Monday was a particularly good day because of this girl. Her name is Shannon and we went to downtown Hollywood. I met shannon Sunday (refer to previous posts). I was just minding my own business and eating my lunch when she asked if she could sit down with me. How could I say no? We had a wonderful conversation. She's going to Bible college and majoring in Psychology and Sociology. She's originally from Pennsylvania. During our chat over lunch she asked what I did on my days off, I of course said "what days off"? heh. I told her about playing cards for Starbursts with the interns and working mostly. She asked if I wanted to meet up with her and some of her friends on Monday to hang out. Absolutely I did! So we parted ways. Monday couldn't arrive fast enough. I showed up on the black top around 12:05 (not exactly on the dot.. oh yeah I'm smooth!) and she was the only one up there. Apparently her other buddies didn't show up. They've done this the past few Mondays she said. Flakes. So we tried to gather together some people with no avail (which was great). We went downstairs, I grabbed my cameras (thanks Mom!) and we walked to the bus stop (after visiting 7-11 for the essentials.) I had never taken the "Metro" before. It was pretty cool. We spent the whole trip talking to the bus driver about where he was from, what he did, what he wanted to to etc. His name was Larry and a lady that went on his route alot bought him a dictionary which he was very proud of. He loved semantics (the study of words), so we had a pretty stimulating conversation about words. Shannon thought I was brilliant. We said goodbye to Larry as we got off the bus. Shannon said that I was "Really intelligent, but in a way that doesn't make other people feel stupid." That was cool. I was blown away at how she was so friendly and interested in everyone as they got on the bus. She would greet them all as they got on or got off. This also began to worry me. I couldn't tell if she was friendly with everyone like she was with me. I couldn't and still can't tell. I don't think I like that. Then again, I've only hung out with her once so far. We proceeded down Highland Dr. towards Hollywood Blvd. I grabbed a few shots which I will upload. I think they'll come out. We grabbed photos here and there then we came upon two guys hanging out on the steps of the "Hollywood and Highland Mall". And there we stayed. I took a picture of one of the guys 'cause he wanted me to and Shannon jumped right into conversation with 'em. One of the guy's name was Derick the other was Sah-lah (or something like that). We just hung out on the steps and talked with these guys for about 45 minutes. I would snap the occasional shot and listen. They were both from New Jersey. Derick came out to California to get away from home pretty much, and his friend.. well I don't remember why he came out. Derick was looking for a job and Selah was getting into modeling. Shannon was totally friendly and very interested in their lives. Both were unsaved and we got to talk with them about Jesus a bit. It was awesome how God used the photography as a witnessing tool. Again I had that apprehension about Shannons instant friendship with total strangers. Maybe it's my insecurity or not, but the "social butterfly" type of girl is kind of a red flag to me. We'll see. From the steps we walked with our new found friends down to man's Chinese theater to look at the famous foot/hand prints. I got a couple of cool shots on the way over and Shannon did too. She took a picture of me at the Frank Sinatra spot and that was cool. We kept seeing the same shots so that was neat too. After that Shannon got a phone call and had to head back to the Dream Center. Derick wanted to talk with me about headsets so I gave him the Action House phone # so we could get in touch. Shannon and I headed back to the bus stop on Sunset. We played eye spy with the numerous signs at a tiny shopping center across the way. We talked about some pretty serious stuff like how many kids we wanted to have when we eventually got married to whoever. I told her that I wanted thirteen and I knew the names of all them already. Really? Yeah! I listed off thirteen names off the top of my head, she was bewildered. I was kidding. The bus arrived so we sat down. Shortly after we got on the bus a Mexican guy sat next to Shannon. She drummed up a conversation right away. She found out that a friend of his had been shot only a few days ago. Where he lived, how long he had lived in the area. Everything. I was amazed and worried again. Soon he got off and another man got on the bus. She got up and moved next to me so the guy had a place to put his bags. Thank God for bags. We talked some more. She asked about the scars on my arm. I told her the story as she took my arm in her hands and looked over my funky scars. I told her about the other scars on my hand as she looked over that with her fingers. That was cool. Nice moment. We got off the bus and headed back to the Dream Center. We got back just in time for dinner. I went back to my room to put the cameras away and she went to her room to put her stuff away. We met up again and ate dinner. That girl uses so much pepper you wouldn't believe it! Apparently eating pepper and hot stuff helps increase the metabolism. After dinner we talked about sociology again and our day. We went outside to the picnic tables and talked some more. I explained why the sky turns orangish/redish during sunsets and was once again amazed. Monday was a good day.