NICE 3

Where you don't expect it, there is sometimes nice, and that is really the best isn't it? I am in the place known for Not Nice now, and I must say, I have seen quite a bit of Nice:

-- friendly people in stores
-- friendly people smiling at me on the street
-- friendly people in the subway!

Well, it is quite something.

What a day. My feet are aching but my legs are good. All the women are wearing the same tall fuzzy boots and fake-fur little parkas that I am. I am looking at people as I walk by, at their faces, which I didn't do before, and it is such a different experience. I get a tiny little bit of whoever THEY are as I go by, too fearful to look up before. They look at me too, which always surprises me. Everyone is in such a hurry, and I imagine that they have deeply important things to do. But maybe looking up and into the faces of all those people you pass humanizes your day somehow.

I went up to Koch Records today and there was an old friend of mine, and he very kindly gave me a little stack of CDs. He gave me writing work many years ago just because he thought I could do it. Nice.

But today's nicest person was the Very Tall Skinny Dude In The Jean Jacket at the Ray show. He was right up front. About a third of the way into the show he looked behind him and noticed a group of 4 really short women in their 40s or so behind him. He motioned them all in front of him, and moved a good six feet back so they could see. I looked at him, knowing he probably stood in line a long time to get that front row spot, and I told him he did A Nice Thing There.

I like that even now I am still surprised by things, and quite amazed that Nice is in this big big place, humming and pulsing with the beat of beauties, the lost, reluctant dogs, delivery men with carts piled high with boxes, couriers in yellow waterproof suits, rich women in wigs wearing furs, children in navy private school skirts, impeccable young men in expensive dark wool overcoats, and women in Tall Fuzzy Boots, with a bemused look to their faces.