A recent moment:
Me on a Saturday morning, propped up at the counter of a local morning joint, working on espresso and croissant, blearily scanning the morning paper. A pretty good local joint, a place I go to many mornings, with interesting faces.
The time: shortly after 10, not many people around, the place quiet, tranquil, a radio playing quietly in the background. I stood at the end of the bar, alone, deeply submerged in the slow process of coming to. At some point, out of the corner of my eye I saw a newspaper appear on the counter next to me, a copy of El Mundo, slapped down, the upper half of the front page visible at the extreme edge of my field of vision. Very close, considering how few people there were in the place at that time, how much free space was available. But I paid it no mind, continued reading, feeding myself bits of croissant, sipping at my cup.
A moment later I felt an arm reaching around me, almost as if someone were making a clumsy attempt at getting far too familiar. I looked around, realized that someone was trying to return the house copy of the paper to the spot against the wall where it customarily lives, reacted with a sincere, "Ay, lo siento!", my body reacting in two different ways: (1) trying to get out of the way so unknown customer could drop the paper by the wall and (2) reaching for the paper to take it and relieve unknown customer of the difficulty he'd been having working around my adorable bod. Don't know how I appeared, possibly like someone mid-electroshock therapy, jerking up off their gurney in startling fashion.
Unknown customer told me not to worry, managed to toss the paper where it should get tossed, moved away from me, smiling. And I immediately recognized the profile of Javier Bardem, one of Spain's most widely-known actors. He moved down the bar, stopped to talk with the counterman, giving me a moment to take a good look at him. Dressed in loose street clothes and a nondescript, comfortable-looking jacket, wearing a baseball-style cap, the brim pulled down to hide that distinctive face. Had the look of a likeable guy. Didn't glance around much, maybe to minimize the possibility of eye contact. He and someone in his family have a late-night joint a few blocks away, I've heard other people mention seeing him walking local streets. Could be he has a flat, actually lives in the neighborhood when he's not off on business. Don't know. He looked at home, though. Finished chatting, headed to the door, stepped outside and disappeared. Just another human walking along a quiet street in the Spanish capital.
I looked back down at my paper, took another sip of coffee, resumed the long swim back to consciousness.
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Morning sky, mid-February, Madrid
España, te quiero.
rws 12:09 PM [+]
Comments:
wow, this is a celebrity I would love to meet up! although he has a grumpy look, I personally find him sympathic, dunno. I have to meet him up to judge him ;) hehe
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: 12:57 PM
: 12:57 PM