Tonight Erik and Puddy (Erik's roommate/bandmate/person I often refer to as "Dave") decided they should go play an open mic night in Portland. Puddy and I went to this place once before and it was pretty cool, so they thought they'd give some of their newer stuff an audience. And since I just happened to be at the farm picking blackberries for another batch of jam (finished!) when they were getting ready to go, they invited me along.
Before I start the story, let me just clarify that we were totally safe the whole time, in a well-lit area with lots of people around and we all had our cellphones, but I was still glad both the boys were there!
Anyway, we got down to the place (after getting only slightly lost...oops!) and the earliest time slot they could get was 9:30. With 2 hours to kill, we thought we'd go see if there was another coffee shop or someplace nearby where they could play in the meantime. The first location struck out, so we started walking down to a Starbucks that Puddy insisted was just "right down the street" (yeah, right!!). So when we were finally about a block from the distant Starbucks, we noticed a homeless woman sitting on a bus bench and singing across the street.
I started laughing when I realized she was singing "This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius! Age of Aquar-I-USSSSSS!" quite loudly, but didn't think much of it. We all just smiled and kept walking. We crossed the street, parked ourselves at a table outside Starbucks on the street (yay, summer!), and Dave pulled out his guitar and they started jamming.
Things were going fine, and then we noticed that our singing friend from across the street had apparently heard someone else adding some music to the universe and decided to check it out. She had walked up the street, crossed over to our side, and was now just across the intersection from us, dancing up a storm. We thought she was going to walk over to us, but then she crossed back to the other side again. The boys kept playing, but pretty soon, she must have decided the music was good enough to move to, and she (literally) danced her way across the street to us.
Now, before I go any further, let me just say I don't really have too many preconceived notions or stereotypes about "homeless people" in general, but I do have plenty of experience from hanging out with my mom's clients to tell when someone is just a little bit...well...crazy. Or mentally ill, if you prefer. And this lady was. More than a little. But was she ever joyful...except when she was swearing. But maybe even then. Whatever. I digress...
So our friend, whose name happened to be Candy, danced her way over to us, set her stuff down behind us, and for the next 45 minutes or so, I would be hard pressed to tell you which party was the entertained and which was the entertainer. She was hilarious!!
The boys would be singing a song, and she's singing her own words (oftentimes nonsense words or phrases) right over the top and definitely dancing to her own beat. Seriously, had I had my camera with me, this video would have been an instant hit on Youtube. Erik and Puddy were doing their best to humor her, trying to follow her lead with the words (I'm pretty sure she didn't notice), and keep going without busting up laughing. After a while she sat down for a few minutes, only to start "dancing" again when a new song started before actually standing up (if you know yoga at all, think downward facing dog position, but kicking your legs out and up in time to the music. No joke). Candy would sometimes clap or stomp along to the beat, and surprisingly enough, she had perfect rhythm! But she was just as likely to spin around or jump up and down...or occasionally run out halfway into the intersection to get up momentum to run back and do ballet-like leaps in front of us.
Just so you have a visual image, Candy was wearing a long green sweater, denim shorts over black leggings, and thick wool socks with slip on sandals. Most of her teeth were broken and crooked, and her grayish/white hair kind of stuck out all over the place. Most of the time she was dancing so hard her sandals were just barely staying on her feet. At some point she picked up a cigarette butt off the ground and carried it around in her fingers for about 20 minutes before she found her book of matches, lit it, and smoked it.
Candy couldn't have cared less what anyone thought about her. She was pretty obviously suffering from some kind of mental illness, but it didn't really matter--she was just happy to be singing and dancing and (I think) enjoying the boys' music. Just so you can catch a smattering of the words I picked up from her singing, here are a few: "pomegranate," "Robin Hood," "I shot the sheriff...," "go back to Chinatown...," "this song's almost over...," and some other choice words that I won't write here. I'm not sure why God decided the four of us needed to cross paths tonight, but apparently He did. Erik bought our new friend a hot chocolate from Starbucks before we left, and we headed back to the open mic night.
The boys did a great job, even though the audience was pretty sparse by the time they were up, but I don't think even a huge audience could have topped the awesome randomness of that 45 minutes with our new friend Candy.
So, there's a good example of what I'm talking about. And I'm not kidding, random stuff like this happens to me ALL THE TIME. Way more than the average person. (Ask me about the last time I called 911, for example...) And this story does not even begin to describe how hilarious and crazy the situation actually was. So there you go. Holy random, Batman!
Sidenode: As I was driving home through downtown Portland tonight after all our adventures, there were several blocks in a row where there were multiple homeless people curled up in doorways or on sidewalks trying to stay warm and get some sleep. I was thinking about how frustrated I've been lately by high gas prices, low pay, the inability to do the things I want to do, etc., and I was struck by, in reality, how easy I have it. I have a warm bed with clean sheets to sleep in. I have 6 brand new jars of homemade jam on the counter and cabinets and a fridge with plenty of food to eat (even when I claim "there's no food at my house"). I have a car to get me from place to place and a job that allows me to pay for gas, even if it's expensive And even though I'm struggling to figure out how to fund my next trip to Europe (not even kidding...more on that later), I am EXTREMELY blessed to be in a position where a trip ANYWHERE, even to an open mic night in downtown Portland, is even a consideration.
So, do me a favor today and say a quick prayer for the homeless people in our world and the people who are forced to go without every single day. And say a prayer for the people who struggle with mental illness and for all of us who judge them without having "walked a mile in their shoes." And say a quick prayer of thanks to God for the many blessings you have in your life, even when times are tough. :) God bless you all!
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