I woke up (after a long crazy night that involved rollerskating while drinking) and found this on my desk:
Archive for March, 2008
Awkward Cat Calls
As a lady in New York City, you deal with a number of different trials and tribulations. Finding a bathroom immediately when it’s your lady time of the month, negotiating walking over subway grates while wearing lady high heels, enduring graphic comments from grimy men on the street that make you wish you weren’t a lady…
I’ve experienced and dealt with all of these things on a semi-regular basis with varying degrees of difficulty since I’ve been working/living here. I’ve mastered balancing on the balls of my feet over grates, have a personal map (in my head) of all clean and accessible bathrooms in the vicinity of my usual stomping ground, and I generally blast my ipod and then invent different things that the guys passing by might be saying for my own amusement.
Today I was in a rush getting to work and didn’t have a chance to take out my ipod. A man walking toward me hocked a nice big loogey as he approached me. I went into robot lady mode where I pretend not to see anyone or anything around me. As he passed, I saw him look me up and down. His eyes rested on my shoes and he simply said. “Pretty feet.” (But with a strong gangsta-thug attitude) Like… it was an assertion, not a comment. “Pretty FEET!”
I was sort of intrigued. What happened in his head in the ten seconds he had me in his sights that made him say that? Are there a lot of bums/street thugs who go around critiquing lady’s shoes?
“Damn. Them Jimmy Choos is so last season, gurl.” …for example?
It’s probably just wishful thinking on my part.
…but I really hope not.
Homeless guys have feelings, too.
I was getting on the subway the other day, and this homeless guy (whose resemblance to Santa Claus was uncanny, btw) was sleeping on the long dark blue subway seat/bench. It was one of those moments when you walk on and then realize that you have definitely chosen the wrong car. His smell was amazingly potent.
When he saw that many people were getting on, he sat up and moved his crushed miller lite can and paper bag so that someone could sit next to him. Very considerate, I thought.
Shockingly, no one took notice of this gesture and the seat remained empty. One woman chose to stand next to him. The man who sat closest to him immediately regretted his decision to do so, as evidenced by his not-so-subtle body language. (see photo)
I guess this upset him, because his next move was to take the blanket he had with him and put it over his head.
That’s all.
