Confession: I Sketch in Class

Ok, before I continue, a quick shout-out and “I LOVE YOU” to my wonderful readers – especially my dad, Granma E, and Mrs. Turner. Your comments make my day, and I miss all of you! Thanks so much for reading – and I’m glad you’re enjoying my entries.

Sorry for not posting yesterday – I was so tired that I ended up going to bed nearly an hour earlier than normal. I had decided to take a (very) long way home, walking along the river for nearly two miles before heading north and west into an area of the city that I hadn’t explored yet. Not much of interest, once I got past the train station (which Anna took me into today – and I found a Christmas present for my sister. Not telling what it is though! lol) and all the sketchy folk who hang around it, but I walked to what has become my favorite sky-scraper and took a few pictures. I don’t know why, but for whatever reason, this building is to me the perfect skyscraper. I just love to look at it – I don’t have a clue what makes it so great, but it just feels right. 

Anyway, since not much happened special today, I thought I’d show you some of the people I see every day on my way to school. I can’t take pictures, of course, because I’m not a creeper, but I can sketch. So here are a few of the people I pass every morning on my way to Ostend, and also two of my classmates that I drew when I’d finished the others. :D

 

 

First is Mr. Accordion Man. That’s what I call him in my head, anyway – though he looks a bit like a George. He plays at the entrance to the park most mornings with his cup out for change. He sits right where the exit from the subway-station lets out, so lots of business-people pass him. I suppose he must make fairly good money – or else he enjoys it a lot – because he’s always in the same spot. He always smiles at me and gives me a “Guten Morgan,” even though I never drop anything in his cup.

Next is Mr. Smoker. I pass Mr. Smoker nearly every morning at the same street corner, right after I get out of the main banking district. He wears a sharp suit and a contrastingly-ratty cap, and he’s always putting out a cigarette as I pass him. Our schedules must be perfectly aligned so that I always meet him just as he’s about to cross the street and is stamping out his smoke and popping a bit of gum into his mouth. He always seems quite cross, and glares at me as if I’m responsible for his smoking habit. I don’t care for him too much.

Right after I pass Mr. Smoker, I walk past a restaurant where Carlos is putting out the tables and chairs for the day. I have no idea what his real name is, but he looks like a Carlos and I was getting tired of thinking of him as “that waiter guy I pass every morning right after Mr. Smoker.” So Carlos it is. I think Carlos has noticed that I pass every day, and a couple of times he’s given me this kind of half-smile-and-nod of greeting. There’s also a blonde waitress who works at the same place, but her face is so normal that I can’t ever remember what she looks like – other than she’s blonde, tall, and wears overalls half the time.

 

Lastly, there’s a mother and her little girl that I see nearly every morning – though not all the time. The kid seems pretty well behaved, but mom always looks frazzled to me. I noticed her first because she looks just like a girl I knew at school, only about 20 years older. I smile at her most of the time, but she always looks right through me – it’s not normal to smile at strangers in the street here. Her kid is cute though, these big blue eyes and blonde ringlets.

Ok, now here are two of my classmates: Jia Lin (CHI-ya LEEN, from Taiwan) and Natasha (from Moldavia). 

 

Jia Lin is really sweet and has a great sense of humor, and seriously the prettiest eyes I have ever seen on a human being. It’s hard to see from a distance, but when you’re up close her eyes are actually gold. Not like yellow or just a pale brown, but like molten gold and dark chocolate somehow mixed together. Seriously gorgeous. 

 

Natasha is adorable in manner and appearance. She has the look of a hard-core punk (her hair is raspberry-red, and she wears heavy shoes, short, flouncy skirts that look like she may have handmade them, and relatively plain blouses) but she’s actually very nice and has a laugh like a viola – lower than you’d expect, and sweet.

  

Anyway, that’s it for tonight. More soon! (Well, maybe not until Sunday – Saturdays we have the bitties all day long, so they can get pretty exhausting.)

~Maggie