being real.

A few weeks back I did laundry at Las Glorias laundromat with a man named Carlos. I say man because he told me he was a man--although I would give you my new favorite shoes if he were older than 17 (we'll say 18 to be safe slash keep my shoes safe). He was folding his babies' clean clothes at the counter and saying, "I know what its like to work. To have a hammer hit your thumb. To have a piece of wood fall on your hard hat--that little headache that you get, you know? I know what its like to be a man."Man oh man, I thought.

A little off subject, but I promise in the right direction: I am such a good nodder. I just nod, nod, nod. I even nod at things I disagree with--just to be agreeable. It's mostly subconscious though and when I catch myself doing it I stop as quick as I can, which must be weird for the person going off about the disagreeable thing. They probably think, "What? What'd I say?" Oh well. Such are the not so bad casualties of conversation. That was one thing Carlos was really good at--conversation. Man, oh man he could talk. And even though I'm kidding about him a lot tonight, I really, really like people like Carlos--men and women who do less nodding and trying to be agreeable and instead be real.