July 17th, 2008

I went to the barber shop to have my hair cut off. When I got there, I sat on a chair for about 3 hours and waited while the young barber cut all of his friends' hair. He did a lot of shaping around the hair line which just took ages but was trendy so... I would have complained in England - pointed out I was next - but I wanted a shave as well and I was nervous enough about having a cut-throat razor on my Adam's apple without giving cause for the barber to use it for its name's purpose. Besides, this was a proper New York barbershop where all the kids who you'd think should be at work hang out all day and play with their several cell phones and themselves. People where coming and going, F-ing and blinding, dropping their Harley out in the street (that's literal even though it sounds slang). There was the loudest and longest and, admittedly, only argument about baseball I've ever heard. It was quite the quintessential New York experience.

On a later day I went to play basketball with Drew. When the others arrived, as I have trouble throwing the ball high enough on a full-size hoop, I was relieved that I made the teams uneven and sat down to watch with Jenn and Christine. From the adjacent court came an African American lad who looked like a six foot 10 year old, with a beard. He had clearly only seen me playing out of the corner of his eye - or perhaps he caught the one shot I'd made before feeling like I could finally give up. He needed me so they could play 3 on 3. I figured I could just track a player and not get involved too much.

It was the most exhausting thing I've ever done. I felt like I was on a Lord of the Rings set, dwarfed by these wizards - it's the smallest I've ever felt. And they were magic! I kept out of trouble as best I could - but received some friendly advice from one teammate - along the lines of "Squeeze, mother$#%¥@#!" I'm not sure what he meant but I clenched my buttocks in case it was something to do with that. I don't suppose he understood me either, though. That probably explains why he didn't hear me say I'd never played befor because I'm a little English boy.

It was good staying in Brooklyn. Yeah we did all the New York sights but that just felt like tourism. It was the 'normal' things like getting a hair cut and going to the park that felt like New York.