This morning I saw the neighborhood laundry-delivery guy hopping onto his bike at the stoplight, we waved our hellos, and it occurred to me that he is a Japanese cartoon character. Specifically, a Miyazaki cartoon character. Specifically, the frog from “Spirited Away” who works at the baths, the one who jumps up and surprises Chihiro just as she’s running across the wooden bridge with Haku. Neighborhood laundry-delivery guy is a Korean dude in his forties with a round face and a big smile and muscular legs from cycling up and down these streets with loads of laundry and drycleaning balanced on his bike, so you see what I mean.

Anyway, the moment I realized he is the cartoon frog, Ninth Street was transformed into illustration. My cartoon life is surprisingly like my life life. The golden retriever on the corner still hangs out on the stoop, wearing his red bandanna. Delicate white muguet still peep shyly out of wood-paneled flowerboxes. The brownstones are still brownstones, but they are outlined, unevenly, in pink or white. My hair is still in ponytails, but, Japanese-cartoon-style, it is blue. I didn’t look behind me, but I suppose I was trailing stars and pink confetti and little yellow lightning flashes. I didn’t have a private plane, because I am not a rockstar, I am just me. Still, there was an understanding that I could easily be a cartoon cowgirl, with the hat and the boots and the pigtails and the pony. On top of all of this, Chrissie Hynde was singing “Message of Love.” It was good, good, good, like Brigitte Bardot.