saturday love.

He approached Sunset Beer Company feeling pretty boss and confident after running into Earl Sweatshirt a few steps back. Well, not run into, more like "looked up and around while walking down the street and happened to lock eyes with a random black dude smoking a cigarette while sitting on a tiny box who just happened to be Earl Sweatshirt when he looked right", okay.

Life of Pablo was playing, deep in one of his favorite blocks (pt. 2 onwards was in full swing), the sun was out, as were his guns, and liquor purchases were forthcoming. Another gorgeous Saturday in Los Angeles and Echo Park, where Bernie Sanders was making rounds at the lake a few steps or two southward to his right. Yes, even Bernie was feeling the So Cal sunshine and love.

She, too. A member of a bright entourage of peers the New York Times would have loved to photograph and attach to a new thinkpiece on brunch in Los Angeles or Millennials who have discovered walking in Los Angeles while gentrifying, or something. All hip, but casual. Cooler than you, perhaps, but approachable.

And approach she did. He tries and tried to not locate and stare too hard at any of the attractive males in the bunch for a quick game of spot or pull out your gay while cruising these streets. And he made sure he didn't let himself get locked into any blush inducing or misleading smiles with the ladies in the bunch.

Then he noticed the group slowing as the liquor oasis drew closer, a parking lot away. And then they stopped. And she stood in his path. She didn't remove her aviator ray bans, identical to the ones he wouldn't remove as well, but he could see that she was doing that thing where she had recognized someone she knew, wanted to shout a -INSERT HIS NAME HERE- & reminisce real quick. He could see it in her body language. Had been here before. We all have. And he too, ray bans still on, worked in those few seconds to scan her face and look her up and down politely, waiting for his brain to connect a name or memory to her face.

But this moment would never come, for they did not know each other, no. She stopped him merely to ask him for a hug. And he obliged. And she told him that she just wanted him to know that he is awesome. And to keep doing him.

He smiled. He blushed. He told them all to enjoy their Saturday, as they all went their separate ways, warmed by the friendly interaction, that sunshine, and the little moments/things/and connections that warm our hearts and make us smile, ‪#‎upinthesestreets‬.