Monday morning I walked out of my apartment and after just 3 steps and my eyes still adjusting to the sunlight, this freak of nature comes out of nowhere running straight at me. He was screaming and shaking a miniature rubber octopus thing in my face (One of those deals you get out of the 25 cent machine at Kmart). As I worked my way around him, he turned in an attempt to sort of follow me slobbering and laughing. It was quite disturbing - especially since that was my first human contact for the day.

With that, I decided to actually pay attention to the number of homeless people that I routinely encounter on my daily 17-27 minute walk/subway ride to work.

2 blocks down cuddled in the front door entrance of The Museum of Sex there is a young guy with his girlfriend and dog that are usually still asleep when I walk by. It’s scary to think of how close I’ve been to being in their shoes.

Either on my way to them or just after them, I attempt to dodge the guy who looks to be in his mid-forties staggering on the sidewalk looking for handouts. Once safely past him, I wonder if he is freshly drunk at this hour or is it the same buzz from the night before?

One more block to the train and down the stairs is the Hispanic woman standing silently with her cooler. I'm not so sure about her status.

Once on the subway, I am usually lucky to have a quiet ride, although there is the occasional person begging or just a passed out person taking up 3 seats. Off the subway and up the stairs a bit there is a new regular guy that just claimed his spot there late last week. He’s the most annoying of them all because of his location and I would like to suggest that he choose a different location. I have already climbed close to 50 steps with only 14 to go by the time I reach him and the last thing I am going to do is stop to hand him something. My only mission at that point of the trip is to get above ground for some air. I am assuming that most other people feel the same.

Once I’ve surfaced, I pass the overweight “Spare a Quarter” guy sitting in the window sill of an upscale shoe store. I have a feeling that before my time is done here in NYC, I’ll toss him one.

The final stretch is just a matter of getting through all of the flyer pimps. You know -- Fashion Avenue, so there one or two people at every corner pushing a flyer in your face about a sample sale, a coupon for Subway or some sort of political statement about people suffering in China. What's the deal with the china movement? I keep seeing people meditating on the streets, holding signs and screaming about their people being abused - but they aren't very clear on exactly what is happening and how I can help them.