Huh?

Today was a typical day for me. The kind where I wake up in the middle of some bizarre dream, groggily stumble out of bed and spend the rest of my day in a complete haze.

It makes sense then, that when I see things that seem out of place I usually do not even notice. When I do observe something strange, the most common assumption that sometimes makes its way into my mind is that some sort of crime has been committed. Ask anyone I know - there are potentially dead bodies everywhere (this stands in sharp contrast to my friend Kyle who sees the potential to discover Little Debbies everywhere).

Anyway....

Today I was walking from my internship to my honors seminar when I saw something strange. Across the street from Murphy's, at around 17th and Wells, there was a man doing some awkward, repetitive motion against the wall of that little brick archway. Earlier in the day, my kids and I played with sidewalk chalk on the playground. This being the case, the situation made perfect sense to me; this man was probably drawing on the bricks (or committing some sort of drug offense).

That was not the case. The man was, in fact, attempting to sharpen a pencil against the brick. And not just one pencil, no, because in some extreme situation that would be even remotely understandable. This college student was trying to do this with a handful of pencils.

What was he thinking? Had he done this before? Was there no better way to sharpen his pencils? Was this an urgent matter, one that required a crude writing instrument? Several writing instruments?

I just don't get other people.