I had a strange day yesterday. It was overcast here in LA. I was walking from my apartment to the subway station. At the stoplight, a man approached me from behind.

He started talking about Trader Joe's and how he thinks there is one over across the street.

I tell him, "No, it's a hotel. it's a new hotel."

He says, "No, there's a Trader Joe's in there."

I say "Okay, I guess there's a Trader Joe's in there" and get ready to cross the street.

Then, he yells "Do you need help!?!" like super loud and I turn around.

There is a homeless woman collapsed on the ground next to me. . . and for a split second, I think I'm about to get jumped/jacked . . . like this is one weird sorta set up. like, i'm supposed to approach/try and help the woman on the ground and then they both grab me and hurt me and take all my money.

So, I just sorta freeze and try to gather all the pieces as quickly as I can. I want to help this woman but I don't want to get jacked. I notice that the homeless woman has urinated on herself and is shaking, so I decide this is for real. I go over to her and so does the Trader Joe's guy, who is really on the ball. He puts his jacket over her and finds a hospital bracelet on her and calls the ambulance. He's in full effect and I'm just sorta standing there, now feeling sorta ashamed . . . this is not a jacking, but a real person suffering, so I'm trying to figure out how I can help this woman . . . I can feel the lens totally shift inside my body. I tell her that I will stay with her until the ambulance gets here.

The ambulance arrives and then the Trader Joe's man says that I should get the EMT's number cause they are very attractive, and I think it's weird/funny/sexist and the EMTs smile and I smile and now I feel super gross. I ask if there's anything else I can do to help and they say no and then I say "goodbye" and cross the street.