Saturday, 18 February 2017

Left Feast and said goodbye to the remaining GA, including the two headed to Woodside, and walked with John K. a bit before he remembered that he’d left a bag in the bar, so we returned after it had closed to collect it. We then proceeded to 14th St. sta. at Sixth Ave., passing Union Sq. along the way, and I introduced him to Steven Pinker’s concept of the Left Pole. It turned out however that the F was not stopping there and I needed to ride the L back to Union Sq. to catch it (6222). It was a little frustrating but I ran into Ray A. at the Union Sq. sta. and chatted with him and he offered me some of his pizza (8753).

73rd St. Saw the first (“Smile”) of the decidedly pleasant graffiti (8754–55).

37th Ave. The door to DR was inexplicably locked, and there was a cute young Latin man standing in front with a sickly voice who asked if I could direct him to another drug store open at that hour.

Roosevelt Ave. Walked to Ass’d/কাওরান for deli merchandise (egg salad and chunk cheese), blackberries and sour cream, and cold hot dogs (01:59) from cashier ميزان‎. An older worker who was mopping the floor greeted me in Arabic (“السلام عليكم”) to which I responded in Hebrew (“ועליכם שלום”).

Young men on 35th or 37th Ave.(?) (8756–57).

Took something of a constitutional that resulted in purchasing discount Valentine sweets on Northern Blvd. (after not finding any at DR, 82nd St., or RA, 37th Ave.) because apparently I needed to counteract the smidgen of weight I’d managed to lose while on vacation in Fla. So I picked up milk chocolate truffle hearts and chocolate peanut butter hearts from W’greens, and milk chocolate “kisses” from RA. I was proud of what appeared to be a parent reprimanding her children for acting out, and then, after she’d walked away, a worker telling those same children to quiet down after they’d become overexcited again. There were groups of young men, some shirtless, playing basketball on the IS 145 courts.

Since I had already designated it a cheating day, I bought naughty stuff—apple pie, sweetened yoqurt in strawberry cheesecake and banana flavors, a frozen meal of a breaded fried chicken cutlet with mashed potato, and too much inappropriate fruit (fruit cup, mango slices and blueberries)—at FD.