Bummin' around downtown

Last night Mel allowed me to sing with her at the Merge Benefit at Town Ballroom. There were a lot of great performers there last night and everyone came together to support the Costner family. I was very moved by several performances by the family and friends of Lil’ Ricky. It’s so important to have a support system when something so tragic happens. I think they will be ok.

Following the show, I insisted that my friend Pete walk me to my car. I’ve been haggled several times on Main Street and I was not in the mood to be feigning a foreigner or a dude in such a cute dress. It was if I had known this would happen…We reached the first grate in the sidewalk. Anyone who knows me well knows I can’t walk over those. Not that I physically can’t, I mentally am freaked out by those grates and their instability. I think it stems back to my control issues. Anyways, so as soon as it appears I stop dead in my tracks and proceed to hop over to the other side of the sidewalk at the exact moment that a man approached. To him, I’m sure it looked like I was afraid having had such a violent change in direction. He stopped us and apologized if he had scared me. Before I could utter my excuse he began his story. First he asked if Pete and I were together; Married? Fiancés? Dating? We both just stood there wondering what he was getting at. On he goes with his story about being from Brooklyn and how his bag was stolen and he’s been forced to walk the streets for days. He said his wife has lupus and is coming to the Roswell Cancer Institute to get treatments …..Sir, I traveled for a month doing ethnographies on patients with rheumatoid arthritis and lupus and I can tell you right now, there is no cure and there is no drug on the market that currently treats lupus!! I kept my mouth shut, however, and let him go on. The entire time his eyes were dripping this nasty ooze that just kept falling out like tears, yet he was not crying. Pete finally stopped him and told him that we had just come from a charity benefit and that we had given them our cash and he pointed at the sign lit up at the Town Ballroom. I was just going to offer my suggestion that he should go to the hostel a few doors down but upon hearing Pete’s news his act immediately dropped, his face looked grim, and he turned on his heal waving us in disgrace and kept on down the street.