Cotton Candy Kid

There are a lot of things that warm my heart and bring a smile to my face on a regular basis. For instance, the sale rack. There's nothing more satisfying that getting something nice for a fraction of its regular price. As I'm sure a lot of you realize, one of those instant-happy fixes does not usually involve me interacting with children. This story, however, brings a grin to my face.

I visited the National Portrait Gallery with two of my friends, James and Gabe. It was an interesting trip in itself; we determined that the most interesting portraits were, indeed, those from the Civil War era. The facial hair fashions were unbeatable. Really, it's sort of amazing how ridiculous some portraits looked.

After the NPG, we headed down to the Metro to wait for our train home. I could go on forever about the wonders of the Metro--clean, efficeint, cheap--but one of the greatest things about it is the abundance of sketchy and/or interesting people encountered on a daily basis. We took a seat on a bench near a kid with a bucket full of cotton candy, not yet quite realizing how interesting this kid was.

The Cotton Candy Kid (CCK) offered Gabe some of his cotton candy, which Gabe declined. Shortly after, CCK dropped the cotton candy on the floor. Without batting an eye, he picked it up promptly, blew on it, and proceeded to stuff it in his mouth.

"Five second rule," Gabe observed.

"You know about that, too?" CCK asked, bewildered, as though the five second rule was a secret of the universe beknownst only to him. "High five!"

And Gabe proceeded to high five CCK.

"Down low," CCK prompted, and as Gabe went for the down low, "TOO SLOW!"

And then, as if that had not been bad enough: "IN YOUR FACE!" as he delivered Gabe a swift slap to the face.

"You're not very nice, are you?" James asked.

CCK flexed his muscles, as though this offered a plausible solution to the question.

At some point, one of us also asked if he was going to eat all the cotton candy (which he did).

"I have to eat it all because I'm going to the beach and I need a pail," CCK responded.

"Oh, so you can make sandcastles?" Gabe asked. For some reason, it was Gabe that encountered all of this (mis)fortune.

CCK stared, as though Gabe was an idiot. "Duh."

A little bit more banter was involved, where I asked CCK if he worked for the government, and him telling us all that he had a hose that was "bigger than all our faces," and I rather forget why he needed to tell us that.

Eventually, the train arrived. As we were getting on the train, CCK's adult guardian of some sort finally decided it was time to intervene.

"Don't hit people," he said. And what followed was not don't hit people because it's WRONG, it was, "They might sue you."

ONLY IN WASHINGTON.

Then, to top it all off, CCK responded, "I'll sue them right back! AND PUNCH THEM REALLY HARD IN THE FACE."

Rock on, CCK. Rock on.

Obligatory First Post blog

Hey there, Arcadians:

When you think of inspiration, Melissa Moy is probably not the first thing that pops into your mind. When you think of her fugly face swimming to the surface through clouded ideas, you probably want to run in the opposite direction. However, this happened to me. I have learned not only to accept Moy's ideas, but to embrace them.

I've been meaning to keep a journal for some time, for my own benefit. My life is often quite funny and full of anecdotes that look good in writing. I don't want to forget the details of my youth when I am ancient. So this is mostly for my own benefit. But if anyone wants to read about the goings-on of my college experience in D.C., then that's cool. You all know I do love an audience for my stories!

As far as the quality of this content goes, I have no idea what I want to write about. There's usually never a dull moment with me.

xoxo,
-C

P.S. Gossip Girl theme? Maybe just for this opening.