City Vibe

I dug out a few paperbacks from high school English and thumped over them. There were underlined and annotated notes here and there, and most of the pages faded yellow. Dusting off the copies, I spent my afternoon reading these nostalgic books. Recently nothing in the past few days are worth noting for me. The life of Seany in the summer of 2013: boredom yet relaxing. Driving, going to Yankee games, writing, going to the beach.

In the street I munched on a burger while staring at the street performing regulars. Rain or shine, these guys were here almost everyday, at least all the time when I was at this part of town. They didn't give a damn. Until they gathered a decent audience, none of the action ever started. Already, though, there was a whole crowd that took up the entire part of the street. Their performance typically was not outstanding but good enough to watch. I sat adjacent from all this and leisurely wolfed down the burger. Their boom box blasted Jackson's 'Smooth Criminal'.

In the evening I usually worked out. Usually consisted of jogging out in the park or training at the dojang. Whenever I'd jog the beautiful cityscape would be my view and I'd be running with other joggers of my kind.


I came home and lay on my bed. Days and days of monotonous repetition. Nothing ever changed. Millions of individuals were somewhere out there in the city, going about their own duties and leisure activities while I was questioning myself in what I was doing. A stack of books and movies were on my desk along with a writing pad full of my ideas and free notes. A dharma doll with both its eyes unfilled, pens, and a box of paperclips. Two empty water bottles and some change strewn everywhere. A printed out picture of the statue of Ninomiya Kinjiro was on my wall on the side. With an opened book in his left hand, he gave out a smart, sophisticated look. A look as if he was to say, "Knowledge will plant the seeds for power and strength. Don't create or pretend to have knowledge, knowledge is within you."

Stashed away in the corner were manga books both in Japanese and English that I had meant to read during the summer. For some reason, though, I never had the motivation. Maybe it was because of the plot, or the way the series was being carried. It didn't appeal to me, perhaps. So I parking-lotted that plan and instead, resorted to doing other unremarkable things.



My driving is really good, said my instructor, but it's unfortunate that I can't take the road test during the summer. I'm pretty much ready but I wasn't the only one who wanted a license.

I had a dream the following day where I ate with my high school friends at a restaurant. We all sung aloud some old western song, I think. For some reason everyone knew it. I think it was from 'High Noon'

Do not forsake me oh my darlin'

Then a little after I met with a girl and we sat on the steps of a townhouse and made out.

I had a good time, but I woke up only figuring out that those moments were nothing but a dream. Didn't even see one of them during the entire summer thus far.

Do not forsake me oh my darlin'

Wiping the drool off my face, I got out of bed, stretched, and chugged down a glass of orange juice. Another ordinary day was about to start.

I met with one of my close friends that I usually hung out with. We stopped by a local Chinese restaurant for some grub. His choice. Empty seats. There was nobody but us as the speaker system leaked out pop songs from the early 2000s. Without the music the place had a very quiet, subdued ambiance. Waitress gave us menus as we ordered to our leisure. Not the greatest but manageable. We ate in a matter of minutes. At one point, the waitress placed the check with two fortune cookies with a kind of time-to-get-out-of-here attitude. After we went dutch, we left the restaurant without any thank you from the waitresses. A typical Chinese restaurant.

"You know if I was on a date with a girl, I would never take her here," he said.
"Tell me about it." The place was pretty run-down. "Lesson learned."

We walked around the neighborhood, nothing really new. Nothing on our agenda. We went to a pet shop to stare at animals. Birds, fishes, cats, and hamsters. Carefree in their own world yet trapped in their cages and tanks.

Time vanished, and it was the evening. He took the bus back home. I bought an ice coffee and sat down on a bench. About ten days and I was back to college.

My friend commuted and went to a college in the city so he never had to worry about any packing and living life independently. In fact, most of my friends commuted. Nobody really knew what it was like dorming. Nobody knew the long trip, the boxes, the clothes, those little items that you couldn't forget. That sudden feeling of being by yourself, and having to manage everything, from laundry to work.

A police car zoomed by the street with its sirens, the taxi cabs and regular cars pulling over by the curb to let it go through. A kid with a slurpee swished by on his scooter in the sidewalk, his mother yards away, casually talking to the babysitter.

A man, seemingly retired, plopped down at the other end of the bench, lightly whistling a tune. I rattled the drink as the ice clattered. No more in there. It was empty.

A light breeze hit me, then died.

The food vendor across the street was beginning to pack up and a leaf from a branch fell onto the roof of a parked car.

I went home.