who are the people in your neighborhood...

i heart new york. though, it's a little dirty for me and humid and dirty and humid... did i mention dirty? but there's just something about new york you have to love. and it's not their subways. but it is something. i have to say that i enjoyed the people. now, some of the people weren't new yorkers, and "enjoyed" can also mean that i liked to watch them because they were entertaining and weird... but nonetheless, i enjoyed the people:

there was famous tony. he was our bus driver and sang sweet songs marvin-gay-style to the ladies on the bus.

there was lee. he was a fellow passanger on the bus who drives between dc and ny every single week for work and then to be with his family on the weekends. he was the nicest guy and made sure we got where we needed to go in ny... because frankly, we had no clue where we were going.

there was the owner of the italian restaurant who saw us waiting for a table--luggage in hand--and offered his trunk for us to leave our luggage in while we ate. and then said "you don't mind if i sell it on eBay, right?"

then there was the couple making out in the dirty subway. something about making out in a subway where i felt the need to use hand sanitizer every 30 seconds just didn't appeal to me... but they were having fun and we were enjoying laughing about it.

i could write an entire post about earth angel. we got on the subway, and in walks richard simmons' evil twin brother. that or gene simmons... it was hard to tell. dressed in red from head to toe, long puffy dark hair held together at the bottom by a single elastic-band, short frizzy bangs... and did i mention he was holding up a cardboard shield with a red angel and the words "earth angel" painted on it? he yelled at the top of his lungs that he had been sent to earth to deliver a message from Jesus Christ, and that his shield was there to protect him from looking at us lowly mortals. then he yelled something about wanting only women under the age of 29 to follow him; and before i could jump off my bench and join his ministry, he left the subway car. dang it.

then we met kathy, the albanian waitress in the weirdest burger joint / dentist office i've ever been in. so it wasn't really a dentist office... but it was a burger joint that was decorated like a dentist office... and the prices on the menu were the weirdest prices i've ever seen in my life. burger = $6.50 ... but if you want tomato that will be an extra $0.85 and if you want lettuce that's gonna cost you another $0.60... and don't forget about the cheese, that's another $1.50.

we met peter, the british real estate agent while trying to locate the nearest subway entrance. SUPER nice guy. he walked with us for about 4 blocks to take us to the entrance. we talked about real estate, economics, politics... and then he gave us his business card before letting us get on the subway and told us to look him up if we moved to manhattan and needed a real estate agent. but what he didn't know is that we're mormon and melinda was prepared with a pass-along card of her own and invited him to learn more about the LDS church. it was a nice little exchange and he was very impressed with melinda's schpeel. as was i.

speaking of mormons... while standing in line to take the staten island ferry, we located some mormons with our unexplainable mormon-radar. it was a couple, their baby in a stroller and their sister-in-law. maybe it was the white t-shirt under his orange t-shirt... maybe it was the baby in the stroller... maybe it was the twinkle in their eyes... but we threw out the bait that we were from utah, and they exchanged glances and asked what we had all been dying to know: "are you mormon?" how do we do it? i don't get it.

my favorite was the individual we dubbed taylor's boyfriend. he was wearing a bright pink tank top, had beautiful dark skin and was wearing more make-up than i was. he poked our friend taylor in the shoulder while we were standing on the staten island ferry and asked "is that pink or peach?" referring to his shirt... taylor responded "i think it's salmon"... which may or may not have sent the wrong signal.

and last but not least... jean, the bus driver who took us home. who was large and in charge and who didn't stop talking the entire drive home. who almost flew out of his driver's seat everytime the bus bounced. it literally looked like he was in a jolly-jumper and i wanted a video camera so badly.

and that's why i heart new york. that and the cheap knock-off purses for sale on the streets.