Illeny's Notes From the Field...

Occasionally a story about a penny comes a long that is just too ridiculous not to post...this is one such story. So, read on...but only if your "gross out" tollerence is pretty high!


A Story From Illeny:
Hi All,

Until today I couldn't bring myself to tell this story... but here's a delayed report from the field:
It was an overcast day, I was running a few errands at lunch, just a few steps from the cleaners...

I don't know what I saw first, the shinny penny pleading for rescue or the drooling, spilling, oozing inebriate seated (and swaying) above it... I do know what I saw next... all the wet, unknown drippings surrounding that penny of my desire.

The test... could I reach down between the feet of a drunken man, drooling and dripping, near the corner of 18th and I Streets, mid-week at mid-day? (Who gets that wasted so early in the day in downtown DC? a sad testament to his despair, I guess.) NOOOOOOOOO!!!! I just couldn't, eeeeewwwwwwww gross... besides, perhaps is was his penny and he certainly would need it more than I. So I just paused for a split second and kept walking... it just wasn't meant to be.

We all have limits, right?

On the way back to work I passed it again... anyone watching may have thought I was frowning just at the sad sight of the drunken man who'd passed out on the steps behind a penny... the penny I so desperately wanted to rescue, a penny calling out... but sometimes it isn't your place to intervene, life must take its course... Plus, it was still sitting in all that yuckiness! I just couldn't do it.

It's the next day, it's lunch time and I'm running errands again. The sun is bright and the day beautiful, a slight touch of autumn in the air... I'm approaching the spot where, the day before, I'd witnessed the despair of a man... and a penny... I could see the stain on the pavement left from all the unknown fluids, a few leaves and paper were all that remained... hey... is that... could it be... a penny!!!! Yes! I can't believe it's still there, a full 24 hours later on this busy corner!!!! It WAS meant to be after all. I still couldn't bring myself to pick it up with my bare hand and over a week later, it's still wrapped in the paper I picked it up with.

Leslie, come and get this special penny. I believe that might tie things up between Michele and I. I've a feeling I may regain my lead this weekend :) ...

~Illeny