Isn’t owning a dog expensive?

How come everyone sitting on the street on a torn blanket with unwashed clothes, asking for money, ALWAYS has a dog?

Shouldn’t they give it up for adoption? Might make crashing with friends easier, as well as take the load off the money you hardly have.

You can get food and some nutrition. I know very generous people that give up their lunch for you. But what about your dog? What’s he eating?

I will go out on a limb and say I am not a dog person (I know, I am sorry) but I do feel bad for them. What kind of quality of life do they have? They are never perky, barking and happy dogs. They look just as sad as you are. And they are probably hungrier. And a dog should be on grass running around. Not sitting on 48th Street in Manhattan waiting for you to collect enough change to get to whatever city may be written on the obligatory cardboard sign asking for change.

Obviously I am generalizing here. Everyone’s situation is different but I, not a dog person, sometimes feel bad for you, but I always feel bad for the dog.

It is amazing how much people want to share. I am in awe of it – when they talk on a phone while in a public place, or on public transportation, where there is nowhere else for people to go.

Obviously there are two sides to every story but I only get to hear one of them. I have heard full on conversations about:

Divorce
A woman getting a divorce talking to who I think was her mom. I know the ex-husband to be is a prick and he is using the kid is a pawn. She has already protected her assets but she was concerned what kind of lies he was feeding his lawyer.

Travel
Two people talking about one of their upcoming trips to Greece to visit friends. One of whom I have to understand was living in the States. What I gathered from the conversation they are living in Greece. Her husband is and I quote ‘a Greek from Greece.’ I guess he doesn’t speak English and even though his wife misses the states, what would he do if they moved here.

Personally, I think there are plenty of opportunities – open a restaurant, write, use existing skills. Of course I have no idea of his background, his skills, his financial situation – but here I am imagining a new life for this man, who I do not know, who may or may not want to come to the States and who, the odds are pretty good, I would never meet.

It’s funny how what I overheard becomes a big daydreaming session for me.

Who gets hurt by a corkscrew? Oh, that’d be me.

Tried to open a bottle of wine, and instead, I opened my skin. Blood everywhere.

Other harmless kitchen objects that I’ve been able to injure myself with include a toaster oven which caused a burn on my arm and a broken glass resulted in a bloody toe.

What about falling in the street? Because I’ve done that several times.

In just one day last week, I went to get my eyebrows threaded, and instead of the lady putting aloe on my brows, as is normal, she sprayed alcohol on them. Later that day, I walked past a building where the window washers were spraying pretty much at eye level and I walked right through that and to end that day, when I was in the grocery store, getting one avocado, three avocados rolled off the display and landed on my left foot.

I wish I was kidding.

The bus I was on earlier this week smelled like maple syrup and celery. An odd mix, but oh, the joys of public transport.

Here’s some of my notable, and probably, common, observations whilst on public transport:

I’ve seen:

A really tall guy on the phone in the outside seat on a bus who won’t get up and makes the other guy, in a business suit, climb over him to get out.

Someone take their shoes off on a subway train. Is this your living room?

People eating meals. Not just a bag of chips, but proper rice and chicken dishes…on the subway.

People setting up music so they can break dance, people selling bags of M&Ms and chocolate bars (in the middle of the summer – melted much?), people clipping their nails and people making out. Yes, all on a subway train.

I know I’ve seen more. And I know you have too. What have you seen that makes you go HMMM?