... for your thoughts
i once joked with a friend about that macy's day parade and how it precedes the "biggest shopping day of the year".
"if it's the biggest shopping day of the year, how come i'm not shopping," i unfunnily said.
i've been spending some time back in new york, and today, upon ill advice, i went to century 21.
i begged two people's pardons as i tried to get past a handbag display. neither of the congesting parties heard me, so i gently placed my hand on the shoulder of one of them: the gay one. he was yelling across a counter to a friend; asking for advice on a special and unique item.
"sorry, can i get by?" i repeated.
he turned around. "don't push," he bitched. the little bitch.
"i didn't push. i'd just like to get by. there's like this much room." i fairly demonstrated with my hands how much room there was. had i tried to squeeze through this demonstrated space, he really would have been pushed.
"i'm talking with my friend. just wait."
i hated century 21 and promptly left, purchaseless. i sat in a coffeeshop on broadway to decompress and people watch. it was a rainy day, from beginning to end. a homeless, or an ex-homeless, man was collecting money for a homeless organization. he was draped in a rain poncho, but it was doing no good. i was watching him not collect a cent.
i noticed that the jug into which people were supposed to put money had a little white paper cup over the mouth of it, to protect the money from the rain.
i burst into tears.
posted by sass @ 11:34 PM
4 Comments:
Maybe it IS a Montreal thing, touching people gently to get by. (All the men were talking about that, although in a slightly different context, on taco night.)
Ah New York. Where else could you make a polite request and get shot down?
Wow. I so know how you were feeling here. Kind of like an open wound. It's okay, it's not always this way. Some days are better than others.
In re-writing this story in my head (sort of cinematically), I watch you seethe for a minute after the gay guy disses you. Then you sweetly, and sincerely muster conspiratorialy to him, "Oh my Gawd! That's Gwyneth Paltrow eating a donut over there!" "Ohmigod WHERE???" He yelps and scrambles away. Then you laugh your ass off.
You reach into your purse for any loose change you might have. You only have a quarter. You take it over to the guy collecting money and he takes it, dropping it into his jug. "Thank you, Pretty Lady. May God bless you." And you smile and thank him, and feel pretty blessed afterall.
;)
I *love* Christina's rewrite. Would love to think mean guy would also trip and knock over a huge display of something on his way to find fictitious Gwyneth with her doughnut....
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