Smile, It's Thursday

Crazy Pills

Do you ever have one of those days, or weeks, where it seems that everywhere you look, something crazy is happening? I do.  

I don't know if it's that I go through phases where I'm more aware of the crazy or there are actual upticks but either way there are certain days where I feel like I'm making the same face as Will Ferrell above and can't stop (also there are not enough moments for Zoolander references in my opinion).

As an example, one morning this week, as I walked in to my office there was a trash can on fire. Not like a urban camping, to keep warm, kind of trash fire.  A normal, on the side of the street, in the financial district, trash can that was just randomly on fire.  I appeared to be the only one acknowledging this oddity.  Was it really happening?  I hadn't had my coffee yet, so sometimes I question myself, but no, it was definitely on fire.   However, like a poor samaritan, I continued on my way, only to clumsily stumble into an argument between two homeless people.  I thought it was a standard "my corner" type of thing but then the dog of one of them jumped in and bit, I think, the other one, while the dog's owner went into a rant about how the other guy was no good and everyone knew it. 

Typically I can assume that there is a mental illness factor in these type of scenarios but I am actually fairly familiar (from my regular walk to work) with the man with the dog, and he seems rather well balanced, considering.  So again because it's before coffee, it takes several seconds too long for me to realize what's happening and when I do I'm standing nearly in the middle of it, confused and oddly detached.

I know cities are not strangers to craziness and mine is no exception but I appear to be in a phase of either heightened awareness or the city itself is getting punchy with the coming of spring and the sun.  Either way it may be time to lay low...