Three City Stories*

Story #1:

The Risk of Singing Along

So when I walk around town listening to music on headphones I'm sort of shameless about singing out loud nowadays. I'm not all loud loud about it but if I feel like singing I just sing along at a personal volume. With more and more people walking around with headsets and stuff I pretend in my head that people think I might be singing into the phone or something. Plus, I don't really care. Usually...

Anyway yesterday, I was walking around with my mp3 player on shuffle and singing along to rock songs and whatever blah blah. Running errands here and there. Song after song I was singing along out loud. And at some point the Justin Timberlake song 'What Goes Around' came on. (I admit I like Justin Timberlake-- ok there. It's been said.) Without really thinking about it I just kept singing along with my singing alonging. Sort of oblivious that I was singing along to friggin Justin Timberlake. Out loud. On the street.

To be specific about my singing, (here's the song - right clik save as) if you fast forward to :43 ---I wasn't singing the lead parts. I sort of was just singing the parts that play off the lead part. Not sure what that's called. Like the part that goes '...can't believe it's ending this way...' and '...tell me is this fate... '... is this how we say goodbye...' that stuff. I was only singing those parts.

Anyway, I was standing at a light singing away to Justin and there were these teenage girls standing on the corner. I didn't pay attention to them but I guess at some point I looked over at them mid-sing. They all had smirks. I stopped singing. One girl laugh snorted. Then they all started laughing at me! They had been listening! And they knew what I was singing!!

I frowned and ran away in my head... feeling shame. Feeling like not singing anymore. And feeling like a big gork.

Story #2:

Bad Ant Death

So today I was walking Roscoe and he stopped curbside to take his morning poop. I was watching and waiting for the log when I noticed this ant wandering right under Roscoe's butt. I was like, 'Hey Ant!! You better move! Run! A doo-doo log arriving! A doo doo is about to... <plop>' A big doody log left Roscoe's butt and landed right on the ant. Splat. I felt bad for the ant. It was a bad way to go. Like he was just walking along minding his own business thinking anty thoughts-- and the next thing he knew he was suffocating under a doody log. Sucks to be an ant sometimes.

Oh well. You gotta look where you're going... and that includes up.

Story #3:

The M Crew

Over the weekend, I was walking home after being out for a while. Probably about midnight. I was walking down a side street about six blocks away from my house. Down the middle of this block I saw a group of about 15 people looking into an alleyway. They were in a semi-circle watching something. I walked toward them wondering if I was about to see some sort of crime or dead thing. As I got closer I could see it was a good natured crowd and I joined the semi-circle and looked down the alley.

In the alley were three chicks dressed pretty similar. All of them had a big piece of colored chalk. They were walking around sort of robotically all in their own patterns. While walking they'd make a humming noise like MMMMMMMmmmmm....  Occasionally they'd stop and draw an M on the ground and say an M word. Like MMMmmmmmuffins. Then they'd keep walking then another girl would stop draw an M and say MMMmmmmagnetic. The crowd would laugh if certain words were sort of funny but I just kind of stared at the whole thing half-drunk and bug-eyed wtf surreal.

MMMmmmoon.... MMMmmmountain.... MMMmmmuppet.... Line on the ground here. Line on the ground there. MMMMmmmovies.... Five minutes went by. Then eventually all three chicks walked up to the semi-circle of people and one chick drew upsidedown letters that faced us. She wrote. T-H-E E-N-D. People clapped. I clapped. Then they all just ran away down the alley and turned a corner. A couple teenagers were standing in the semi-circle with us. One yelled after them, 'MMMMMMy Dick!!" We all laughed.

The crowd soon dispersed and I wandered down the street into the night... wondering what the hell was with that whole MMMMmix...

ok bye!

tOdd

*** I just want to say that my level of singing is relatively low. Like personal singing. Not professional. And I don't sing while in an elevator or in a store or anything. Just while walking about. So passersby get only a few seconds of me singing away....