Samhain Ninjas

It's a crowded sidewalk, so I barely notice, or mind, when somebody kicks my heel as we're shuffling down the street among the hordes of trick-or-treaters and their parents.

"Sorry," says the teen politely as he and his crew flow smoothly around us like a hunting pack of wolves. They all sport hoodies and loose-fitting, soft pants, and they swing around trees and leap gracefully over obstructive bags of trash, dipping in and out of pedestrian traffic, glorying in their ease and comfort with their bodies.

As one does a completely amazing flip, head-over-heels over a wall in front of the church, while another dances trippingly along the top of the same wall like he's walking down the middle of the street, I say, "They're ninjas," because they are.

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One year ago today: I Alone Have Escaped to Tell Thee
Two years ago today: Halloween
Three years ago today: The D Train is Bat Country
Five years ago today: 10/31/11

Weather, Man

After the third gust from the open kitchen window ransacks the pictures hanging on the fridge, I look up from my typing to see the backyard trees convulsing in the wind of a sudden storm.

Katie and I quickly run downstairs to watch the riot, only to find an older gentleman with kind eyes and no umbrella taking shelter from the rain on our stoop beneath the outcropping roof. 

We reassure him that there's no need for him to vacate, and chat amiably while the clouds rend and reform from tatters into dark masses high above.

"The wind came up all of a sudden," he says, gesturing widely, "and it just blew all the leaves and trash straight up in the air."

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Two years ago today: Mansplaining Hiccups

Three years ago today: Another Show

Five years ago today: 10/30/11

The Horror

After watching a horror movie and arguing with Katie about why I can't hang (something about horror movies tends to precipitate an anxious existential crisis in me), I take the dog downstairs and, after she's done, sit on the front stoop to cool down.

A couple pass down the street, on their way to or from a party, together but walking separately, not speaking. I can tell they're together because they're wearing a couples costume - she's a fly, complete with wings and extra set of floppy, stuffed felt legs, while he's a green, fuzzy frog.

After some thinking, I've calmed down enough to go back upstairs (the problem's mostly with me, anyway), and I come back to myself to find the dog ready to go inside, staring past me to the door with a look of total longing, like she's been cast out of paradise forever.
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One year ago today: Anachronistic
Two years ago today: Haibun Without Haiku
Three years ago today: Jesus is Magic, But Can He Play Keyboard?
Five years ago today: 10/29/11 In October?
Six years ago today: 10-29-10 Some things you have to pay for after you've already used them

Lowered Taxes

I walk through the underground at Union Square subway station, unafraid, in no danger, hurrying along with hundreds, thousands of other commuters on their way to work on a Friday morning.

There was a time, not too long ago, when New York was a place of crime and terror, when every venture out of doors was an invitation to mayhem, to robbery and thievery, to the dangerous tax on just being alive that was just the price you willingly paid to live in the Center of the Universe.

This morning, a string quartet performs at the top of the stairs down to the N, R, and Q platform, backed by a pristine white tile wall so clean as to be antiseptic.  A quiet, tasteful rendition of "Smooth Criminal" sings from their instruments, drifting above the white noise of the trains rumbling through the station, but everyone except the tourists ignores them completely.

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One year ago today: So Much For Atmosphere
Two years ago today: Dinner Party (Nioi)
Five years ago today: 10/28/11 - What's the worst that could happen?
Six years ago today: 10-28-10 reminds me of the day I proposed

A Walk in the Rain

The dog clambers down the stoop onto the wet sidewalk, takes a beat, and then, as the rain pours down, looks up at me with the most accusing eyes I've ever seen.

Once I get her to walk again (she sniffs in disgust at her low, quickly moistening state), we walk over to her favorite tree, but once there, she noses the ground a couple times, and then, lifting her paws gingerly, pulls me away.

We go to another, scrawnier tree, so skinny we don't normally allow her to pee on it for fear of killing the withering thing, but she somehow knows that the deluge has suspended the rules, and she does her business in the rain.

Back inside, her fur glistens as if dusted in diamonds, until I try to wipe her down with a Shamwow, and suddenly she's like some kind of enormous, bristly sponge, with a vaguely doggy smell.

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One year ago today: Not As Helpful As I Could Have Been
Two years ago today: Hands
Three years ago today: That's That
Five years ago today: 10-27-11 safe
Six years ago today: 10-27-10 let's pretend

Subways and Means

"Now, you're not pushing me on purpose, are you?" I finally say, turning to the woman who's been shoving what feels like a purse full of bricks into the small of my back for the entire train ride.

"No!" she says, pointing over her shoulder to a tiny, curly-headed child gripping the pole by the door who looks like he's about to be swallowed up in the crowd.

"Let's give you some room," I say, mashing myself into the subway pole, and she flashes me a grateful look as the entire car redistributes its mass around them.

I feel that familiar rush of pleasure I get at being helpful, but the remnants of the adrenaline hum of aggression I was about to unleash on the woman I thought was pushing me spoil my self-congratulatory joy.

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One year ago today: Risky
Two years ago today: Cat Scratch, No Fever
Three years ago today: This Sounds Kinda Perfect
Six years ago today: 10-26-16 (though I could still use the money)

Please Don't Tell My Boss

"I'm good," I say to my friend at work. "It's just, staring at the screen all day and not moving around, I really don't belong in an office."

She shakes her head sadly. "No you don't."
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One year ago today: Walking Distance
Two years ago today: The Time of the Season
Six years ago today: 10-25-10 - the hutch