Iron Man

My aunt told me a story about Caleb.  It happened while she was watching him for me so I could go to my graduate school orientation. Caleb likes Iron Man...nay loves him!  He has two Iron Man costumes and a bunch of Iron Man toys.  My aunt took Caleb out to make a snowman in the back yard.  She had gotten him some Iron Man gloves but they were just the knit kind.  She told Caleb that maybe they might not be warm enough, that he might want some warmer gloves.  He told her No! he didn't need other gloves because these were made of iron and would be just fine.  After about 10 min out in the snow I guess the iron wasn't working so well because he humbly requested some warmer gloves so he could finish making his alien snowman.  Hehe!

Trains, Ferries, and Subways--Part 3

2/19/11--This is a short entry but by far the most emotional so far.

As I was sitting at the ferry station, I noticed a man coming towards me.  He was so obviously gay, I thought oh my goodness I can't wait to write about him.  His walk, his mannerisms...the clothes he was wearing...He was a tall, thin, african american man.  He had his long hair wrapped in a turban like twisty thing, and his beautiful skin and large eyes were amazingly accented by the pure silver eyeliner outlining his eyes, his lashes were lush and heavily mascara-ed.  He was impeccably dressed and minced as he walked.  He took these short steps, walking almost on his tip toes so that he almost glided...if he wasn't so bouncy.

He sat behind me and asked me,  "young miss, could you tell me what time the ferry arrives?"  "I believe they come every half hour, so 9:00"  "thank you...oh I'm sure I could have used these old trifocals to look at the ferry schedule over there, I can see anything from a million miles away with these things."  He made me smile, it made for a pleasant way to start the day.

He called someone on the phone, calling them honey and 'chile.  I thought he was sweet and he started telling his story,  "yes he came over for dinner, he presented me with flowers and a ring and said all that about being life partners..."  I stopped listening but I felt happy that he had found someone...unfortunantly I missed the explanation for what happened next..."I turned him around and he was all blue in the face, I had to lay him down on the ground and do chest compressions.  I was on the phone with 911 and I was able to get him breathing until the medics came, but he died on my floor.  They just left him there and I had to maneuver his body onto the bed.  I wasn't weirded out...I mean yes I was touching a dead body and that is strange, but it was still him..."

The ferry came and I had to get up and leave.  I wanted to tell him I was sorry and how horrible that was!  I wanted to ask him why they just left his partner there on the floor?  I wanted to ask if he had said yes or no to the proposal? But he was still talking on the phone and I didn't want to interrupt.  I was so sad for him.  I hope he is ok.  What a place I live in, that I get to peek into so many different lives...I move in and out of this persons frame of reference, and at each point of contact I learn about someone, or I get a smile that makes my day better or I smile and make their day better.  How lucky am I?

Tourist attraction

I am now a tourist attraction!  Let me explain...I saw a couple (obviously tourists from the huge camera around their neck) grab a man that rode the train and ferry with me and ask him if they could take his picture.  He wasn't famous and he wasn't strange or odd looking...quite simply he was a New Yorker and as such he and all the rest of us New Yorkers (it is so awesome to be able to be included in that group) we are now subjected to being in any number of touristy pictures just based on the fact that we live here.  It's a weird concept.  I don't feel like a tourist attraction, but I live in a city that boasts millions of visitors every year,  I'm one by default.  I wonder how many tourist pictures I'll wind up just from the action of walking in the background?  I have already been asked numerous times for directions while exiting out of the building my classes are in in Manhattan.  I have yet to be asked to take a picture for someone, but I have been captured in a tourist photo while walking behind the subjects on my way off a subway.  If they decide to keep the picture I'm now in some random person's album of their vacation as background.  Isn't being a New Yorker a wonderful thing!

Those baby blues...

Max the girl magnet and he doesn't even know it.  He created quite the stir in his new school and I have this on the authority of the Dean of his Academy.  Not only do all the girls just mingle around him hoping for his attention, they actually started dressing up and applying make-up on the second day to try to woo him.  The Dean took one of them aside and told her, "You are supposed to be making him feel welcome, not uncomfortable by flirting with him all the time!"  The girls response was, "But have you seen his eyes...he has those really big blue eyes!!"  Gosh that poor boy will never know what hit him!  You go girls!!