An Actual Conversation that Happened Today

It wasn't good!

For the past week or so, a film crew has been setting up down the block from my son’s preschool. It’s a giant production with a crane and several trucks and every day another deeply exciting vehicle shows up. There are a dozen people with walkie-talkies running in and out of a brownstone, sometimes team-carrying large pieces of equipment. Showbiz!

This afternoon I was feeling somewhat untethered from reality and basic social conventions after a 2-hour “family Passover” at my son’s preschool and was walking down the block to decompress and get an iced coffee and I passed the whole film crew circus. A woman with a COMTAC headset/walkie-talkie waved me through and I did something I never do and immediately regretted: Began a conversation with a stranger as if we were on familiar terms.

Here goes: