.said papa got a brand new slack.

aka: Yesterday Morning.
Yesterday was one of those really long days - I was awake for 22 hours; night's just don't end in New York. I woke up at 7:30 (when I usually wake up for work) because I wanted to go to the Met before the Saturday crowds and it was a really lovely day. I ended up walking from West 4th to Union Square so I could transfer and pick up a coffee and bagel from this place I love between those two places - I held onto them so I could just eat it outside the museum or in the park.

The trip there was flawless and the walk to the museum is always great in the summer because the Upper East Side is essentially abandoned and you can just walk all over Park Avenue. The steps of the Met are under construction so I sat down at a shut off fountain (not even the vendors had set up) and as I was sitting down a woman came up to me. She was younger looking, holding papers, obviously wanting me to sign something. Instead of walking away which I'll admit I do most of the time (or yell things like ACLU?! Fuck that, I'm voting McCain!) I just sat and let her sit next to me. She told me about her organization and whatnot, how they collect stories from homeless people and tell them in Union Square. She told me her story about being an alcoholic and getting busted for weed and having her children taken away. She said that she got her stuff together and was helping others and getting small jobs from the museums on Fifth Avenue. Most of the time I take people's stories with a grain of salt (stemming from an experience involving a heroin addict with an imaginary baby and buying $80 worth of baby formula at a Save-A-Lot in Baltimore) but this woman just seemed to want a person to talk to. She didn't really ask me more than twice for a donation and we continued to talk even after I gave her the money I had (oddly my last dollars which made for a hilarious experience in the museum, but again, another time). She spoke about hope and determination and her aspirations about becoming president. I told her she was probably doing much better what she was doing now than being president.

While talking about her daughter whom she hadn't seen in 17 years but recently the daughter contacted/found her sister and wanted to see her it came to my mother and was she okay (her own mother died years ago), I mentioned that she had an accident and I was thinking a lot about it. She asked me why I wasn't there with her and I told her my mother said not to come. She thought I should have gone anyways but told me that I should take a photo of myself smiling and send it to her so she'll know I was thinking about her. And then, this woman I had met a few minutes earlier (even though, it probably ended up being 30-45 minutes she was sitting with me), grabbed my hands and closed her eyes and prayed. I've never been religious and I honestly cannot see myself ever becoming one day but the thing that struck me to holding back tears was that this stranger honestly prayed for someone she didn't know and asked God to look after her. She knew I didn't have any more money and didn't have to stay and talk with me and I didn't have to talk to her but that's how things happen and how they should have happened. It just....struck me, for lack of a better word. She thanked me and hugged me and walked away. I sat there staring at my bagel and coffee, but them away and just went into the museum - really unable to completely concentrate until I took that photo. Which I did and sent it to my mother. And maybe that woman was completely nuts but recently I've been having a little more faith in my fellow man (if not just a better understanding of the differences between them all) but maybe she'll take my advise about her daughter and it'll make the rest of the jackasses who will probably brush her off the rest of the weekend a little bit more tolerable.

And that was my Saturday morning....