Warm (K)Nights update

So tonight I was part of the dinner-serving crew for our Warm Nights guests. We were supposed to start serving at 7 p.m., but the manager from the organization that runs Warm Nights for the Community Ministry wanted to have a meeting "for a few minutes" first. That dragged on for more than half an hour, so we had to put some of the food back in the warming oven and on top of the stove. *grumble* One of the other servers said it sounded like the manager was "reading the riot act" to the homeless guests about proper behavior. He could also hear a small kid fussing, probably because he or she was hungry.

Eventually the guests were liberated from their lecture and they chowed down. Twin boys were having their 4th birthday, so the manager had brought a Carvel ice cream cake. I thought that was very kind. Imagine spending a childhood birthday in a shelter.

Of course, because we served dinner late we were also late with cleaning up and making the bag lunches that the guests take with them when they leave in the morning. So I heard the last 10 minutes or so of President Obama's SOTU speech as I was driving home, but that was it.

Tomorrow night I get to spend the night on a cot at the church. That will be even more interesting.