Day 5

So as the first week of the new year has been coming to a close, I had been getting increasingly nervous... I was hitting day 5 today and my resolve to approach strangers was weakening. Wouldn't they think I was weird? Where should I approach them? What should I say? I was very very worried that I wouldn't be able to keep one of my self-imposed rules...

But today! Today, I met my first stranger!

His name is Vasili and he was playing the cello at the Broadway-Lafayette stop on my way home today. While I love watching street entertainers, lately, I have been so tired and was about to pass him by, but this woman asked him to play a song. I know the tune well, but didn't know the title until today. Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major: Prelude. I love this song, and watching Vasili play it almost made me cry; it was so beautiful! I only wish I had talent like that. It was amazing.

He's really a good cello player. He's been playing for forty years and hails from Moscow, I think. He's been in New York for about two years because his son and his son's family live here. He plays in Central Park in the summer and this past summer, a professional photographer took some really good shots of him with a ballet dancer. He showed me on his computer. They were really nice. That reminds me; I really need to take the time to take better pictures...

In any case, I hope he finds me on the internet and sees how happy I am to have met him. One of the reasons I decided to make 52 strangers part of my project was because New York has a lot of interesting people with all kinds of stories and I would love to sit and listen...

Will be listening to Bach as I fall asleep tonight...