"Image Journal Re: May 5, 2004 (86th and Broadway)" by SJ

1. The other single diner was reading “King Leopold’s Ghost.” We look similar (clothes, attitude). Would I like that book?
2. The pair dining across from me, closer to the street, were probably sisters—with a 10-year age difference? Though if the older were actually the mother, wouldn’t she love knowing I thought this? She has a severe hairdo—many right angles. The younger’s is cut in curves. Her nose has likely been sculpted into that shape.
3. Lots of New Yorkers have dogs, and they act as if it is par for the course when two scrap on the sidewalk. No one looks up.
4. A young girl walked by, following her mother and the hostess to a table nearby. Mother and daughter were fit and stylish, with bags and bangles and aviator sunglasses. The girl’s purple tank says in pink across the chest: “Enjoy.” Appropriate?
5. At 5 pm the sun’s rays were already not able to get to the street for all the tall buildings in the way.
6. The waitress asked the young men if they were done with their plates. “Still nibbling” says one, sheepishly, to which the other replies “That’s the gayest thing I ever heard” and they laugh raucously. Then one says about me: “You know what she’s writing…‘still nibbling’.” I look up and join them in a smile. “Yep,” I say, and as I poise the pen to write further I say in imitation “That’s the gayest thing I ever heard.” We become friends over dessert.