The Woods

I got picked up and took out today.

A friend of mine did. 

Our two birthdays coincide and we've known each other for forty-five years. I bought him a pair of pants and a shirt and a few days later he brought me here. 

It's lockdown. Everything is weird. The place wasn't right. The ride wasn't right. Our driver wasn't right. The city isn't right. Our waiter really wasn't right, at first. 

This is RINO, an explosively developing area. Murals all over the place. Modern architecture. Modern design all over. Young people. Tiny balconies everywhere.

Everywhere.

Tiny balconies make me sad. 

     "Why?" The driver and Bob both really did ask why. 

Just seeing them makes me sad. Seeing people using them makes me more sad. You see people trying to use them but it is reasonably impossible. And there they are out on a balcony with no room to move among thousands of other similar tiny useless balconies facing each other with each other for views. In a spot with incredible views. But not for these balconies. So then, you are all little ants in your little ant pods.

I want them to be sad too. And our collective sadness will bring an end to this tiny balcony business.  

COVID. We didn't get the table or area due to COVID. So we were put on the other side. The first side has the trains, but those are not running as usual, and the other side has development in action. Very interesting; watching all the little ants. We really are like them, we repeat the same things everywhere. From the height of the restaurant the whole place looks like an HO train set. The hotel that the restaurant is in has changed the entire area for cars. The Lyft drivers were stumped. I think they had to turn into the place and then turn around right in that spot, the entire parking area changed or closed off, then entering the street to return involved heading the opposite direction first and picking a random place to turn around. The whole thing is messed up. 

Tent city arose at Civic Park two blocks north of where I live at the capitol. The whole area looks like a dump. A lot more of that around town as homeless are gathered. 

We marveled how a city can suffer and endure limping along as if that suffering isn't happening. The city can partake a massive national hissy fit, subject itself to ridiculous rules and laws that change on whim, very largely destroy its own economy in huge chunks, shed whole industries and still with enough economic force, enough human need, enough pure human energy to carry on as if all that is just another bump in the road. The city is stabbing itself in the heart as it continues to thrive. And we marvel. 

The murals around the city are stunning. They make everything more interesting. They make buildings speak. They turn dull sides of building into pure humanity. The place pulses with humanity even during lockdown with fewer people visible. 

I don't know why Bob wanted me to photograph his squid. He liked it. He also had a starter plate with shrimp and avocado. That was actually a lot more attractive. But I didn't think to photograph it. 

He thinks the squid plate is beautiful. I think it's ugly. So I told him a joke. This really happened. 

I was on South Beach Miami having breakfast. The place was like a diner. I am sitting at the counter on a colorful plastic seat that is slippery. I ordered calamari for breakfast. Weird. I know. But this is South Beach.

They brought out a large bowl. And the calamari is delicious. But there is only so much of that I can take. The squid is predominantly two shapes, and these shapes become less attractive the more full on calamari you become. I only mentioned to the man sitting next to me that the whole thing is fantastic until the shapes of the cuts start to look like a bowl of sphincters and condoms. The man looked at my bowl and cracked up laughing. Loudly. I do not know who he is. He slipped off his slippery chair into a cartoonish crumpled heap. Other people in the restaurant looked over at his commotion. It wasn't that funny but it did describe them perfectly. I cannot forget that guy thinking that was so funny.

Bob didn't think that was funny at all. He was full and he didn't finish his calamari.