how do you know when you really live in a city?

sometimes, i think it's those little secret moments that don't seem important enough to tell other people, or maybe they just belong to you so much that you don't want to. like, when an apple or a leaf falls right in front of you, or you catch the sunset just at the right moment when you're walking home and you happen to look down mapleton street. clearly these things have happened to me. also, in the last six hours, i have given relatively accurate directions to two people. i have a friend who is just so genuine-looking that he gets stopped on the street even in foreign countries to give directions, and secretly it has always been my ambition to look comfortable enough on a street to get asked as casually as he does. granted, both of these people were japanese, so who knows what they were thinking when they picked me (she's wearing converse, we have those; she's the only person looking me in the eye when i look at her; she looks academically insane, like hermione), but they did, and i helped them, and now i feel a little like i really live here and might think twice before just picking up and leaving the next time someone makes me cry.

other things that happened to me today:
the suspicion that a prehistoric bird lives on my street. i know that no one alive really knows what a pterodactyl sounds like, but picture a pterodactyl and think about what it might sound like, like the entire range of sounds that includes salutation, conversation, and celebration, and what you're imagining is happening in a tree about two houses down.
bones scattered all over the walk by a building i went to to drop off some forms. i know that someone probably just didn't clean up after themselves after eating some chicken wings (there's a lot of litter here - i myself threw a beer cup right into the harbor today and no one cared), but seeing bones all over the place is a little disconcerting. i thought it might be an omen, but i had no idea what kind. one time a bird pooped right on my head at the zoo and my grandma told me it was lucky; i hope it's that kind.

my RAD roommate bought me a $2 shirt. that is the picture you're looking at. it's a combination muumuu/housecoat/prettiest, most comfortable shirt i've ever owned. she is rad.

more on the boat cruz tomorrow - thank you for your and your mothers' concern, it was fun and i was totally warm enough. i f*cking love you all.