Odds and Ends Pt. 3

One gorgeous afternoon, walked down Minetta Lane, quiet winding street like nothing out of New York. I recalled something a classmate had seen when doing a photo essay on the street. And there it was, just as he had described -- a rainbow macaw in a courtyard, several yards away from a locked gate that led onto the street. Perched on the railing next to a second-floor back door. It bobbed its head, walked back and forth on the railing and then -- zip! Though not as quickly as the word might imply, though in one smooth motion, the parrot slid down the railing to the bottom of the staircase. Bobbed its head. Then turned, walked up the railing, claws grasping metal.

In a less poignant moment, I tripped and fell while walking in the East Village this evening. I'm not a clumsy person, at least I don't think I am. I happened to be looking up at the back of a residential building, wondering at how dingy it looked, when my foot hit a slab of concrete sidewalk jutting about an inch out of the ground. I caught it in just the right way. Next thing I knew, I was falling, not in slow motion but violently. I just managed to catch myself on my hands and knees. Thank God I didn't hit my head or crash onto my face, but my palms are still numb from the impact -- I couldn't believe how such a common ... blunder ... could hurt so much.

Filed in: Miscellaneous