no, please, tell me all about it:

one of the best things about new york (file under: perks of being nocturnal) is the way weirdos sit around and kvetch.

no, really.

as is my nature, i often find myself staying awake all night in a 24 hour cafe in manhattan (my favorite yet is the esperanto), drinking tea, working on projects of some variety and every single time, come four or five in the morning, I wander outside to get a look at the sky turning to blue, and i find the oddest assortment of people, usually all strangers, sitting around, all in a huff about some topic that somebody must have pulled out of a hat.
(says the big bass player in his thickest new york accent) "my mother always said, 'marraige is the biggest admission of a lack of self confidence a person can make'. discuss."

tonight the huff was about: motorcycles (specifically: motorcycle safey education, near death expiriences, the coolest bikes they have seen on craigslist) traps that bosses set to test their employees, marraiges of convenience (all the reasons why its a bad idea), and draft dodging (did you know: "during 'nam you didnt have to go all the way to canada! just go to Minnesota, like in Fargo, and nobody'd bother you there!") with a slight sidetrack somewhere in there about how marraige in general, was for fools.

invariably, if you are awake at this hour, and are spotted outside of a cafe, someone pulls out a chair and says "sit down, honey!!" and then you get sucked in. these people are not crackheads or bums. they are artists and actors and barflys and hotel clerks and forign nationals and the strangest array of people. they talk to you like you are an old friend. while I have also expirienced this odd sort of random stranger kvetch-sesh during the day, I feel like I am in some sort of secret club when it happens at night, for i am quite certain nocturnal new yorkers are by far some of the friendliest and strangest people alive.