More Than Meets the eyes
Today i woke up pissed. I don’t even think you can say i really woke up today because i don’t ever think i went to sleep. I just dozed out of my slight state of consciousness and slid slowly into existence. I was tossing, and turning, and thinking, and sneezing, and everything else but fucking sleeping. Today was very different from my usual sleep till 1:00pm then do whatever i please lifestyle that has been a constant for the last month. I decided to help a friend out by being her ginny pig for the day at dental hygiene school. I thought maybe helping my friend graduate might be better than starring at the ceiling all day so i came home for the week. Only flaw to this idea is that i had to awake at 4:30am and venter throughout the commuter rail of the Boston area. The morning route we took was hazy and i don’t remember much except forgetting my coffee at the orange line and the back of eyelids on the way to the green line.
After four hours of my friend poking and pulling at my teeth and gums it was filly time to go home. As all Boston locals know you will see all sorts of shit on public transpiration. Its almost like a right of passage to witness the madness of the human race while trying to get to place to place, so rightfully i was on the lookout. as we approached the next stop a women gets on and sits next to my friend. She kept sucking on her water bottled that was covered in her bright red lipstick and started continuously rocking back and forth talking to herself about how much her back was killing her. After a while she started to cause attention to herself and just like that the two young girls in front of me had experienced their right of passage just like that. I looked down and my phone buzzed and my friend next to me had texted me “schizophrenia”. It was sad, but it was most likely true. The good news for lipstick lady is that she isn’t the worst of the worst, she’s not even close.
I tuned my head as the doors open for the next stop and a man in his late 60s walked on and sat down next to me. This man intrigued me from the start. He had on old raggedy corduroy pants, an old Patagonia pattered zip up, a worn down wool sweater and a fedora with a blue bandana tied around it. He kept looking down picking at the spots on his hands that had accumulated from old age.The look on his face broke my heart and i couldn’t help but wonder what he was thinking. We sat for a few minutes in silence all burdened by the shrieks of the rails. Then i remembered how my dad always makes conversation with strangers he meets. He tells me that most people are lonely and just want someone to talk to, the just want someone to ask them their name and maybe slightly give a damn. My dads lessons always linger in my head so i acted on it . I pointed at his jacket and said “thats a really nice jacket i love how old school it is” before i could even finish my sentence this man was speaking a mile a minute with answers prepared as if he had just been dying to talk with someone. He went off about how he got in in the women’s department at Savers and how he ALWAYS get compliments on it. then he began to rant about how amazing Savers was and proceeded to list off all the locations of every Savers within 20 miles of us, just incase i wanted to go check it out. He continued to talk and i entertained it because he was sweet, and kind, and funny, and a good distraction from the smell of the cart. I went back and forth trying to decide if i thought he was crazy or lonely but then i decided that i think he’s a genius. He spoke to me of travel, school, work, government, and so much more about things and people and places i have never heard before. He lived in Japan and Hawaii, and had traveled all over the place working as a substitute, in prisons, on farms, teaching english over seas, and many other odd jobs on his journeys. He told me about how he’s going to an Paradis island off of India for a month and how he can’t wait to see all the the “attractive ladies”. He wanted to make sure my friend and i had as much information as we could about the fields we were interested in. i swear it was like this guy read the paper of every town in the whole god damn country everyday, he knew so much!
After about an hour we all finally exchanged names and now Kevin was our new friend. He gave us his email and said we could contact him with any question we could ever have and he would give us all the information he knew.
As we went our separate ways Keven waved goodbye to us and told us we were gonna go far. He said we were smart and beautiful, and that life was going to treat us well because we had good karma. Kevin fucking made my day man, my spirit was so lifted after being bitter about my 4 am wake up call. I thought to myself as we left, i wonder how the ride would have went if i didn’t say anything. If we just sat in silence all waiting to go on to our own lives unconcerned with the journey we were taking trying to get to our separate destinations. I thought about how Kevin never spoke of his family or kids or a wife of any kind. I thought of how he spoke about traveling most of his life and how he continues to do it and how exciting that must be, but also how lonely it could be. Then i thought about the lipstick lady and how maybe shes not crazy either, maybe all she wanted was for someone to give a fuck about her god damn back?!
Regardless today had me thinking, thinking in a good way. Kevin made me excited about life and lately I’ve been feeling pretty scared of it. I got home and Keven had sent me an email he said “Meghan, it was nice meeting both you and your friend. If I can ever help you with info. on Travel, work, etc. Let me know. I will send you info. on 2 fantastic Brain enhancement Supplements that I have used over the yrs. that are incredible for mood enhancement , memory and overall brain health. . Much Aloha , Blessings , Kevin” Kevin cool as shit man i don’t care what anyone says. I’m glad i now know Kevin and I’m glad Kevin knows me. Im glad he had someone to share all his knowledge with today and i hope someone gets the pleasure of his company tomorrow.
Take a second and guess again when thinking of the people around you, we’re all just trying the best we can. Next time someone intrigues you ask them their name it may make their day, it might also make yours.
Much aloha, blessings,
Thoughts of a Head Case.