2002-02-21 - 6:07 p.m.

I planned to go uptown to run a few errands today, and decided I would walk. I took a detour on the way out down to the M@gnolia Bakery for a little cupcake love before I went. So I walked over and ordered my chocolate cupcake with light pink frosting and a cafe au lait, and headed across the street to the little park. Half the park is a playground, and it was overflowing with kids and mothers and nannies. A blur of little figures in bright colors running around, with their moms close behind. The other side is a regular park, with trees planted amid the brick paving stones, and green painted benches. I sat on a bench and people watched and ate my cupcake, and then I took out my notebook and wrote for almost two hours. It was really a great thing for me - I just decided to postpone my errands until tomorrow, and just sit there and appreciate it. I did character sketches of people in the park, and watched the turnover, and tried to give them all stories. I looked at the view, and the cloudy sky and the way the sun reflected off the brownstones across the street.

Then I wandered around the neighborhood, stopping to buy little thank you gifts for the girls who helped me get this job, and went to the card store and the candy store.

And all day, I had unusual human interaction. My favorite kind of day. While walking to the bakery, visions of cupcakes dancing in my head, I passed a fairly young homeless man, sitting on a stoop holding a broom. As soon as I approached him, he started. "Can you help me out, get me somethin to eat, please, it's my birthday, c'mon, I'm trying to sweep..." So I dug in my pocket, and I said,"You're gonna eat with this, right?" "Oh, yeah, I promise I'm gonna eat." I gave him the money, figuring that it's up to me to give it or not, and I can't account for what he's going to do with it. So I head down the street, and am window shopping at the corner when he comes up with a slice of pizza - "See? See? I told you I was gonna eat! "

At the card store, there's a glass counter that the cash register sits on. The back of the glass display case was open, and there was a cat curled up in there, sleeping. An adorable little girl wearing teeny tiny little Merrel1s was standing there next to me, and she looked at me and said, "That cat is ALIVE." "I know - look at him, that's his bed." We peer in. I said, "Do you think he likes us looking at him? I bet he doesn't." And she said, "I bet he doesn't, too. I wouldn't like it if I were him."

I went and picked some chocolates for the girls, and bought some for myself as well. Of course I was eating one on the way out, and I passed by a tall, thin black kid in a tie and jacket, standing on the sidewalk with a clipboard. I walked by him, eating it, and he says, half jokingly, "Hey, can I have one of those?" I stopped and gave him one, and he said, "Man, you're SO sweet." And then I kept going.

Last stop, grocery store. At the checkout I was in front of my cart, emptying my basket onto the conveyor belt. An old man behind me, wearing a windbreaker and a fedora, started taking the stuff out of the far part of the basket and handing it to me. I said, "Thank you so much, that's very nice of you." "Pfft.." he says. "There are still gentlemen left in this world, although you wouldn't know it. You know what I see? I see a couple hail a cab, he gets in. Gets in, and leaves the lady standing on the sidewalk. I have never seen anything like it. My wife, rest her soul, if she were alive she's be hollerin' like mad. And picking up the check? I see men letting women pick up the check. I'll never understand that. But you young women don't seem to mind it." I said, "Well, we're used to it." And he shook his head, and said, "Used to it. Huh. I guess you are. That's just a damn shame, if you ask me."

You know, I don't know if things are just all going well right now, all falling into place, and that's why I'm finding so much pleasure in every day. Or is this all there all along, and I'm just too busy to pay attention to it? Hmm. And now I'm going to get dressed, and have a drink with Joanne, and then go see Love, J@nis with the boyfriend. More tomorrow.

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