Looking at you kid

Day 49

Sunday

Stores close on Sundays so that the workers might have a day to spend with their family. Which means Sunday is the prime day for people watching. The pool of pedestrians you can blatantly stare at almost doubles. Balloon vendors camp out in the middle of the main drag. Christmas vendors line the street selling knick knacks and odds and ends to decorate with. Street performers here their clashing coins in pockets and flock to Calle Larios to exploit the spectators with young children. Tarot card readers set up tables with the promise of a good fortune (without foreseeing their own poor business profit) and jewelry designers twiddle away at earrings and bracelets to add to their mildly creative display arrayed on blankets lining the street. The icecream shop has a savvy business owner who’s decided to buck tradition to beat the crisis, his doors are thrown open and draw children in with parents at the end of their desperate pull. It’s one of those magical sunny days that make you smile before you even realize that you’re smiling. There isn’t a bench open because everyone is soaking up the perfect day. I stroll up Calle Larios having spent a fair amount of time people watching at the beach and ocean meditating myself, and I pass by the Viking street performer who I see every day on my walk home from class. And he winks at me. And I find my smile exploding across my face. He knows I know the charade. Just another day at work for him, but he’s caught me at my favorite game- staring at the world through the kaleidoscope of my imagination.