Nice To Meet You

everyone said that it's impossible to sleep here, and they were right. i'm hoping i get used to it, but in the meantime i'll entertain myself by taking photos of the sunrise.

***

later i went into manhattan to check out the fashion district. i wanted to go to mood, where they take the people on project runway, but it was closed. i guess i'll have to go again later to pick up fabric for my own stuff. it looks huge though. chris ended up coming to meet me at the little park by 34th and broadway.

while we were sitting there this homeless man came up and started talking to us. he must've been lonely because he talked to us for about an hour. he started out by asking us how we thought we should make spaghetti and meatballs. the conversation rambled all over the place, which during that time he smoked cigarettes and took sips out of liquor bottle. he told us how he worked at the postal service for years until he got fired for drinking. apparently they gave him several chances but he kept messing up. he told us about how he had a kidney removed, and how he had cancer and continuously got x-rayed, and then wondered, hey, wonder if these x-rays are what's making me sick! he asked chris what his sign was (sagittarius) and how his son is a sagittarius too, but he deals crack. he told us that back in his day you stayed away from "the white lady" which was heroin.

he tried to sell chris a watch, asking him if he was jewish and had rich parents. he started asking why we were here, asked chris if he was in the city to "visit this beautiful lady." he thought i was chris's girlfriend, and was like, how much does it cost to take this girl out, fifteen dollars? chris played along and said, oh no, way more than that, she's needy.

one thing that i did notice is that he did appear to address chris more than me- he wasn't exactly disrespectful, but he must go by the "women must be seen and not heard" ideals. and he did in fact tell me to cover my ears at one point and joked to chris about how he used to tell his wife, "i've got the penis, you do what i say."

he told us about ted turner chugging jack daniel's and how he doesn't really do that anymore. he reminisced about when cigarettes were 25 cents and admitted that he can't swim.

at one point he said, "i must be a little inebriated!" and obviously knew the cop walking around in the area, saying, "don't you need to go home to your wife?"

it was really interesting. i know the way i'm describing him comes off as really rude, sexist, and abrasive, but he was actually pretty friendly and i never felt uncomfortable. it was more just kind of funny. we didn't have to fight to get out of the conversation either... he just ended it politely when it was time, and finally asked me my sign. "A leo," he said. "One of the strongest signs- watch out, she'll dominate you!" he said to Chris, as his parting word.

before we said goodbye i asked him if i could take a photo- he wanted to make sure that his false teeth were in straight. unfortunately the photo's a little blurry, but i'm still glad i took it. this interaction was the last of several that i had this summer. me and erick really enjoyed having conversations with max, JC, and... steve? was that his name? all strangers who came and talked to us about random things, safely of course. i hope they continue to happen, i really enjoy them.

before he left he asked chris if he would draw his picture in my sketchbook- again, not asking me to draw, haha. i don't think he ever knew that i went to art school, too. i wasn't insulted, like i said, i just thought it was funny. you can see i started writing all the random stuff he was talking about down, since it was so off the wall. he asked if he could keep it, so i took a picture before i tore it out.