Side Hustle Woes

I have a couple of favorite side hustles (side jobs), and one of them is taking pictures of landscaping at LDS or Mormon churches on about a month rotation. This was especially lucrative when I used to visit Arizona, because being that it borders Utah, there was practitically one on each corner. I had several days that I made $70-$75 per hour there doing these. Here are two pictures of interesting Sonoran desert plants I took on the properties of Mormon churches. 

And here is the one closest to my mother’s house- this particular bush just reminds me of a butt plug. Nonetheless, it’s a very nice, pretty and peaceful job to be doing. You’re allowed to do it Monday through Saturday. Sometimes you might run into missionaries, but they know who we are and what we’re doing. 

Once, a man was working on a car in a garage across from the Mormon church I was taking landscaping pics at. He walked across the street to approach me, and as I saw him approaching me I started to walk elsewhere but he skirted behind a tree in order to corner me. Basically, he assumed I was LDS and was trying to make me into a “real Christian”. I told him that I was not a member of this church and I was just working for a third party who the church paid for landscaping pictures. He asked me something to the effect of, well if you’re a real Christian why would you do business with them?  I simply asked in response, “Why would you live across the street?” He told me it was his parent’s house. I should have said something about him living with his parents but the truth was, I also was living with mine at the time, so. I just said look dude I tried to avoid you when I saw you approaching me and that it wasn’t really smart to approach women by themselves. He mumbled something about me being “lost” and went back to his mom’s garage. 

That was a couple years ago. A couple days ago, I took landscaping pics at another LDS church in a very small rural town here in Texas. Next door was a house that appeared to be someone’s house they lived in but also a home day care center. I could tell by the playground equipment and the type of fence they had- I know the state of Texas requires home daycares to have at least that type of fence. A woman came out and started yelling at me and I couldn’t understand her except for the word “fuck” and the word “devil”. Must be hard for her to run a daycare next to the devil’s house I’m sure! (Sarcasm). Luckily I was done and just got in my car and left. 

A good idea is just not to harass people for what religion they are or what you assume them to be. My mother is Greek Orthodox, and while she doesn’t cover her head, a lot of Greek Orthodox (Christian) women do and often are the targets of Islamophobia. I spent nine years of my most formative years living in the third most Mormon populous state in the country. I have Mormon friends and ex Mormon friends and I love them all. I think I pretty much have friends of all backgrounds now that I live in Houston. This is a very diverse city, even though everyone on the internet wants to hate it because it’s Texas. Let’s just all get along!!