mrs-roboto's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You Can Take the Girl Out of New York City But.... I've been running about town for the last couple of days having new adventures with Heather. It's funny seeing the city through someone else's eyes. Last night Pete and I decided to "show off" Pike Place Market. Unfortunately, by the time we got down there most of the kiosks were closing and it was steaming hot. I don't think Heather believes me that we normally have very temperate weather here in the Northwest. In addition to the heat, the Olympics and Mt. Rainier haven't been visible in days so I'm sure she thinks those are a fallacy. I also spent a great deal of time bragging about the how friendly everyone is here and then last night as we were deciding where to eat we were approached by a scummy looking man in his mid-forties. "Excuse me," he said to the three of us. "I don't want your money......" The three of us decided to ignore him while I rambled on about our choices. "Well, we can do sushi or maybe Mexican? I could really go for a frosty margarita." "I would like for you to buy me a hamburger at McDonalds," he continued directing his pleas at me while I purposefully looked only at Heather and Pete. "I just returned from hitchhiking to the Rainbow Gathering and I still have a ways to go before I get home. Can you get me some food?" "Or we could get Italian," I said, still not making eye contact but getting really angry at this guy. Why doesn't he just go away? And wait a minute here - did he just say Rainbow Gathering???!!! For those not in the know about this event, it's a hippy throwback sort of thing. A bunch of stinky people gather in a single spot, sing songs, smoke pot, and bang on drums, all the while pretending to have this deep connection with Mother Earth and tainting all things Native American. Now I cannot tell a lie, I have a problem with the neo-hippy movement. It's just so phony and ridiculous. And then factor in that I too would like to be traveling across the country all summer long without a care in the world but would never be irresponsible enough to do so without the financing to back such a trip. I mean really this guy is just draining the resources of his fellow man and not contributing anything to my community. Doesn't this go against everything the Rainbow Family stands for? Seriously, Pete and I want to travel to Day of the Dead this year but I'm not going to show up in Mexico penniless and expect people to buy me food. Just ridiculous! "Or there's that Polynesian place on First," I suggest. "The food there is amazing. The tuna poke just melts in your mouth." Yes, I described in detail the scrumptious options we had for filling our 9 to 5, five days a week, working bellies in front of a starving man and yes, I am a bitch. This fact did not go unnoticed by him and he proceeded to call me several unflattering names while turning his back and walking away and that is when I saw it. This poor, hungry man (insert eye rolling here) was sporting a Northface backpack!! I have a cheap, knock-off version of this bag because it was too pricey for me to buy the real deal. Now I am irate. "Hey," I call out to him. "Your backpack is more expensive than the one I own and I work for a living buddy. You're trying to elicit sympathy from the wrong gal." "Why don't you (insert explicit here) yourself lady," he called back. "I'm carrying 60 lbs. of stuff on my back. Do you know what that's like?" Wait a second here, who told this idiot to pack a ton of stuff and then go trekking off to gatherings without a penny to his name? Did I tell him to do that? No, no I didn't. And why is any of this my problem again? "Get a job you bum," Pete shouted. I have never heard Pete tell anyone to get a job before. Actually, it was quite funny, so much so that it put an end to the incident at once. Pete and I tried to assure Heather that we do not normally behave like this, that we are not quite so brutal on a regular basis but I don't know if she believes us. I hope someday she'll come back and we'll have more time to show her the real Seattle and maybe I'll learn to let things go a little easier and not harass the homeless. In the meanwhile, I think I'll go trip up some old people with walkers and kick some puppies. 10:48 a.m. - 2002-07-24 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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