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September 2, 2006
Eye of the beholder
Last night, I was heading home after dinner with my friend Andrea, a classmate from ballet days and class with the formidable Madame Darvash. Can’t recall the name of the restaurant, the credit card receipt only lists them as “Vietnamese Food”, but it’s at 121 University Place. Excellent Bo Luc Lac, reasonable prices, but it was a busy Friday night and the waiters practically grabbed plates away from you the moment you didn’t seem to be finishing it and cleaned the table up around you.
On the subway ride back, I was working on the last sleeve of the Bamboo sweater. The car was relatively empty at West 4th, and filled a bit with each subsequent stops. Two twenty-something guys sat next to me at West 14th. A man got on at 34th. He looked as if he had come from a fantasy equestrian event; thigh high leather boots over khaki pants, blue blazer, green walking stick, straw hat with what looked like Christmas ornaments decorating the brim.
I’m thinking, “Work the outfit!” I notice one of the twenty something kids stealing glances at him too. My guess is we’re both thinking the guy is a bit of a New York character – a freak. I think about this for a moment. I’m sitting here like the screaming faggot I am knitting on the subway and the boy next to me has a ring through his nose. And we’re all over the equestrian freak across the car?
The moral of this subway story is either: Scratch a normal person and there’s a freak underneath, or scratch a freak and there’s a normal person.
You pick.
Posted by Leigh Witchel at September 2, 2006 12:36 PM
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Comments
Not everyone can be categorized as "normal" or "freak."
Many of us are some shade of eccentric.
Posted by: Steve Keeley at September 3, 2006 3:52 PM
Itch. Scratch. Everybody comes to NY for a reason. But, Oh, you made me laugh. And hey, you were never in any danger. You had your sharp pointy objects too.
A green walking stick, really?
Posted by: spinneret at September 3, 2006 5:48 PM
It was indeed green - it looked like the sort of thin stick a blind person has, but painted green.
Posted by: Leigh Witchel at September 6, 2006 2:35 PM