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8-14-08 For those still paying attention

I found a penny on the subway today, and tried to pick it up while the train was coming to a stop in the station, which may have been a bad idea. Imagine, if you will: me, bent over with my natural-born ass sticking way up in the air, knees bent while I try to maintain some balance, teetering on the verge of total disaster. It must have been quite a sight, and I laughed out loud at myself to preempt any criticisms my fellow passengers might have been thinking as they observed my antics.

Also, never pick up a fortune-cookie fortune that you find just lying on the ground, because you never know what kind of day you might end up having if you take somebody's discarded fortune.

7-18-08 I Went On Vacation...

...and now I'm back, so all of you clamoring for me to get back on the blogging, here is your vindication!

(sound of crickets chirping)

In South Carolina, I saw: alligators (lying like sullen logs on the shore of the lagoon in the backyard of the house we were in, and floating in said lagoon with an air of slightly disgruntled menace), herons (walking through murky water with delicate, mincing steps like fussy accountants who've stepped in something unpleasant), spanish moss (bearding every Live Oak Tree), egrets (orange and black beaked, staring with furious attention at nothing), raccoons (several, baby, all in a row tumbling across the bike path like retarded furry hunchback bandits), very very small crabs, very small clams (burrowing into the sand as the tide went out), dolphins (frolicking in the wake of a boat), pelicans (sailing in lock-formation a foot above the waves and maybe two feet from my head as I floated in the surf), and exactly no sharks.

I come back renewed and revived and feeling much less ill-disposed toward my new adopted boro, so here's hoping that lasts.

6-25-08 I happen to prefer pop.

A thick, short black guy in a white t-shirt and a black do-rag bops along the tunnel between the shuttle and the 4/5 train, headphones buried deep in his ears. He raps along with parts of the music playing in his head: “motherfucker! Shit… and I… cut ‘em out…. Ready ta….”

This is us. We bop along locked off in our own little world, regurgitating the tapes we’ve chosen as they play over and over in our heads, barely recognizing each other, barely even aware we’re repeating the words we heard, feeling safe, thinking we’re free.

6-24-08 ack-cent-ewe-ate the positive

A man who works in payroll at my day job, Santiago, has one arm, and he brings me cheese from a relative of his who apparently is involved with the manufacture of cheese, and who has extra. All of these seemingly unrelated facts are true.

He saw me making a cheese sandwich from cheese and bread I had brought to work and he asked me, "you like cheese? I'll bring you cheese," and that was that.

When I explained this situation to Katie she said, "One-armed Santiago who works in payroll brings you blocks of cheese? That's awesome."

6-23-08 Central Park, hot as balls

A hot day, and Central Park has a green, growing smell that takes me back ten years to the first month I was in New York. Having spent most of my life in the desert, I was amazed at this smell, the moisture in the air, the different quality of life, everything.

Right now, I'm wandering through the park, looking for the area where I'll be rehearsing a Shakespeare Play I'm writing the music for, sweating balls and carrying my guitar around. I finally get tired of looking and sit down on a rock, reading the novel I'm also carrying around like a brick in my back pack, while the mosquitoes feast on my flesh.

6-22-08 Seriously, is it just me?

I'm walking out of the bodega with my laundry over my shoulder as someone is trying to come in. I don't want to accidentally bump into him, and so I say, preemptively, "Pardon me."

Dude turns around and follows me out the store and a few feet down the street before stopping and watching me walk away. I make it about half-way down the block before turning around, and he is on the phone, occasionally looking my way as I continue to my apartment building.