growing in the goo

After tutoring tonight I got an empanada at Julia's for old times' sake. Not particularly wanting to scarf it down in front of Lucky Bar, I sat down on a bench in the little park across the street. Eating was uneventful...I tossed little pieces of dough to the little birds, and foiled the pigeons when they tried to steal food not meant for them.

It was strange, after focusing on the little birds, when a pigeon walked into my view, it looked FREAKISHLY HUGE. It must be unnerving to share the world with something of your species that's about 50 times your mass.

So, finishing up both my dinner and contemplations on pigeons, I picked up my drink and a napkin blew off my lap in a gust of wind. I was all, "Oh, Crap!" but it only blew right under my bench, on the right side. So I twisted over and bent down to grab it...and I heard someone call my name.

A friend I hadn't seen in a while happened to be walking on the sidewalk on the other side of the shrubbery and fence right when I awkwardly turned to grab the napkin and he caught a glimpse of my face and recognized me.

So he came over and we sat and chatted for a few minutes until it became a bit too cold to be comfortable.

And, now that I think of it, yesterday I ran into someone else that I hadn't seen in a while. She said something along the lines of how she never walks that route, except that she was picking up doughnuts for her office, and I replied that I only go that way when I'm getting a bacon, egg, and cheese. I hadn't even noticed her (so focused I was on my soon-to-be-delicious breakfast and how the weather was so beautiful that it made me overjoyed to be alive), and she didn't notice me until we were passing, and she grabbed my arm.

I was actually talking about this sort of thing with my boss a couple of weeks ago. I wonder how frequently we narrowly miss seeing people we know because we're distracted, or turning at the wrong moment, or walking parallel streets without even knowing it...