So, today after I bought some pastries from the schismatic nuns to take home for my parents and relatives as gifts, I had a coffee at a coffee shop across the street, and then as I was walking home past this Christmas tree lot next to a gas station and an apartment building, I saw like about two policeman on my side of the street, and a guy in casual clothes who was looking around a lot, and then some other guys on the other side of the street standing with their arms folded as they guarded each side of the entrance between the wire-mesh fence, and then there was a guy in the lot itself with binocs who was looking up at all the windows in the apartment buliding overlooking the lot. I figured it must have been Obama and his family, but there wasn't much of anyone in the lot, so I just continued walking on home with my pastry bag and a tart-box in my hand.
Like a block up, though, when I was on the opposite side of the street from where I get my hair cut, like two police cars followed by like three black SUVs with tinted windows followed by a couple more police cars passed me by, so I walked across the street and stood outside the hair place and looked down the street to see if I could see anything, and the Japanese owner waved to me from inside where she was cutting someone's hair, and then the salon countergirl who I had met once came out and saw what was going on, and we both started talking and agreed that we thought that the Obamas should be able to lead a peaceful life, but we wanted to see them anyways, so she ran back inside to go get her coat.
At that point, too, this girl who was in the salon comes out and says hi, and it turns out that it's Artemis, who had graduated high school last year but is still going to college in the city, and was home to visit her parents that weekend, and she was like, "Wait a sec, let me pay up and I'll come with you."
So, we wandered up to the lot and crossed to the other side of the street, where there were some planters that people were standing on, and we joined the crowd there that was all on their tiptoes trying to get a peek of Obama. While doing that I complimented Artemis on her hair, and she was like, "Thanks, but I actually just got a wax done," and so I re-affirmed that her hair was different from the last time I saw her, and still nice.
So, we stood there waiting and waiting, and all we can see is security people, including the one with binocs who was still around scanning all the windows, but the next thing we know, there's Obama besides the black SUV, and he's waving and being like "Merry Christmas!", and looking a lot shrimper in person than on tv.
Artemis was busy trying to snap a picture and somehow missed it, but like everyone else outside waved back and all at once were like, "Merry Christmas!", saying it together like a kindergarten class, only it wasn't quite like my kindergarten class, since the 'all-at-once' voice was pretty black-sounding, since like five-sixths of the people waiting outside in the crowd were black.
After that, the black SUV pulled away and I think I saw his daughters in the car, and I was very happy for like a few minutes, since it seemed like my friends were always running into one Obama or another in the neighborhood but never me, but then I was all pissed that I didn't see Michelle too. It was almost like, "Wait, she couldn't come out of the car and say hi too?", though I would never do that to the daughters, let them lead normal lives, but I do want their mom to jump for a crowd like their dad does, since they're both figures in the public eye.
Anyhow, I then went on my way to the local cafeteria up the block to get dinner since my fridge was pretty empty from my leaving the next day, and I threw my bags down on this table next to two black people doing some sort of business meeting, an older guy in a suit with a moustache and a clipboard, and this late middle-aged woman in a light pink jogging suit with a light pink "OBAMA FOR PRESIDENT" baseball hat on.
"Could you watch my stuff for a minute while I order?", I was like, and when the woman said sure, I was like, "And guess who just told me 'Merry Christmas'?", and then I dropped it on them that I was in the crowd who had just seen Obama outside the Christmas tree lot, and the black guy who was just sitting down at the next table over to both of ours stopped to listen to me too.
"Shoot," the woman was like as soon as I had finished, "I always just miss him!"
I told the news to the (black) girl next to me in line, too, and then I sat down and had my hamburger steak and onions, which was very good and juicy, though they messed my side order up and gave me mashed potatoes and gravy and a cob of corn rather than rice and gravy and a side of mixed vegetables.
When the woman in the pink jogging suit left, too, she stopped and knelt and gave me a half-hug/half pat on the arm and was like, "Now you have a good holiday!"
Also, I stopped by the dollar store to tell the news to the Palestinian owner who I know, and this black woman in line was like, "I knew you were going to say that," as soon as I had said my "Guess who just wished me a Merry Christmas? - Obama!" line, and she added that she's never seen him, though her daughter has a lot, since she goes to the elementary school that's like right by his house.
3 comments:
That's a man who knows how to dress.
Are you being sarcastic? I can't tell.
Are you being sarcastic? I can't tell.
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