead. I'm locked in where I am, I can't move anywhere. So I just face forward and try to pretend he's not bugging me. THEN - he literally dashes across the street to the gas station, picks a flower, and then dashes back the the center divider. Yes, it's a very busy street. Next thing I know he's at my car again, then he's literally leaning on my car, lifting up my windshield wipers and placing his flower under there. I'm sitting there thinking, what in the world is going on? Why did he put the flower on my car? Why was he looking at me counting and shaking his head? Really, why did he do that? 

I was in a nice neighborhood. La Jolla Shores to be exact. It's beautiful there, and so very expensive. Why was he messing with me and my car with missing windows and cracked windshield? Surely if I had extra money to just be giving out I would replace the windows in my car first. Why not mess with the rich people surrounding me who might actually have something to give? I don't think the homeless man was being mean to me because I wasn't helping him. I think he was trying to be nice. But surely he must've understood that things like that freak girls out.... why didn't he do it to anybody else? Am I being a jerk or overanalyzing the situation? NO.  I was giving no signals that I wanted to communicate with him at all. I don't dislike homeless people. I just don't like to be harassed. 

Tomorrow we're beach camping in Coronado. And while we're off galavanting on the beach... poor James has two more neverending days ahead of him. He's teaching the high school study on tuesday night and the mid-week study in the sanctuary on weds. He's hoping thursday will have some sort of end to it...