Characters

Jack Johnson just about summed up our afternoon: "I'm just people watching other people watching me..." or some similar musical genius. This afternoon Matt and I made it down to Le Petit Robert for snacks and pink bubbly.

Sitting outside we saw it all walk by - the city truly does offer entertainment 24/7 in many forms. The characters:

• Taxi man: across the street from us a man was trying to catch a taxi for a good 30-minutes. It hurt my heart to watch - the cabs kept passing him by (those with and without the light on) and with every cab that passed you could see this poor man looking more and more deflated. Finally one came up, light on, and slowed right in front of him - the man looked so excited (all 5'5" of him, jeans and blazer clad) and started walking towards the slowing cab grinning. The cab drove on. I thought he was going to cry - I nearly did!
• Kissy kissy woman: a man sat next to us half way through our people watching with a tiny adorable dog. Everyone stopped to say hello to the dog - children, women, and even men (although I have a feeling the men were saying hi to the dog owner just as much as the dog). Then came kissy kissy - an older woman with lips and shadow that made the 80s seem muted. "Hello you fine beautiful thing," she said not even looking at the man, "I love you. Yes, I do! I do!" Then she proceeded kissing the dog. I nearly lost my cheese and olives. The horror.
• Gym rats: Le Petit is next to my gym to half the folks walking by were spandex clad gymsters ready to work off whatever they did earlier this weekend. A couple came through in the pack - the man in shorts and a tee that he likely won from a race somewhere, and the girl in shorts with a matching tee and sweatshirt and shoes - maybe she was sponsored. Both seemed to be trying to one-up the other with talk of how they were going to work "haaaaaaaaaarder" today. OK. Good luck to them.
• The rager: just as we were wrapping up, sirens came blaring down the street. An ambulance came speeding up and somehow got stuck in a traffic jam of people with strollers, two cars, and an angry man who was the eye of the traffic storm. Finally the ambulance made it through, and the angry man stayed in the middle of the street howling. At first I felt sorry for the poor man (I think I jump to the sorry feeling first) and then I realized he was just an angry meany yelling at all the cars and people who got in his way. I hope he drinks some chamomile today.

I love people watching. Can't wait to do it tomorrow!