The Simple Life

I went to bed late but woke up at 7:30 to the sound of flapping. I thought it might have been a bug trapped between the window screen and curtain, but curiosity overcoming sleepiness, I pulled my curtain aside to see three mourning doves sitting on the railing of my fire escape. I think it might have been a family because at one point, one of the doves held the second dove's beak in its own beak and then shook it, as if it were regurgitating food. Then again, it was early and I might have imagined seeing that. I went back to sleep, but before I did, I thought how being woken by doves must be one of the more pleasant ways to wake up in the city.

Tonight, I took the train back late with a friend, and we happened to board an empty car. I excitedly said that we could run up and down the car screaming, and no one would care. My friend then pointed out a guy in an adjacent car. This guy was apparently the only one in his car. Through the narrow windows in the car doors, we saw him run toward then grab one of the metal support poles. He threw his weight onto the pole and spun around it with his feet in the air. It made me happy to see him having fun, like a child would have done without fear of embarrassment or self-consciousness.

Filed in: Miscellaneous