The Smoothie Queen

I sit outside for 20-30 minutes during my lunchtime to drink my juice and get some air and I realized last night why I enjoy this little part of my day so much: it’s because I get a million strangers coming up to talk to me. Mostly it’s for directions or what train should they take to get to this or that place, but I’m like a magnet sitting on the planter in front of the building next to my office. I sit on my throne and sip my smoothie and wave to the passersby (i.e. co-workers stepping out to get their lunches) – greetings, hello, yes hi, lovely day, how are you? But I also get a bunch of odd characters too and this is what I get a kick out of. Like the guy who switches between selling roses on the corner and other days its designer jeans – he always chitchats with me, although I prefer to be left alone, I like to observe. I don’t want to be distracted by conversations – this is my peaceful time; I think or some days, I don’t think at all, and that’s the point. To empty out the mind for a rest before heading back upstairs. Across the street, one of the buildings has an old-fashioned glockenspiel-type clock with a little gnome/elf toymaker and when it "dings!" 2pm (when the gnome/elf starts to pound his little hammer against his workbench, its really very cute and I'll bet most people don't look up to even notice it), I know my time is up. I sit right above the subway stairs so I tend to get people throwing lines at me as they descend down to the train – yesterday’s was from a Will Ferrell lookalike who rushed to get to the stairs and then leaned over the railing at me – “Wow! That’s a perfect place to sit on such a perfect day – lucky you!” And I smiled and nodded…yes it is…then I sort of space out for awhile until I see this man in a three-piece suit (in his 50’s maybe?) waving at me frenetically – “Hey! HEY!” Amazing, amazing…” – excuse me I say? “Your eyes, your eyes are amazing, they are mesmerizing, just beautiful..” and I smile (I think I blushed too because that was nice of him – I don’t get compliments like that all the time) and I called back “thank you!” and he keeps walking but still has his head turned my way and smacks right into a crowd of people coming from the other direction: “you hypnotized me, those eyes, look at me, I am walking into people, I’m like a zombie now!’ and I giggle because he’s too much – laying it on a BIT thick…but still, he’s made me smile. He gets to the corner and looks back again and yells, “HYPNOTIZE ME! WOO! AWESOME!” and disappears from my sight…

See what I mean? Characters, with a capital C.