This afternoon I made $1.14 in change juggling up on the Ave in Hampden over the course of about an hour and a few minutes. Plus a bunch of cute girls smiled at me, so that counts for even more, really. One of the first quarters I got was an Oklahoma state commemorative quarter, which is quite in keeping with the bird theme I’ve been following lately.

I brought out with me my little redwood bowl I got on my first trip to Arcata, CA to use as a begging bowl. People at my juggling club last night were saying I should put my hat on the ground, but it’s too good of a prop - I think - to waste on the ground like that. Inside of my begging bowl, I placed the Fool card from my now broken up Marseilles Tarot deck (I’ve been sending individual cards out with care packages to friends prior to this).

Mostly I juggled three balls, but dipped into four now and again. I usually only grab the fourth one when challenged. One Hampden-area chav walked by muttering to his friend, “That shit’s easy, yo.” Then he began bragging - to his friend - not to me - that he could juggle four balls. I offered to let him try, and he kept telling me to “Put fifty dollars down.”

“You think I’d be out here if I had fifty dollars?” I remarked, still holding out four balls for him to show me how awesome he was. But he ran off instead.

Another more friendly skateboarding chav came by and asked me “how I do that” and then seemed confused when I tried to show him. I told him he should try it while skateboarding and he suggested that some day he would come out here and put a little cup beside him and do skateboard tricks for money. I said I thought that was a good idea.

A college-age girl asked me where I learned to juggle. “California,” I said. She asked me if I was from here and told me she just graduated from Oberlin where “there are jugglers everywhere.” I invited her to come and check out the juggling club at the Hampden Rec Center on Thursday nights from 7-9pm. She seemed excited and ran off.

I stood at one spot by a church for about 40 minutes, across from a redneck bar while locals across the street gawked and remarked to each other once in a while when I dropped a ball. People on my side of the street some of them smiled, while others would walk by and divert their gaze or pretend not to notice that I was there at all. Some little kids were absolutely mesmerized but their mommas made them run along angrily. A few cops drove by. One was stopped in traffic and looked at for about thirty seconds, but none of them seemed to remotely give a shit that I was juggling, which was sort of a relief because I wasn’t sure what their reaction would be or if I would get hassled and need to produce my (borrowed) Baltimore City Street Enterainers’ License.

Other than all that, it was pretty uneventful. Nice day outside, good weather. Got pretty sweaty standing out there in the sun. Ran into a couple friends who I was happy to see and got a tip from a girl who works at the Golden West that all of her friends who go out busking typically go down to Fells Point and do it. I may end up trying that out again tomorrow. I was up there a few days ago during the afternoon with no real luck, but that was a weekday. I think there also may be a small street fair over by Hopkins and the CVP (Charles Village Pub) this weekend sometime, so I might try to hit that. I’ve also borrowed a friend’s songbook, “Beatles Complete Easy Guitar.” I figured that would be a good source of material for when I bust out the guitar and start singing.

On my way back, I dumped the change out of my little begging bowl and went over to the local convenience store, Royal Farms, to buy myself whatever kind of fruit juice (it ended up being orange) I could for $1.14.