That Was My Yesterday

Yesterday morning while getting breakfast I saw an elderly man calmly redirecting traffic right in front of our apartment building. He was making certain no cars would run over a seagull, which apparently had broken its wing and was now lying still but alive in the middle of the road. While the man did this his wife came outside with a large blanket in which to wrap the bird. It was a sad, surreal yet heartwarming scene that for some strange reason I could not quite grasp. Perhaps it was the sheer immediacy of it all. Perhaps it was seeing a seagull in the middle of Manhattan. Perhaps it was the rather matter-of-fact response on the part of the man and the unperturbed way in which the drivers slowly made their way around the bird.

Only later did I see the entire scene for what it truly was--an omen. For shortly after that incident, three things happened to me yesterday:

1. I violently sneezed while shaving, causing me almost to slice off my lower lip and leaving what could best be described as a "blood soul patch" on my chin.

2. As I was on the sidewalk a nun angrily and very loudly told me to get out of her way, pushing me in the process. It was the second time that has happened to me this year.

3. While getting lunch a pigeon flew straight into the side of my head and broke its wing. A little while later I found myself at home, blankly eating a sandwich.

I think I'll stay in today.