Reversal: Earth/Sky

The fog swirls around us as the dog beelines for her favorite tree. The moon stares down from right overhead, misty-eyed.

A dim couple crosses the street in the hazy glow of the stoplight, their conversation clouding into speech bubbles that hang in the air and dissipate after the speakers have passed.

The dog, finished, swings around to head home, while somewhere above, wind chimes on a fire-escape ring like a buoy in a dark ocean of sky.
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One year ago today: She Knew
Two years ago today: What Else Am I Gonna Do?
Three years ago today: Snow Walk
Nine years ago today: 2-07-08 Of Course

Danny Pt. 2

"So Danny comes around the corner, and he says, 'Can I borrow your phone?'" I'm really warming up to my story, now.

"So I get the number from him, dial it, and it's Pasquale, the guy he was talking about, like, he really exists!"

"They talk for a minute, Danny's complaining about having to walk ten blocks down to the cafe to meet Pasquale, and finally Danny gives me my phone back and just walks away leaving the skis and the blueberry lavender , saying, 'I'll see you when I get home.'"

"You're right, that sounds like it was the most interesting thing that happened to you this weekend," my friend replies, laughing.

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One year ago today: Expertise

Two years ago today: Poor Workman Blames His Tools

Three years ago today: Low Blood Sugar Blues

Nine years ago today: 2-6-08 a dream of divine love

Meeting Danny

The entire stairwell smells of smoke, and when I get to the vestibule of our apartment building, the dog and I see the source: a thin, bald, stubbled man in an old parka, dress pants, and jazz shoes sits on the stoop, smoking the remnant of what looks like his third swisher sweet and sucking down a Monster energy drink. Next to the butts of his cigars lie a one-hitter that looks like a cigarette, a thin, tightly-wrapped joint, a jar of blueberry-lavender preserves, and an old set of skis.

He sees me seeing him through the glass door of the building, and begins to gather up his his things, but something about the look of me, maybe, or the dog, changes his mind, and he smiles at me like he's recognizing an old friend.

"Hey," he says, sticking out his fist for a bump as I come out with the dog, "I'm Danny."

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One year ago today: Expertise

Two years ago today: Biometric Timebomb

Three years ago today: Thankless Work

Manipulation

"My brother hadn't spoken to Dad for over a year," says my dad over video chat, "so I sent him a telegram saying, 'Please disregard first telegram.'"

"His wife got him out of a Patriots game, and he called us," he continues. "Then I just said, 'Here's your dad."

When I compliment him on his scheme, he grins proudly, adding, "I read it in Reader's Digest."
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One year ago today: Subway Slashings
Two years ago today: Sounds the Same
Six years ago today: 2/4/11 The smell test
Nine years ago today: 2/4/08 Eli Manning is pretty cool, yeah

Alarmed

My concentration, never the best first thing in the morning, is further strained when the quiet of my pre-dawn yoga is split by a car alarm going off right in front of our building. It eventually stops on its own, but you know that if it goes off once without someone actively disarming it, it's going to go off again.

Before it does though, I hear voices outside arguing, and I recognize one of them as the voice of the beggar that hangs out on this block most days, yelling, demanding, "Listen, you gotta help me out, right now!"

His aggression worries me (is he mugging somebody? in front of my building?), and I rouse myself from the mat and go to the window, thinking maybe to lean out, shout, tell him to leave, but when I look down to the street below, I see him all bundled up against the cold, standing in the street on the driver's side of a yellow taxi, leaning down, and his voice takes on a pleading tone as he says to the cabbie, "You gotta help me, I need five dollars, give me the money, please."
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One year ago today (also featuring the beggar on our block): Why Downtown?
Two years ago today: Full Moon
Three years ago today: Timor Mortis Conturbat Me
Six years ago today: 2/3/11 what goes around comes around
Nine years ago today: 2-3-08 Accordian sweetness

Solidarity

The bodega, normally open all hours, is closed when I arrive home from work, but several people are gathered out in front of it, looking at some notices someone has taped to the metal shutters.

I lead the dog around the block in an effort to wear her out so she'll sleep well (old dogs, like people, tend to sleep poorly, and wander the halls at all hours, troubling the ghosts, startling the shadows, and keeping everyone else awake), and walk her by the bodega to see what's up. A woman stands in front, holding a sharpie, while several others sign pieces of paper taped to the storefront that say, "WE SUPPORT YOU."

"Care to show your support for the bodega owners closing in response to Trump's immigration ban?" the woman with the sharpie asks.
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One year ago today: Priorities
Two years ago today: They Can Smell it On You

Genetics

"Well, you are much younger than me," says the Chinese woman I work with, when I tell her I've only really lived two places in my whole life.

"Oh, I'm not sure about that," I say. "I won't make you guess: I'm 45."

"Oh, you must have asian genes," she says admiringly.
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One year ago today: Mundane Mindfulness
Two years ago today: Football is Manly
Three years ago today: Sometimes These Things Practically Write Themselves