nimh wrote:At one crossroads in the heart of the neighbourhood, I'd been sizing up a piece of wall with vintage bullet holes, then taking a picture of a cellar doorway, while a scruffy but kind-looking man leaned outside chatting with his two grinning and bouncing kids behind the bars of his apartment's ground-floor window. Roma, I guess. Thought I'd love to take a picture of them, but didnt want to be impolite. But things tend to take their own way..
The guy wanted to look at my camera, the kids wanted to look at my pictures, and of course they wanted to know where I was from. The guy, who looked like 55 but was probably more like 40, was a friendly bear. They'd lived there for 5 years, he said. He didnt know whether it was one of the buildings that would come down in the redevelopment. The kids were adorable, shooing off dad so they could hand me back each picture they looked at themselves. The boy was so little, I couldnt understand his Hungarian, but he joked and grinned; the girl was eight or nine or so; she said she knew the English words for cat and dog. "Look, we're in prison!," she joked, pointing at the bars; the guy joked, "yeah, its for the little one cause he'll run right off down the road!" (Dont worry, the door was open, they were just kidding.) I pointed at the girl's B/W striped shirt and said, yep you're even dressed like in prison. She giggled.
Dad asked if I would take a picture of them all, and I did, and later some. No digital though, I explained - film, it has to be developed first! But I'll be around here more often.. oh, then just knock on the window, show us the pictures! They were adorable.
So I got back my photos from this walkabout a couple days ago, and one of the two I made of them was pretty nice, cute in any case. So I had an enlargement made and today cycled past and knocked on their window. Cheerful girl kid opening and being all happy. Toothless woman in the background waving. They liked it
Hi Yellowrosebud! Be careful; we're addictive.
Soz, an acquaintance with whom I ride the bus about three mornings a week was wearing an outfit quite a bit like the sozlet's this morning (lime green capris, printed top). It made me smile. As a matter of fact, it helped set the mood for an awesome day.
Hoping to pass on a few smiles with this:
www.acomplaintfreeworld.org
Namaste
My employee "S" got back to work today after the "Great American Male Bonding Tour" with his sons "J" (13) and "D" (14). One month on the road from the east coast to the west.
He got back Sunday, alone, after pretty much driving full throttle from Seattle. The boys stayed at their grandmother's there for a week or so before flying back.
"S" mentioned that, when he got in the car this morning, how badly it smelled. It smelled of guys and wet socks. A redundancy, perhaps.
For him, the highlights were New Orleans, where he grew up, and San Francisco, where he visited when he was 20, intending to stay a week but staying 2 years, and the Grand Canyon. He had never been there before.
For "J" and "D" the highlights were the cities. New Orleans in particular and , of course, Bourbon Street at night. Decadence on almost full display. They could peer in through open doors and there was one place that had a sheet put up over the window but they could see the silhouettes of the dancers inside.
"S" turned the boys loose for a few minutes. He went into a club for a beer. There were some under 18 kids in there, so when he saw "D" and "J" pass by he motioned them in.
"D" is a good looking kid with a personality to match. Within minutes he was out on the dance floor, bouncing around. "S" went to the bathroom and he returned to see "D" being escorted out. The security guard stated: "There are rules in NO, but they are flexible. Your son has tasted this for 15 minutes. That is enough. Fair enough? " It was.
The one place "S" hated was Santa Fe.
Santa Fe is easy to hate, RJB. Which is unfortunate because it wasn't always so. The town is rich with history but over the past couple of decades it has become a shameless tourist trap with almost everything about it as phony as you can get.
Had a "new harring" in a Dutch fish shop, which was recently choosen to have the best country's best new harrings.
Although I started a thread about that, I totally was anaware where the shop actually was situated. When I decided that the local synagoge wasn't really "photogenic" and turned around ... I stood in front of that shop.
It's a herring.
Just trying to be helpful.
Harring/herring. That reminds me of some graffitti on the wall of a stall in a bathroom of a school. A boy's bathroom used by 13 year olds.
The original message was "I like grils." Someone crossed out "grils" and wrote "girls."
Underneath in small print and written by someone else, was this: "What about us grils?"
I am working for a friend of my mother's and she was to pay me $15/hour - my mother arranged this pay. In Cambridge I c an make more, but it's the Cape, she's a friend of my mom's..... She's in her fourth remission of breast cancer and I was feeling conflicted about taking money from a dying woman. But, when she gave me my check she said, "I'm giving you a raise" and paid me $20/hour. I'd only worked for 2.5 days. She told me to raise my rates as she'd never seen anyone work so hard in her life. Ha. Made me chuckle for the rest of the morning.
Nice to see you being appreciated!
We made it back to Idaho from Virginia this afternoon. It was indeed great to meet johnboy in Charlottesville. Hope to get back together with the Chicagoland folks again someday, JPB! In the meantime, thanks again to rjb for his hospitality!
littlek wrote:I am working for a friend of my mother's and she was to pay me $15/hour - my mother arranged this pay. In Cambridge I c an make more, but it's the Cape, she's a friend of my mom's..... She's in her fourth remission of breast cancer and I was feeling conflicted about taking money from a dying woman. But, when she gave me my check she said, "I'm giving you a raise" and paid me $20/hour. I'd only worked for 2.5 days. She told me to raise my rates as she'd never seen anyone work so hard in her life. Ha. Made me chuckle for the rest of the morning.
That's very sweet Littlek and obviously this kind woman knows what you're worth :-D
You go girl ;-)
Saw a kid no older than 15 at the station in a a GBH tee. Punk's not dead!
My Nana had on a jazzy new housecoat when I called to visit her today.
Seeing all you fine folks here made me smile.....the rest is just gravy.
Yeah, lumpy gravy makes me smile, too, Terry.
realjohnboy wrote:nimh wrote:Saw a kid no older than 15 at the station in a a GBH tee. Punk's not dead!
Um, what is GBH?
A British punk rock band .... I think.
