We should have gone to Arby's

I blame swimming lessons.  Normally, my son Chazzy Chazz has swimming lessons on Mondays at 7:00.  There is no way we can all get home and have dinner and get to swimming lessons on time, so we all head to the "Fancy McDonalds" for dinner.  It is fast, the kids love it, and it is pretty close to swimming lessons.  Last week was the last week for this session of swimming lessons, so today we could do anything we wanted for dinner.  Well, it is Monday, and I wasn't in weekly meal planning mode yet, so we had to go out to eat.  The kids knew it was Monday, so they got all excited about McDonalds.  The big decision was what McDonalds should we go to.

• The McDonalds by Meijer is only about 2 miles away, but it always has a bunch of crazy people who sit around there all day.  The crazy people love to talk to the kids.
• The McDonalds by Sams club is good for drive through, but the lady inside always gets our order wrong.
• The Fancy McDonalds is fancy, but the workers always have attitude and I have to hear too much about their plans for how they are going to get home after work.

The only McDonalds that sounded good was Andrew's McDonalds.  Uncle Andrew claims that the McDonalds in Ypsilanti on Washtenaw has the best chicken nuggets, even though they look burned.  So we headed out to the place where everybody knows Uncle Andrew's name.

We got there right after the power had flickered and messed up a bunch of their machines.  That was only the start of the weirdness.

We all know our job when we get to McDonalds.  My husband takes the baby and finds a seat.  I order the food because I have the amazing ability to remember what everyone likes to eat.  The kids run back and forth between the two of us.

Traditionally my husband is very unapproachable.  He is tall, dark, handsome, and usually has a fierce look upon his face.  I am not unapproachable.  This unapproachability really comes in handy when you are walking through a market in Jamaica.  However, our children are adorable and they greatly reduce my husband's unapproachability, especially at McDonalds.  Today, while the hubby was sitting and waiting for the food, a guy came up to him and started talking.  I was giggling because my husband hates talking to strangers and there he was stuck.  It took a while to figure out the whole story of what was going on.  A young guy was claiming that he was homeless, and wanted to stay at a shelter in Ann Arbor.  He claimed the Ann Arbor shelter was filled up, he slept in a box last night,  but there was room in a shelter in Grand Rapids and he needed to get there.  Somehow, all this required that he borrow my husband's phone.  As the young guy is telling his story to my husband, an old guy comes up, gives my husband 5 bucks and tells him to spend it on the kids, but not to give it to this young guy.  A few small bits of food sprayed out of his mouth when he said it.  I think this caused the young guy to limit his request to using the phone and he didn't ask us for money.

The young guy never came to talk to me, but I heard him talking to most of the people in the restaurant.  For a minute he left with some really old guy, probably to get a ride somewhere, but he came back in shortly after that.

I am torn when it comes to people like this that need help.  On one hand, it is the right thing to do to help people.  On the other hand, you always hear about people who are begging just to get booze or drugs.  Either way, they always give you a sob story, but you don't know their motives.  They could intend to rob you or something worse.  I am glad my husband let the guy use his phone.  Even that would have made me nervous.  The guy could have stolen the phone.  While I was standing in line, I was really worried he would ask me for money and I was trying to decide how to respond.  When I finally got to our seat with the food, I heard the story about the old man and the 5 bucks.  The old guy had left by then, but the young homeless guy had not.  When I saw the money, I knew we had to give it to the homeless guy even though the old guy told us not to. 

I think we have to add Andrew's McDonalds to the "do not visit" list.  Do you think all this should tell me something about the type of people that frequent McDonalds?  What does it say about my family that we are in that group?  Is this a hint from the universe that we have to eat healthier?  What is your general philosophy when approached by panhandlers?