Awww, she's just a little pocket-whore! (Yes, I am obsessively checking for your updates. What of it?)

The little issue of the judgment thing aside (maybe she's waiting for the bus?), I think that we all have this nesting instinct that says that we want to protect the place in which we live from perceived harm. She, herself, may not pose harm to you personally, but the people she might attract may (johns, crack dealers, etc.). And then there's the issue of what she represents and the reflection that has on your neighbourhood, and therefore on you personally.

In my soon-to-be neighbourhood, there is a dive of a restaurant that attracts "unsavoury" characters (so the neighbourhood watch committee says). Basically, they are a bunch of drunks who get belligerent, loud and often abusive to passers-by in the 'hood. When my condo is built, I will live less than 150m from this establishment, and I'm not really happy about that, considering I might arrive home late on a few occasions. Do I want to have to walk past that place at 2AM with dirty old drunks hanging out front? No, of course not. I wouldn't feel safe, actually. On the flip side, I also don't want people to think that I live in a "bad neighbourhood". So, I don't think you are unreasonable in wanting this woman (if she really is a crack whore) to get lost. But, that feeling is not far off the reason why many people move to the suburbs (god forbid!), so it troubles me that I want my neighbourhood to be a little cleaner and with a little less, um, texture. But isn't that why I live in the city? It's a conundrum.

She was definitely trying to hook. I've seen her attempting hookups. If she were waiting for the bus, she would have been at the bus stop. And no one waits for the bus at that stop, because it is one stop away from the end of the line.

I hadn't thought about the unsavoury types she might attract. I hadn't thought about anything except my own annoyance at what I perceive to be a pathetic person. But those are great reasons. I'll use them as the official ones if I ever do talk to the authorities.

"I hadn't thought about anything except my own annoyance at what I perceive to be a pathetic person."

Ahh, well that's a very different thing. Let me be devil's advocate: Why are you bothered by people you judge to be pathetic? Are you more bothered that you judged her to be pathetic, or that that you are bothered by her in the first place? What pathetic things about yourself do you see in her?

I guess that's a common assumption, that someone that is bothered by the way someone else is or what they do sees something in that person that they do not like in themselves. It's like the old implication that a homophobe is a homophobe because they are scared that they themselves might be gay. I don't generally buy that either unless I have good reason.

I don't see anything in her that I find pathetic about me. If there is anything pathetic about myself, I am generally okay with it until it impacts someone else, and even then I don't beat myself up over it. I just try to think of a way to overcome it.

Pathetic people have always bothered me, although no where near as much as they used to. My compassion and understanding came into being later in life, after I entered university. But every so often, I see someone who just drives me crazy with their (apparently) weak characters. I don't believe that this woman was hiding any vast reserves of quiet strength, except the "strength" that is required to put themselves out there and turn a trick.

Who knows? Maybe she is working to get an education, or to support a child. I still wish she weren't there all the damned time.