The Scenic Route, via Candied-Apple Springs

Round and round we go.

"I have some of my best conversations with strangers, she said, because they have no idea who they're dealing with."—Brian Andreas

Spring in New York City is so good with her parks, wine and olives, live music, and unpredictable evening adventures.

A great moment: Getting one bottle of red wine deep with your buddy before realizing the two of you are sitting in a gay bar, and that somehow you've become involved in an argument with the barkeep over who the female vocalist is on Meatloaf's "I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That);" and even while arguing you realize you're singing along (the track is blasting) because you used to love this song, ever since you had your first kiss to it so many years ago.

It (as in life, as in reality) staggers me so my brain swims laps of the butterfly stroke. As the seasons, so goes the world: Things change, people come and go, all hell breaks loose, love turns, floors get pulled out from under you, and time passes, stops, speeds up and slows down. It's all some of us can do to just breathe and put one foot in front of the other. Or sigh, say "fuck" a few times, and try remembering how different everything seemed so recently. (And, maybe, asking, "How did I ever get by before all of this?")

"You have a good sense of humor," a stranger told me. "Don't lose that." But I was kind of buzzed and the bar was loud, so the conversation didn't last.

Maybe it's enough to have moments that catch you and hold you, showing you something you hadn't known before. Is that so bad? What else is there?

Maybe dusk, when the world is the color of sunflowers. Baby powder sprinkled on dance-hall (movie theater) floors. People with whom I share so much laughter, we don't know what to do with it all. Being so wild over someone that the backs of my kneecaps sweat. But maybe I'm talking about the same thing, or about something I thought of a long time ago.

So it goes?

Later on in the afternoon, we gathered on a big rock and looked out over the water.