Angry Burger

• Tweet
• Sharebar

• Tweet

I am in San Francisco, and it is just wonderful. I am here for RE BarCamp San Francisco and Inman Connect, and aside from some- well, let’s call it jet lag for want of a better word, I am excited and happy.

Yesterday was the first day of the two-pronged (un)/conference. At Trulia Headquarters, RE BarCamp began at 8:30. The entire day was filled with seminars given by one expert after another in the field of social media. My favorite part is learning about new technology. There is always something new coming out, and to me it is fascinating to see if the new apps address an issue that was found with a previous app, if the app combines the features of two or more preexisting apps, or if it is the result of an Einsteinian leap and is truly new. The taco truck came by at the end of the day.

Outside Trulia HQ with Hal Lublin as the Trulia Guy

Today was the first day of Inman. The morning was filled with workshops, which I did not attend, and the afternoon was conferences that touched on new technology and discussed where the market was trending (leveling off or improving, for the most part). The best part was just walking around talking  to everyone.

After the cocktail hour, I decided to walk home and take a break for a while. I walked for a bit, and decided to pop into a Burger King because I was hungry, and they were advertising Angry Burgers. That just seemed so funny I had to order one. I got my order and sat down at a bar facing the window. I notice restaurants doing that now for the advertisement value, and it seems to be effective.

As I was sitting there eating, a gentleman walked slowly by. He stopped at the trash can positioned in front of the window, reached his hand in, fished around for a bit, and came up with a closed box. He checked inside of it, found that there was something in it, took it out, and walked off eating.

A couple minutes later, a woman came up to the same trash can. She had a large pair of tongs, and proceeded to extract cans and bottles out of the receptacle. She left in a few minutes with her bounty, and was followed by another person- a man this time. He attempted to find himself something to eat but between the first man’s lucky find and the woman’s dumping the contents of the bottles back into the barrel, he came up empty handed.

What’s the point? I don’t know, other than it is an observation. Ginger Wilcox (@gingerw ) pointed out during R E BarCamp SF that 25% of the people in San Francisco did not have the money to meet their needs.

Can any one person fix this? Can ALL of us together with all of the resources possible at our disposal fix this? My guess is the answer is no, because you have addiction and mental illness tossed into the mix. I have dealt with both of these issues in family members- no, I take it back. I have not dealt with these issues. I have been forced to learn to accept these issues. I have been forced to learn to eat these issues for breakfast, lunch and supper, and trust me- that is the angriest sandwich I can imagine.

So when I see a person eating out of the trash can, the only thing that runs through my mind is, “That could be my son. That could be my daughter.” Because it could. And while I do not condone addiction or mental illness, I have to acknowledge it.

And I can’t help but buy my son or daughter lunch in spite of it.

Diane has too many children. If you choose, you may donate to the RE BarCamp Housing for Homeless initiative. The link is located in the right hand side bar.

Real estate or social media questions? Find me
...On Facebook where you can access a home search
...All of my online links
...On LinkedIn
...Email me at diane@realtyman.com
...or call 978-840-4014