Tricks for Tips

When you hear Tricks for Tips in Oakland - hooker may come to mind. But today, on a nice sunny day in Oak town on San Pablo in front of the Liqeur store near the Crack and Save. Two young guys had one of those arrows they use to point out Real Estate deals or other ‘deals’ about town. Usually, I ponder what makes the people click who choose to throw around the arrow but TODAY it was different. These guys were ingenious. They were dancing some major break dancing moves (white boys even) and their arrow read ” Tricks for Tips”. I couldn’t help but smile! A big caddy with some dudes in front of me past them some money. I drove by and smile. Than it made me think…its a rarity to see something randomly like that which makes me smile…it took me a bit but I back tracked to them and gave them a 5 spot. They gave me a thanks.

I am glad I went back. It reminded me of a time in the BART when down one of the long hall-ways a solo guy sat cross-legged playing a wooden flute. I noticed him but didn’t really hear him till I was alone in the hall and it just echoed such a passionate tune. I regretted stopping to acknowledge simple beauty.

Umbrellas are Scary

Umbrellas in the hands of people are scary! All the people who walk along the streets not paying attention to anything around them continue to do so except now they are wilding an umbrella - with their coffee, while talking on the phone, smoking a cigarette…its almost as bad as sticking the same people in a car in the rain except on the road I would have my car between them and me.

On the sidewalk, I am naked, exposed…with nothing between them and my eyes or my head…For me rain, just means I flip up the hood on my jacket. I am not sure why it has to be any more complicated than that. These days apparently for umbrellas BIGGER IS BETTER. There were people with umbrellas that took up more than half the side walk, with two way traffic on the sidewalk this is just totally ridiculous. Put these people inside and they don’t get much better at maintaining their trusty umbrellas; they leave them hanging out in the aisles next to their chairs. I have never been afraid of the rain - but I definitely think Umbrellas are scary. I do appreciate the guy in the corporate suit who’s umbrella went inside out on him in the wind - its worth an inner giggle (sorry if that was you on the street, you may just consider a hood next time - you can fix the hair in the bathroom).

College Avenue on a Saturday

So I went over to College Avenue to get Indian food. Some hip, hip-hop listening guys run the place. An interesting set-up where you order from the counter, they assign you a table, you get your food and you wait again at the counter to pay. I like it though, it seems more real than some of the walk-up trendy Indian places.

Since it took me about 10 mins. to find a spot after eating I thought I would actually walk up and down College to see what all the activity was about. I went to a clothing store across the street and there was a feeding frenzy going on in the store, it was crazy people squeezing by, pushing to get at racks and reaching across where I was looking at clothes that went from 12.99 red tag to hundreds of dollars. I kept looking around the store to see what sale I was missing, there was a sign for a sweater sale but that did not explain what was going on…it was too much for me to decipher. I am not a ’boutique’ store shopper, I prefer a ‘Target’ for the basics. And really, I don’t like shopping (though a guy in my life would like to beg to differ on that point).

Escaping, the feeding frenzy, I hit the streets again…I checked out the movie theater, a musical love story was playing ‘Once’. I wasn’t in the mood for a love story. I walked along peeking in windows at a bunch of stuff that I couldn’t imagine ever needing. I bookmarked a couple cafes’ for another time. I stopped in a noisy bird store, that had 4 cute kitten’s and one FAT Garfield looking cat that looked dead to the world. Heading back to the car there was an ice cream store with a line out the door. I couldn’t see past all the heads to see what was so special.

What really wrapped up the walk, was the guy on the corner in his black ’skivvies’ with his ‘package’ dangling on his yoga mat on the side walk with his leg pulled up behind him touching the back of his head. It kind of made sense once I saw he was doing it in front of a Yoga store front. He was doing a ‘pigeon’.

Five steps a way a young homeless kid sat on the ground facing garbage cans with a shopping cart next to him. He wasn’t doing anything, just staring, perhaps meditating since clearly this was a holistic part of town…