The Man on the Train

I sat across from a man on the train today.  This is him:

As you can see, he has no shirt on. He also smelled, but he wasn't overbearingly smelly. He asked me the time, I told him and he said thank you. There was also no one sitting around him. Some people stepped into the train, looked at him with disgust, and moved to the other end of the car. Other people walked into the car, covered their nose and mouth with their arm, and scurried as fast as possible into the next car, while giggling or saying things like "Oh, my god" or "Whaaaat?" or "Ewwwww"

I have my own unanswered questions for this guy like "How did you get to this point in life where you are sitting on the train with no shirt on and smelly?"

I don't know, internet. But I do know that my heart sank watching the actions of my fellow humans earlier today. What did this man do to anyone? Whatever he did or did not do does not make it okay for anyone to turn their noses up in disgust at him.

He is human. He has a heart. He has feelings.

When we hate one person, we are hating ourselves, too.

supposed musings

I went to a yoga class with Natalie this evening. It is something that I promised her that I would do while she is visiting me. Yoga is something I appreciate, and I'm happy that other people do, but I'm not particularly interested in it myself.

Natalie searched online and found a by donation yoga studio, which means that you come and practice yoga for free and you donate what you can for the class. She picked me up from work, we stopped to eat and then headed over to the studio. Rang the bell and were promptly directed to the fourth floor by a smiling yogini.

"Fourth floor? I thought this was supposed to be on the second floor, now I have to walk up two more flights?" 

I trudge up the staircases and reach the fourth floor, lallygagging behind Natalie.

I rent a mat from another nice yogini, change into my yoga clothes and we begin practice.There is a woman who could possibly be a post op transsexual beside me, with a painted on face, wearing entirely too much fragrance and making it very difficult for me to inhale freely.

I attempt maybe the first five moves before collapsing into Dead Man's pose and meditating for the rest of the class. Natalie said she had a fun time and that made me happy. Now I'm going to have to go undo all this twisting and turning at my next Chiropractor visit.

on running into people I already know

Ate in Chinatown with Natalie today. Ran into old acquaintances right by the Union Square farmers market, then bumped into ex boyfriend on the way to the one train.

Very curious...

An overload of awesome

This morning I got up and discovered that my trusted pink BlackBerry was out of sorts. The trackball decided to no longer be willing to scroll in an upwards motion, thus making navigation utterly difficult and naturally making me feel as if my left arm had just been cut off.

My twin sister Natalie and I decided to walk over to the Verizon store and retrieve a replacement phone, a transaction that should take less than an hour, yes? Boy, were we wrong! We got to the Verizon store, which just happened to be about a ten block walk from my apartment, at 11:30AM.

Fast forward three hours in which I had to get an access code, pay for a replacement phone, forgo the pink BlackBerry for a shiny silver one, listen to the store associate tell me that the phone had to come from another store and would arrive in half an hour, and then when half an hour passes, tell me that the phone would arrive in another half an hour, at which point we left the store so I could go home, shower, change and pack for a photoshoot that I was to leave for at 2pm, walk back to the store only to have the store associate tell me that my new BlackBerry had not arrived yet, but he assured me that it would be there in five minutes, as he had just spoken to the driver who was in charge of returning me my left arm.

The time was now quarter after two so I borrowed Natalie's phone to leave a message for the photographer to let him know I was going to be late for my pick up time. 

The secret agent from the store yonder finally came and delivered my left arm in the form of a shiny new Silver BlackBerry and the store associate hurriedly activated it for me and sent me on my way, but not before thanking me for being so patient.

I got to the pick up location only fifiteen minutes after 3pm, quite proud of myself. The photo shoot was a blast and many amazing pictures were taken, will update more about it later, but right now I must head off to dream land!

© Michael Raso 8/11/10

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