Saturday Morning

Weekend mornings are normally full of errands I didn't have time to do during the week, and today was no exception. I headed off to my favorite Tailor With the Wandering Eye to ask him to fix a pocket on a new coat I found at Macy's. I got 10% off the already lowered price, which was why I bought it with a ripped pocket. Even with paying to repair the pocket, the total cost is still a great deal.

Right outside the tailor, a girl a bit younger than I am stopped me for directions to the mall. Her entire entourage had also stopped and they were all looking at me expectantly. In retrospect, I gave them somewhat bad directions - I had them go half a block out of their way to avoid walking a hill - but they'd get there.

As we were talking I felt a faint tingling near my hip - my cell phone. I walked into the tailor's lobby - an old Chinese man was peering out from the elevator at me. Talking into my phone I waved my hand at the man to go ahead without me and then thanked him for holding the elevator.

After I made plans for later in the morning and got off the phone, I looked back at the elevator. The old man was still there, hunched over. I took a few steps towards him and asked, "Can I come in?" He grunted something I took to mean yes, and I went in. He confirmed the floor I needed and pushed the button for me - I guess he'd heard me say into my phone that I was at the tailor's.

The elevator slowly rose and the man told me his eyes weren't any good now that he was old, that he couldn't see. That's why he'd been hunched over when I first saw him - he'd been peering at the buttons from less than a foot away, trying to see which one to press.

"I can barely see the people I love," he said to me, and his statement instantly slowed me down. I felt bad. From what I've seen here, the Chinese seem to have very close families - grandparents are always carting their grandchildren to and from school on the buses.

"That must be very hard, I'm so sorry," I responded. What else can you say? Even with contacts, I feel like I don't see very well, but it's nothing compared to how blind this old guy must feel. I wondered how he was going to get home walking along the city streets. How would he see the traffic signals?

On my way home from the tailor's, I sat on the bus across from a woman with nails longer than my nose. She flipped open her phone. "I need an eighteen inch white gold chain. No, don't you hang up on me! You said I should have what every woman wants, and this is what I want. An eighteen inch white gold chain. You'd better have it for me when I get home."

My family has asked what I want for Hanukah, which starts this coming week. I thought about it on my walk home, and I'm fairly certain I don't want an eighteen inch white gold chain.