A Regular Acquaintance Who's A Homeless Guy, Who Keeps Moving On, & One of His Artists-Contacts

We would have him in our household once in a while, which started after my landlord with whom I live, asked him to do chores in the house. A Puerto Rican and probably not yet a high school graduate who's now in his mid 30s, he has made some impression on me as I got curious about the programming he's doing using his beloved calculator. He's got his own ways of making do with resources in his hands (or even just those inside his backpack)---let's just leave it at that so that I won't be saying here what annoys me about him but rather highlight the kindhearted and good person that he basically is. The last time he was here, we chatted as usual. We exchanged ideas, as usual, about the horrors and kinds of struggling and hardships here in the city where he was born and raised, and where I've moved on half a dozen of years ago (as of this writing). I'm amused by his notions on racism and prejudice, which I believe, he's faced more often as he stays homeless most times, which is a situation that he prefers apparently. People without papers to legally stay and work here would have envied him because he's got all the options to get himself in a better, more desirable (at least to others who don't really know any better) situation---I've wanted to tell him this but I never got the chance.

All these chats with him make me think like he seems to want to keep his space, his most-cherished freedom to go around wherever he wants to, at any point in time while he's still awake. He narrated to me efforts to make a living from connections he's built in NYC, which include all other struggling artists anyone here in NYC has the chance to encounter mostly in the subways and other public places. He mentions especially the artist Natalie Gelman, whose song 'Laughing Out Loud' he says he loves listening to. I don't know if there's really such a song, or I could have been mistaken about this, because I could not find the song online (or somewhere else). But he got  me a new CD of Ms Gelman, which is still in shrink wrap and which I hope to sell in my online store in due time. He narrates how they've gone to become friends given similarities in their situations, as they would support each other with what any occasion would call for while doing their respective gigs in NYC. I don't really know who has the better situation because I've seen less desirable situations in NYC since living and working here in the past years.

But I'm gaining more respect for this acquaintance of mine; he has his other truthful stories to tell that I hope to hear some time. It can be draining listening to him when I've got my concerns, too. And I've seen how this guy has continued with his efforts to move on with his life. For one thing, I like to give him credit for a tip he gave me, where you can actually buy another cup of coffee from Starbucks using the same cup you had earlier bought from them with your first coffee, if in case you want another cup of coffee, which will then be priced much, much cheaper. My friends and I did that at least thrice, and surprisingly we didn't have a problem with Starbucks. That's a good way to save cash on coffee for us coffee drinkers around here.

Btw, here's a YouTube clip from Natalie Gelman, which could be the song that my regular acquaintance must have in mind.