Jaded

I watched a guy I don't know sell heroin to a guy that I know this past saturday. I then watched the guy I know use the drug.

Kinda messed me up...because there had always been a veil between the knowledge of drug abuse and witnessing drug abuse.

The dealer was on a bicycle and he was selling his product in a rather ostentatious manner...so much so that I felt like justice needed to be carried out. So I called 911.

At a certain point in the conversation I told the dispatcher "oh, nevermind...there's a cop right here. I'll talk to him".

I discreetly engaged the cop and told him what the guy on the bike was doing. The cop then responded "what do you want me to do? Search him so everyone can get mad at me...for me to only find nothing?"

Justice was all I wanted.

The backstory is that police have been catching a lot of heat for their new "stop and frisk" policy. Which has a 93% failure rate.

My prayer has been that the police would not become discouraged or jaded. Lord please help this man.

concert

Went to a free Chrisette Michele and Musiq Soulchild concert in brooklyn @ wingate park. I had VIP seating b/c my dad is active on the community board and they extended free VIP seating to him - he reserved a seat for me.

I was able to get seats in the VIP section for my sister and her husband. I asked a security guard very nicely to let them into the section and he did. They just couldn't go to the bathroom (wristband required to get back in).

Chrisette Michele is hands-down my favorite singer. She is a soul/rnb singer, but she is a believer - and it permeates all of her songs. She has an amazing voice and she *writes* BEAUTIFUL songs.

She sang my favorite song towards the end of her set, here's a video of that song:

She also dedicated a song to her father, who was in the audience. It was so beautiful. I never realized that the song was about her father until tonight. Helped me to see it in an entirely new light.

Here's the song:

I can't imagine that a single father with a daughter that didn't well up when he heard her sing this song. I mean...it is such a beautiful song. It's called "your joy".

ummm - i may or may not have made a sign with a marriage proposal on it for the concert.

It was also really encouraging to hear her speak of the Lord during her set with a high degree of reverence.

NYC Summer streets

I woke up early on saturday morning intent upon going for a quick bike ride across the brooklyn bridge before an evangelistic outreach at grand army plaza with my new church family in brooklyn (we passed out free water and cupcakes, we also passed out invites to church and fliers for "brew and the bible", our neighborhood open forum on christianity. We also engaged people in conversations about the faith) followed by rapfest 2009 (christian hip hop concert in the bronx).

After crossing the bridge, I saw a bunch of people in matching shirts, so i pulled over to ask them what they were about. One lady with an eastern-block accent informed me that park avenue was blocked off (for summer streets) from the brooklyn bridge (it isn't called park avenue by the brooklyn bridge, but the street evetually becomes park avenue) to 72nd street. I decided to go for a ride along the route. Good times. There were a few people out there to race with at spots along the route, but the lights at major intersections and families with small children out for the day made racing unsafe and impractical at times.

OH! in other news, i've decided to press on with my helmet wearing. When riding around my neighborhood in brooklyn, i noticed that i was the ONLY person wearing a helmet. Recently, two friends of mine that spotted me on my bike actually made fun of my helmet!! However, people without helmets at nyc summer streets were the EXCEPTION. AND yesterday, a bike store owner let me know that the more fashionable looking helmets have less vents and are REALLY hot.

Here are some pictures:

Farmer's market at Grand Army Plaza (THEY WERE ACCEPTING FOOD STAMPS!!! Hooray for low income people!!! :o)



NYC Summer Streets sign @ 72nd and Park:



Water station sign:
:o)




Traffic Control Volunteer:




Father and son. My dad and i used to go out for bike rides when i was a kid. :')



Grand Central: