After the blankets were distributed to the people who are sleeping in the lobby tonight, four people, including me, did not have a blanket. One of those people is sleeping on a cot; the rest of us are sleeping on mats on the floor.
I went to the front desk. I asked "Are there more blankets," and was told "No."
Although a guest is not supposed to go upstairs to the dorm when she didn't get a bed through the lottery except to take a shower, I know that there are blankets there and that there also might be another staff person who would try to get the blankets.
It took twenty minutes, during which I:
-tried to ask the supervisor for blankets, and was not even able to finish my sentence before she snapped at me "Go talk to the front desk; I'm busy."
-went directly to the second floor again because I had already tried to talk to the employee at the front desk and had been told "There are no more blankets."
-talked to two employees on the second floor, asking for 4 blankets.
-went to the office again and told the supervisor that 4 people needed blankets.
-stood there for a few minutes while the supervisor acted as if she hadn't heard what I had said or wasn't going to do anything about it.
-started to walk with the supervisor when she left the office, and then was told "Stay in the lobby."
-heard her start saying to the employee at the front desk not "Please get more blankets," but, angrily, "What happened when Lena Kochman asked you for more blankets?" The supervisor wasn't trying to get blankets; she was trying to find a way to construe the situation to make it seem as if I had done something wrong.
-went to the stairs that lead from the lobby to the front desk and said to the supervisor who was trying to find out how to make things harder for me "I'm calling and leaving a voicemail for your supervisor now about how you're refusing to get blankets for people."
to get 4 blankets from the second floor to the first floor.
It is almost 10:30 p.m. At 4:15 tomorrow morning, I will be woken up with the rest of the women who are sleeping in the lobby, and I will again begin the cycle of trying to function on a few hours of sleep until whenever the next night is that I'll get a bed from the lottery.
I got a bed the last few nights; today, I finally felt normal. I spent the first half of the week being sleep-deprived and the rest of the week getting over feeling like a zombie. In the winter, when all of the shelters are crowded, it's not unusual for people to sleep in the lobby for several nights in a row.
Copyright L. Kochman, September 25, 2015 @ 10:31 p.m.
