Noche En Nueva York

I realize that this is becoming less and less regular. Oh well, I'm not going to regret it.

Anyway, sometimes the thing I love most about this city is how it can make me smile so unexpectedly. Four things today, that I can remember clearly:

1) After my workout at the gym today, I decided to run a few laps on the rooftop track because I felt so loose. Who did I meet up there but a pidgeon, acting accordingly with pigeon reputation and being a weirdo (I thought about making a whole blog entry about pigeons, because they're nuts. They've evolved to be just like New Yorkers, and surely could provide a very interesting case study should anyone take the time to notice them). Anyway, this one was pretty tame except for, upon first glance, it appeared to have only one leg. It was just chilling on the edge of the building, and I had to look closely that it actually did have two legs but chose to stand on one. I don't know. Maybe it saw a flamingo in a movie and thought that it could be a flamingo too if it stood on one leg.

2) I go to grab a decaf cappucino tonight at a great coffeeshop, where they seem to think of everything that could make a coffee person happy at night (including grilled cheeses, massive cakes and Magic Hat on tap). While I was digging out some cash, the cashier offered me the hot cup of coffee sitting on the counter - apparently he had just made it for someone who decided they didn't want it. I declined, in fact, though at any other point in a day I would have jumped on it. He then took the cup of coffee off in search of a kid he had just talked to whose date never showed up, and we both contemplated to pros and cons of shouting out, "Hey, who's the kid who got stood up? Do you want a free coffee?" Never found him, but probably because neither of us had the heart to call out for him. The coffee went to an employee who was making an orange juice (who drinks orange juice at 9 on a saturday night?) while the quirky cashier went on break.

3) Guy in a banana suit dancing in front of Jamba Juice on Saturday night. Really, a banana suit in SoHo? That guy deserves a raise. That or he was being punished for something he did - maybe he made someone a strawberry pineapple smoothie instead of a strawberry banana smoothie (hence the suit: "BANANA, BANANA, BANANA"). I walked by and he said hello to me, just like nothing was unusual. I actually couldn't help but laugh, because I had been standing across the street waiting for the light to change and watching the poor guy make the best of being a banana on a saturday night instead of doing anything else he would much rather have been doing. At least he had fun with it, and I would go to Jamba Juice if only for his sake.

4) And lastly, the man on the steps outside his front door, playing the violin as if he were serenading the neighborhood but really kind of just sucking. At first you think, "Ah, how beautiful." Then you listen and think, "Um, is it supposed to sound like that?" At least some New Yorkers put their egos to good use...