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July 12, 2005

The girls in their summer dresses

It's 12:30. I take off my sweater, leave my office, take the elevator down to the lobby. I have to walk to 16th and M, about ten minutes away. As I leave the building a middle-aged man smiles at me. I smile back. It feels good to be out here in the hot. I cross the street at 19th and head up toward M. I come up behind three men who are walking slowly and talking, lots of gesticulation, their hands making large and emotional gestures in the air. “Gay,” I think. Then I catch up to them, close enough to hear them talking. Oh. Italian.

Every once in a while I walk by an open door and a blast of polar-bear air conditioning rushes out onto the sidewalk. Everyone is out, walking to someplace, talking on cell phones, everyone looks dazed and sun dazzled. By the time I am walking back from 16th Street my eyelids are sweating. I’m so hot that I shiver.

I take a left and walk down Connecticut. As I pass a man in a dark, pinstripe suit he looks at me and smiles a bit. “Hello,” he says. “Hello,” I say back. “Are you hot?” He shakes his head, “No, not at all!” I say, “I beg to differ.” I don’t turn around to catch the expression on his face. What the hell did I just say? I want to laugh.

Just past the Mayflower outside Pink sits a homeless man. I expect him to ask me for change and I am about to tell him I don’t have my wallet but instead he says to me “Ow, baby—you’ve got everything I need!” One man’s opinion. Still, I make a mental note of his location.

I walk the final blocks on the shady side of the street. I love this weather.

Posted by JudyLa at 01:01 PM | Comments (0)