City Life: A Guy Was in the Dumpster When I Threw My Garbage Out
I can’t stop thinking about it
This has happened more than once. When I lived in posh Santa Monica. And, a couple of times now, in my relatively gritty Los Angeles neighborhood — East Hollywood.
The other morning I walked out of the front door with a bag of garbage to put in the trash (or a bag of trash to put in the garbage?).
As I approached the bin, there’s a man standing inside of it. A lady — presumably his partner — stood off to the side. I made eye contact with both of them, but more so the man, given the uncomfortable scenario. Here I am throwing stuff away I deem no longer suitable for human observation or consumption. Here he is, standing in the dumpster searching through the things people threw away before me.
Without missing a beat, he nodded, took a half step to the side, and opened the lid a bit higher. He looked in the direction of the middle of the bin, probably to indicate it was okay for me to plunk my bag of discarded food and such.
So, I did. We made eye contact again. From there, I was on my way to my car to go on with my day.
But I thought about the interaction all day. I’ve been thinking about it on and off since it happened.
