Now that I have quit smoking (4 weeks, 2 days and 18 hours ago, yes… cigarettes are like the girlfriend who dumped me), I try to make guests smoke out in the balcony so as not to completely ruin the smoke free / Berry Splash Glade scent mixture in my flat. Since the Israeli winter has decided to stay in Western Europe, much like other smart young citizens, this balcony smoking law isn’t really a bother and it even creates for a voyeuristic experience, like the one on Sunday night…
I was inhaling the exhaled fumes of a certain someone’s cigarette out in the balcony and beneath us, on the street, an old ragged hobo-ish woman walked up to my building’s big green trash cans. She opened one up and started to rummage between the bits of left over spit and diapers. Scavenging through the garbage with her head fully tilted into the belly of the plastic dumpster. Suddenly, she paused, lifted her head up and to the side of the trash can and puked her guts out onto the sidewalk. I was disgusted, my gag reflex was kicking in. My so called friend was laughing hysterically. The woman / creature / troll like figure just took a deep breath and immersed herself into the green fortune chest, looking for her prize. After a few seconds, again, tilt of the head, up and over and evacuation of the stomach.
This went on in cycles as she meticulously searched the insides of these fly ridden canisters. As my desire to hurl finally calmed down, I started thinking of Michael Phelps. This woman had stamina, and she was not giving up. Every time the stench of garbage got too much for her, she lifted her head, as a swimmer does gasping for air, and puked. Revitalizing herself for a few more critical seconds in which she can sink herself back in the trash and look for her hidden treasures. She did not give up, she did not move on to a more aromatic bin, she braved through the stench and scouted the miserable content.
To me this woman is like an Olympian Athlete, the Rocky Balboa of Frug Street Gypsies, Lady Gag Bag.
PS – Idea to self: ‘Survivor 6th Street – the search for leftovers”
