4 July 2017, Tuesday

Independence Day.

72nd St. Quite a gaggle, perhaps eight or so, of S. Asian men having a lively conversation while clustering near the front steps of a house at the construction site, with the ones who were actually sitting on the steps looking strangely orderly and close to one another, like they were in bleachers watching a sporting event.

Roosevelt Ave. Saw handsome अजनी worker through the doorway and he noticed me too. Went into and bought things (a turkey and cheese sandwich, cut cheese, pineapple salad dessert, turkey salami, then blueberries and sour cream) in Ass’d/কাওরান twice because the other supermarket had higher prices for items I thought would be at lower prices (and because neither had mango slices). Cashier میجان‎‎ was pretty cute. A hefty Latin man got out of a car and said to his friend still inside, “Nigger, I’m fucked up,” and seeing me passing by, asked me “Are you fucked up?”

37th Ave. Got the same four sweets at Jaks I had gotten the last time, and, wow, what an adorable young man was sweeping the floor and in whose way I repeatedly got! Is he the same one I’ve photographed before?

I went up to the roof deck (1094–1101) to see the fireworks but I feel like I didn’t socialize much despite the approximately forty persons up there. It was quite dark and I couldn’t see people’s faces well, and the attention was of course focused on the display in the distance. I immediately encountered T. and P. and stood with them for a bit before securing a place at the wall. There seemed to be an attractive man on either side of me, although I couldn’t tell who they were or if they were neighbors or guests thereof. I left pretty promptly after the display and could theoretically say I spent some time with some neighbors as we walked downstairs together; one of them was the not so unattractive father who lives on the first floor who was sans family and attempting to be friendly and conversational.