People say (or at least one person says) I've got nice eyes.

I got a nice compliment on my eyes today.

Rotaract (corrected spelling) brings gifts for a birthday party at the East Harlem Soup Kitchen every 3 months. That's Spanish Harlem. There are a lot of projects in that 'hood. The Sisters of Mary of Nazereth run the show - Frenchies, but the good kind. So, those of us that can attend bring gifts for 2 kids and we hand them out. It's great fun! The kitchen provides cake and the crafts stuff. We wrap and offer the gifts.

One of the gift buyers was late but people were ready to go home, so we started handing out gifts. Still, the colleague that had called to say he'd arrive late at 1 p was not yet there and it was already later than that. So, I told the little boy, Johnny, the story and it's on his way. And hats off to Johnny, he was really a good kid.

I also took a moment to explain it to his mom, who before I could get a word out said, "You have very beautiful eyes." Naturally, I smiled and said thank you. I told her the situation and she told me not to worry Johnny is very patient.

I went back and bragged to my friends.

Of course, Johnny's mom looked like she'd spent too much of her life as a crack-house ho but at last had found Jesus. Crystal meth had gotten the best of her teeth.

(Then again, she could have just returned from a mission in Africa where her husband, a doctor, died while helping the refugees of Darfur. However, that's not funny.)

Christina joked, "You can be Johnny's dad if you want."

Suddenly, two kids that weren't on our list to buy for came in at the last moment, Maya looked to our reserve cache and said, "We need gifts for a boy age 5 and a girl age 7."

"If you need me to go out for something let me know, 'cause I've got to get flowers for Johnny's mom."