Only In Erie...And New York

I rarely go downtown, and there's probably a reason for that.  I can't say Erie is abundant with people playing with a full deck, and there was evidence of that today.

I was hanging out with Tam and her daughter, Britain, this morning.  After walking around the Bayfront for a while, we grabbed a bite to eat from Tickle's and took it to Perry Square.

After picking a bench, Tam started getting Brit all situated when an older, black¹ man walked over to the bench we were at and took a seat.  Um, ok...out of all the empty benches on the square, why'd you choose this one?  I tried to pretend as if I didn't see him, but then he started talking:
"I like Chinese."
That's terrific.  It's good to have a favorite food.  I turned around to see him opening his box of takeout Chinese.
He continued:  "It's oriental."
No crap?  Chinese?  I never knew.
"You want some?"
I tried to be friendly, but it was hard to hide the I'm-really-creeped-out-by-you vibes.  I replied, "No, thanks.  We have food."
Tam looked up at me and mouthed, "You want to move?"  Of course, my eyes and face spoke a resounding "yes".

We took our food over to another bench and left Mr. Creepy Pants in the dust.  While we were eating, we occasionally discussed the oddity of the guy.  Tam came up with an idea.  If he came over, we could say we were together and were having our commitment party.  She decided to demonstrate the linked arm thing with me (check out ron and Jon's unconventional version) as we were holding our subs, but it caused me to crack up too much to actually go all the way through with it.

After a while, the guy got up and started making his way towards another bench where a couple women were seated.  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't happy he went over there instead of to our bench again.  After taking a seat at the bench, we speculated he asked if they wanted to share in his Asian delight (it's oriental, after all).  A black woman got up right away and walked away, and we had to laugh.

It just goes to show there's all kinds of crazy around here, and there's no getting away from it.

¹No need to get fussy about the fact that I mentioned race.  It's purely for visual sake and not to be taken as a racist comment.