bob, carl, ralph & jody.

Today has been one of those crazy weird days, like you just don't know what will happen. I woke up quite late and the house was empty. I went out and it looked warm and sunny, but it was actually quite cold. I took the train with Bob Dylan down to 59th street and started walking towards uptown in Central Park, listening to "The Times They Are A-Changin'" in particular. The jogging people in the park seemed to move in pace with this song, and in harmony with everything Dylan. Perhaps it takes an experiences overseas to appreciate this man. He grows on me. He's perfect with the New York backdrop. After walking by a lake and a tower, I felt hungry, and had a free Granola bar from two guys in cowboy hats. Shortly after that I was offered an escort around the park, from a slurred helmet guy, who warned me about evil squirrels. "Sometimes they bite, sometimes they don't. You never know, so you should stay away from them and be careful. It's dangerous here". I decided I probably could handle squirrels on my own.
As I continued my walk through the park, I met a black man named Carl who didn't like Obama. Said he preferred Bush. Carl liked to sing but didn't have any favourite song. About two minutes later I sat down next to a man reading important papers on a bench. Turned out he was Ralph Charell, author of "How I turn ordinary complaints into thousands of dollars", among other books (he's in the Guiness Book of World Records for being the man who complaints the most in the world). He started off by saying he was pretty much the inventor of rollerblades and was now re-inventing the wheel. He also said he had an IQ of 140. Talking with Ralph must have been the most random conversation I've ever had. We talked for about an hour about everything between WW2 heroes, actor-friends getting their heads chopped off by a helicopter, Doris Days (who sang "Que Sera, Sera") to how to be banned from match.com for life and how to be a pain-in-the-ass intern. He gave me some awesome advice for my book, sort of like a really great, unexpected, bonus tutorial. Kind of perfect. Kind of what I needed. Kind of wow. Way cool.
As I made my way back home, my amazement for this city didn't seem to stop. Going down the subway I saw a woman, dressed like Minnie Mouse, without wearing the head, emptying a garbage-bin. Minnie Mouse is hispanish. That was an unexpected chock, a little freaky I must say. That sight might give me nightmares.
Then I had a craving for sugar and decided to buy a Snickers bar. The woman in the news stand was really sweet. Her name was Jody and she had a very non-big city charisma, kind of like a sweet little flower in a junkyard. When I asked if I could take her picture she looked around as if I had asked somebody else. But since there was nobody else there, it must have been her. So she said yes, adding quickly that she was from India.