on the street
on my way to meet the pebbles after work yesterday, a number of colorful personalities presented themselves for observation.
one was a woman who could have been me at age 40 (still could be, i guess) had my personal fashion sense not taken a turn for the better somewhere between age 9 and, oh, 25. this woman was wearing a brilliant violet sweater, slightly redder-but-still-purple pants, black tennis shoes with lavender laces, and wearing a lilac-colored backpack. probably full of ribena. i would certainly have looked on her with awe, had i met her during the era of Everything Purple, when my favorite outfit was a royal purple knit skirt, lavender unicorn t-shirt and pale purple plastic jelly-shoes.
the next two were, individually, not that notable, but together, and seen within one block of each other, creepily coincidental in that each was wearing a (different) pair of boots that i own. now, i realize that these boots are not boots that i made myself, or bought in kyrgyzstan, or in any other way so unique that i should not expect to see other manifestations of them out and around in the city in which i live. however, i have not seen either pair on anyone else before, and yet here they both were within a single block. ok, maybe this was more significant to me than it should have been. OR perhaps my secret plan (so secret even i don't know about it!) to infiltrate and dominate the local fashion scene is starting to work! maybe i should go back to all purple and see what happens.
then there was the guy pushing a large parlor palm (or yucca tree or something) on a skateboard, uphill. it was nicely situated in a metallic green ceramic pot and must have weighed at least 20 kg. this guy was also wearing a green-and-black velvet-checked rugby-supporters-style top-hat. so was he just walking his pet yucca? or taking it to a new home - perhaps carrying it on the downhills (would have loved to see that) and pushing it up? or teaching it to skateboard in the center city? very mysterious.
and finally, although this is slightly cheating because i didn't walk past it yesterday but have walked past it before and know it's there, there is a sign that someone wheatpasted on a box outside my old office. it is a sheet of lined notebook paper, with a simple smiley-type face drawn on it, except the smile is a straight line. the eyes are large and round, and the whole drawing is done in ballpoint pen with multiple lines making each feature in order to darken it. underneath it says, 'this is the moon. it doesn't smile, but it's not sad either.' and i just like it.
