5/27/09 - Phhhhbtt!

The baby on the train is bored.  Nothing her mother can do is appealing, and she has gone through every toy, including the plastic Dora the Explorer doll, the squeaky hammer, the bubble gun, and the cell phone (which, after chewing on, she proceeded to push all the buttons on and dialed, I think, Ireland).  Katie and I catch the baby's eyes just as she is about to have an aneurysm and start really freaking out, and we begin making faces and sticking our tongues out.  The baby does what babies do, and begins to stick her tongue out, and just like that we've altered the photos her family will cherish for years to come.

5/22/09 - They Will Soon Forget How Easy it Was

The kids playing in the field behind the Stone House in the Heights of Guam (see here for more info on that) are like dogs in the dog run. The two little boys and three little girls have found fluorescent orange tape that was used to rope off the grass while it was growing this spring, and they are playing tug-of-war and trailing it behind them in streamers of neon as they run, squealing, through the gradually falling dusk.

At first the boys and girls, who are from different families, circle around each other, the two brothers playing with each other, and the girls playing with the girls, until gradually the two groups fall in together, self-conscious for only a moment. One of the girls looks earnestly at one of the boys, both of them holding armfuls of bright orange, and says, "Do you want to play with us?"

5-20-08 Super-size enthusiasm

The entire corner by my subway stop is cordoned off with "CAUTION" tape, and a hardhatted man with a jackhammer and a look of concentration on his face methodically tears up the sidewalk.

A girl and her little brother walk down the stairs to the subway, she in a plaid skirt and white shirt, typical school uniform, he in a blazer over white shirt and skewed tie, and he says, "They tore that building down."

"Yeah," she replies, "they tore McDonald's down."

He thinks about this as they walk through the underpass to the subway station before yelling, "I love McDonald's!"