As a kid, I hated the month of August because 1) there were no holidays and 2) it meant school was looming ahead early next month. As a working adult, every month blends together and I categorize the seasons as 1) more traffic (during school months) vs less traffic and 2) less daylight hours vs more daylight hours (giving you the illusion of working less and getting out earlier).
Last Thursday, on my weekly get-out-of-work-at-a-decent-hour treat night, Clancy and me@co journeyed to my neck of the woods for dinner, refusing to accept that summer was over by picnicing at the beach. Unbeknownst to us, mother nature wasn't in a cooperative mood and the night sky prompty went dark by 7ish. The temperature also dropped a good twenty degrees as we huddled at the lifeguard tower in Venice Beach, stubbornly eating our sandwiches and chips, watching the two lone surfers in the ocean and warily eyeing the occasional drifters that wandered about the beach. I must say, ENTIRELY different feel at Venice Beach when the sun sets versus when I go there at lunch all the time, bordering on almost scary and kinda sketchy.
We caved after an hour and packed up for warmer places and hot beverages. On the way back to the car, we saw a peculiar sight. An extremely built African-American guy, clad in only a speedo and oiled up a like a body builder, doing pull ups on a random corner of the boardwalk. We looked staight ahead and tried not to stare, thinking "why is this guy doing pull ups here? Why is he all oiled up? Isn't he cold? It's freezing out here! And WHY, why why why, of all things a speedo at night, in public?!!" Before we got to the car, we saw him jog down the street, presumably back home, I hope.
The funniest thing was when I relayed the story to my coworkers at lunch the next day. None of them were surprised.
"Oh the Black guy at Venice Beach? Yeah, we know who you're talking about."
"Oh yeah, he usually as a giant snake wrapped around him and he plays the guitar."
"Pull-ups? Yeah, we've seen him do that."
"Oh, that guy in the speedo. Yeah, he's there all the time."
"Hey, wouldn't it be funny if we were all thinking of different guys who fit that description, all at Venice Beach?"
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
speedo guy seemed pretty harmless. oily, but harmless. if any scary ones come near us next time, we can beat them with our baguettes. vietnamese sandwiches rock!
there is a guy that jogs in the upper east side in a negligee. this lady at work was talking about him which resulted in me exclaiming, "hey, you live in my neighborhood!"
Post a Comment