The Universe Provides A Weirdo

The other day, I found myself hoping to think of one more idea that I could develop into a post for this blog, but rather at a loss. It helps sometimes to remove myself from the work area, thus taking the pressure off. Walking away has the further benefit of potentially putting me in physical contact with some stimuli that does spark an idea. I used to take walks in search of material regularly, but that is infrequent now. Perhaps I should renew the practice.

On this particular occasion it worked, although I'm not certain of how glad I am. I went down the the lobby of my building to check the mail. There was nothing for me, as is typical. I looked outside, and resolved to take advantage of the opportunity to go outside during daylight hours (as I didn't have a good reason to otherwise that day). I stepped outside and basked in the sunlight. I then decided to walk around a bit. Here was my mistake, or maybe not.

As I was coming up to the major road intersecting with my own, there was a ragged-looking guy lugging some beat-up luggage. This is hardly uncommon, and I actually didn't notice him until he addressed me from the middle of the side street. For a moment I wondered if he was someone I knew, which just goes to show how fanciful and uncertain of myself I am. He was nobody I know, and thank God for that.

He was hard to understand very well, although I don't know whether I would have picked up more if his Italian (maybe) accent was clearer. There was also the fact that he was playing with around a quarter of the deck, teeth-wise. Every time I thought I'd grasped his meaning, a handful of words would come through and invalidate my hypothesis. He ultimately seemed to be talking about the movie business, as I heard the word studio a number of times, as well as what sounded like dollar amounts and the names of actors. I know I heard "Tom Hanks".

I wanted badly to interrupt him with "I gotta go" and take a brisk walk away, but I remain a novice in such matters of expediency. I did my best, at the least, to discourage conversation, but he seemed not to be the sort who would rely on any outside urging. I count myself lucky that I was rid of him after a couple of minutes, and have tremendous pity for whoever he ensnared next. They might not be so fortunate.