Rain and Shine, Fucking Good Times (A much needed update)

Monday was another late afternoon/early evening busking day. And it wasn't my best.

When I arrived at Ravintola Tori, the woman who had purchased a poem from me on my first day, and then came back for another, was there. Considering that I will undoubtedly write about her in the future, her name is Lilu. Lilu is absolutely brilliant. She said she wanted to order two more poems from me, one about a kid who just graduated from high school in New York who is coming to Helsinki to celebrate. The other, she had not decided on its subject yet. She went to her office and said she'd be back in an hour. Then my friend Antti, another one of my customers from Day 1, stopped by with his friend. I was thinking about getting lunch since I hadn't eaten much since breakfast, so I packed up my stuff and took a break with Antti and his friend Pekka. Pekka ended up buying one of my ready-made stories, and after both guys left, I went back to sit down.

I sat there for a while with no customers and then, damnit, it started to sprinkle. I love the rain, and this wasn't even real rain. But I couldn't risk my paper and stuff getting wet if it started to rain more forcefully so after making very little money, I packed up and went home.

Lilu and I never exchanged the graduation poem I wrote, but I know she's my loyal customer, so I figured I'd run into her again. She said she did stop by at some point and I wasn't there. Unlucky. After I made it all the way home, the sun started shining full force again. Fuck. But I didn't want to go back out again, so I just decided to leave the day as it was.

I ended up going out for "one pint" with a friend, which never really means one drink. We met this American guy at the bar who was traveling the world alone and we showed him how you really do it in Helsinki; we stayed out until 5 a.m. reveling in Finland's endless sun and drinking until it's finally time to stumble home. This American traveler is relevant later on in the story, hence the introduction. I'll write the rest in another post, to break it up a bit. And it is a story about two different days, anyway.

Helsinki birds at 4:30 a.m. next to the 24-hour McDonald's
(Notice the French fry that the bird is about to snatch mid-air)

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Beck – Sunday Morning (Velvet Underground cover)