is waif
i tOOK A wALK ON sUNDAY
I took a walk on Sunday, up Manhattan Ave in Brooklyn, through East Williamsburg, through Williamsburg proper, into Greenpoint.
I leave around 4:30 – too early, but I’m bored and nothing to do the rest of the day so why not. It’s nice out, sort of, 40 degrees, maybe 50 but that’s being generous. There was a snowstorm yesterday though, and for the most part it has all melted away, so definitely above thirty degrees, but I’m no weatherman.
I pass the Projects on Scholes St and the nearby park. It’s mostly a glorified slab of concrete with its “handball” courts and quarter pipes for the skaters, but it gets the job done. I stop and watch a group of skaters trying out their entry level tricks. They look difficult enough. My favorite skater is wearing head-to-toe black and big silver hoop earrings. I chuckle in subtle admiration as I turn the first corner onto Manhattan Ave.
I cross in the middle of the street, even though it’s traffic two ways, but I don’t want to walk to the light just to have to double back. I hate doubling back, though my earlier-than-planned start will serve me plenty of doubling back as the evening continues.
issue 02
"The sign says closed, but Google says it’s open so I go in."
After skillfully dodging a couple of big delivery trucks by standing right on top of the double yellow line, I reach Awakening, a crystal shop and yoga/wellness center. The sign says closed, but Google says it’s open so I go in. A woman browsing crystals holds up a stick of selenite and asks the clerk if they sell it in slabs. “No, that’s as big as we have,” says the clerk. And that’s the last I hear from her, the clerk. She sees me walk in, and I even say hi how’s it going, but am greeted only by silence.
I beeline to the back. A closed door leads presumably to a yoga studio where I hear people exhaling with lion’s breath - a vocalized exhalation with a wide open mouth and an outstretched tongue. Mike Posner sings quietly over the loudspeaker - “I took a pill in Ibiza/To show Aviici I was cool” - while I touch what must be a couple thousand dollars worth of
healing crystals. No one tries to sell me anything, which I simultaneously love and hate, but I know I’m being watched - there’s a small security camera conspicuously placed on a shelf at chest height.
Awakening has me as awake as I’ll ever be and I’m still pretty tired, so I head out, continuing my trek north. I check the Facebook event of the concert I’m going to at Saint Vitus, a heavy metal bar at the north end of Greenpoint. Music starts at 8:15, not 7. I thought I was running early before, now I’m even earlier. In an effort to kill time, I go to a hat shop (it’s a pop up). They’re selling hats, of course, of all shapes and sizes. Top hats, even. Up the road further, I pop into a hippy store that does tie dye on site. Not for me, I think, though a specific type of person would love the place, I’m sure.
I double back a first time. I didn’t see Saint Vitus walking north, so I try to locate it, even though I have two hours until the doors even open. I spy a building painted black with the shadow of an upside down cross hanging in the window - this must be the place.
I keep walking, down to a Thai restaurant I passed a half an hour ago. I don’t have much of anything on me, I left my backpack at home, and my debit card has been frozen (fraudulent activity in Daytona, I don’t think so). It’s cash only so I figure I can drop $6 on a soup.
I’m the only one in the restaurant except for a girl maybe a little older than me and two people who I perceive to be her parents. She’s talking business: “It doesn’t make sense to compare that company, a multi-million dollar business, to my company because I’m just starting out, they’re two different things.” She’s frustrated, not having it. Her parents offer her advice after advice, only to be rejected by their daughter. “Do you know someone in Canada? Because that’s not helpful unless you know someone in Canada.”
I leave a big tip because 20% of a cup of soup seems stingy and the waiter was cute in a shy way, or shy in a cute way, I can’t tell. I stop in the 99 cent store across the street and buy a memo pad. If something costs $2 or less, I buy it. I decide it’s fine to get to the venue an hour early - I want to beat the crowd, and I can borrow a pen from the bartender. Saint Vitus is cool, and I’m not the first one there. I’m not drinking because I just got an antibiotics shot as an STD treatment even though I didn’t even have an STD; sometimes it’s just fun to live in excess. I don’t mind not drinking either; a soda water with lime is $2. If anything costs $2 or less, I buy it.
I’m the only one in the restaurant except for a girl maybe a little older than me and two people who I perceive to be her parents. She’s talking business: “It doesn’t make sense to compare that company, a multi-million dollar business, to my company because I’m just starting out, they’re two different things.” She’s frustrated, not having it. Her parents offer her advice after advice, only to be rejected by their daughter. “Do you know someone in Canada? Because that’s not helpful unless you know someone in Canada.”
I leave a big tip because 20% of a cup of soup seems stingy and the waiter was cute in a shy way, or shy in a cute way, I can’t tell. I stop in the 99 cent store across the street and buy a memo pad. If something costs $2 or less, I buy it. I decide it’s fine to get to the venue an hour early - I want to beat the crowd, and I can borrow a pen from the bartender. Saint Vitus is cool, and I’m not the first one there. I’m not drinking because I just got an antibiotics shot as an STD treatment even though I didn’t even have an STD; sometimes it’s just fun to live in excess. I don’t mind not drinking either; a soda water with lime is $2. If anything costs $2 or less, I buy it.