Irma (my fictional senior acquaintance)

Irma is probably the most unsympathetic, unenthusiastic, unsupportive person I've ever met. The best way to describe her is by thinking of words that start with un and you will probably have an accurate adjective every time... except for understanding. Simply put, she's just uncooperative, like the prefix itself.
She acts unhappy and underwhelmed all the time. She is unimpressed with everyone and everything and if the world does indeed end in 2012 (and if she makes it to 2012), she will most likely be found sitting on the same old bench outside of the home watching meteors hurtle towards the earth, screaming something like "You call this an apocalypse?" and then fading into angry muttering about something back in her day...

The Guy on 103rd and Central Park West

I've been thinking about homeless people lately. Maybe it's because once it gets hotter in New York, they start to hang around more outside. I think one thing that every New Yorker has in common is that they all have their neighborhood street people. They might not be homeless, but they hang around all day, every day. Sometimes there's more than one. Sometimes they come and go for periods of time. Sometimes you spot them far away from your neighborhood and it just feels wrong, even though you feel bad for feeling that way.
There's one man who is always on the corner of 103rd and Central Park West, right by the subway station. He's out there every single morning and most every night, just saying good morning to everyone and hoping for some change. He's on that corner almost year-round too. I've walked up Central Park West many a very late night and seen him just standing there in between crosswalks waiting. For what? I have no clue. Whoever's going into the subway that late probably can't afford to give him any money anyway.
He never hassles you or begs. He actually seems like he would be a pretty ncie guy, but I never talk to him beyond a "hello" or a "good morning" because time has taught me that I should just keep on walking. Maybe someday I'll stop and spend a minute or two.
He recently obtained a bicycle. Nothing too fancy or too shabby-- just your usual bike. The first time I saw it, he was biking just ahead of me on my side of the street, heading downtown. I saw him riding and I just smiled for a couple of blocks, caught up in the hilarity of the idea that he would have a bike. Thinking about it now, I don't really know why it was so funny, but it was. I guess it's that he doesn't really go anywhere that far away. For a second I thought he was headed to a distant location far downtown, beyond the subway station. But when I finally caught up to him, where had he stopped? At 103rd street, with his bike propped against a trash can.
I wonder if the bike was donated or if he actually bought it with his own money. I kind of hope that he bought it himself. I'm not sure if he's really "homeless" either. Where does he go when he's not on the corner? Where does he live? Where did he live?
What is his name?

4:20

I have the tendency to look at the clock at 4:20. It doesn't happen once in a while; it happens on average, probably about once every three days, but sometimes it's every day. It's especially odd because at 4:20, unlike 11:11 or 9:11 (which pop up a lot as well), I am usually only awake for one occurrence of this time each day. This means that I check my cell phone or look up at a subway clock or glance at the bottom right corner of my computer screen at exactly 4:20 almost every day. Never at 4:19 and never at 4:21. Weird.

Watershed Addiction Rehab

Seriously?

There's another rehab ad on my facebook that's been popping up for the past month, here and there. It's for Watershed Addiction Rehab (http://thewatershed.com/)

This is the picture for the ad... it's actually a picture of the center, but I always think of an italian ice stand with an umbrella when I see it... ----------------->

Facebook, you've done it again!

I've decided to take it humorously, so I clicked on the ad and read the homepage... this place actually looks quite nice.

And affordable!

And it's in Florida! (but they don't tell you where...)

So, I've decided that if I were to compare the two rehab centers that so desperately want to help me, I would probably choose the Watershed center... for these reasons.

I quote:

"We have combined excellence and compassion with all the necessary disciplines to address the disease of addiction in a drug rehab center to help you achieve recovery."

The other site didn't even mention anything about compassion... one point for Watershed!

"We feel that by maintaining affordable addiction treatment servies combined with the best quality care, we will be able to reach more individuals suffering from this life threatening disease."

Affordable is important, especially cause I'm not exactly raking in the dough...

"We can help you, no matter how desperate your situation may be."

I'd say this falls under "excellence and compassion" but I'll give Watershed another point for the emphasis!

and a clever ending too: "More importantly, can you afford not to..."

Well, yes.

But I appreciate the effort.

Honeydew

I bought a container of fruit salad at a little deli today.

I was really excited because fruit salad is the best.

You get pieces of every type of fruit

without having to cut it all up yourself.

Mine had cantaloupe, honeydew, kiwi, strawberry, and orange in it.

Except, when I actually opened the container

I felt a little ripped off.

The top looked like a wonderful array of fruits.

But as it turned out,

I only got one strawberry,

one piece of orange,

and one slice of kiwi

which were all sitting there at the top.

The rest of the fruit salad was cantaloupe and honeydew.

So I was a little saddened.

But then I got to thinking about honeydew.

What a wonderfully lovely word!

The fresh softness of morning dew

with a hint of sweetness.

It's the perfect description of the fruit, really.

And I wondered who named it that first.

What ordinary poet linked those words together

to create the most beautiful of compound words,

which would later describe

a good two thirds of my fruit salad.

A Word Of Wisdom (July 1, 2010)

Twins are not born alone, but they could die alone...