I noticed I've started mumbling a lot more. I think it makes me look a little creepier, especially when I'm lurking about in my new trench coat and keeping my head down or covered with a hat. Looking creepy--and just as often being mistaken for a man--is not an altogether bad thing. Since I noticed the mumbling (probably an unconscious shout out* to Senor Cardgage) I haven't been hit on by strangers. This I like.**
Notes:
*unconscious shout out: if you spell it unconsciousshoutout it looks like a really irritating band name. Maybe they'll let me play triangle or something. (But I'll never sell out. I'll never hear my best friend say, "you've changed! It used to be about the music!" But then I have always wanted someone to say that to me.)
**hit on by strangers: I know that stories about obnoxious strangers hitting on women are nothing new, but this one happened recently and I've been irritated ever since:
At a streetcar stop. 11:30 on a Sunday night. Bathurst and Queen. Late summer. Pre-trenchcoat and mumbling.
Him: Hello.
Me: (nods in opposite direction of stranger)
Him: Where are you from?
Me: (shakes head no)
Him: From here?
Me: (shakes head no again)
Him: Where from then?
Me: (shoots glare at man fuck off)
Him: I am from Dominican Republic.
Me: (turned away again) That's nice.
Him: Yes it is nice there. . . . So where have you been tonight?
Me: (calmly) Leave me alone.
His friend: Watch out man, she's a woman.
Friday, October 1
Previous Posts
- From the horoscope column October/November issue ...
- Word on the Street is great. Free magazines are ...
- After the movie on Wednesday night Graham and I ...
- According to a Global news broadcase airing tonig...
- The satellite Cassini has been hovering around Sat...
- If the Onion hadn't gone miserly on us and relega...
- "And another thing about why I hate Archie comics...
- He said choose: Realism: Fidelity to actuality ...
- On a scale of one to ten, I rate today's job inte...
- This morning I saw a bloodred spider in my bathro...
Subscribe to
Comments [Atom]
3 Comments:
Does that count as hitting on somebody? Granted, I wasn't there to see the body language and eye movements (or to smell auras and intentions, but that's another story for another day) but that sounded more like somebody just trying to make conversation with a passing stranger. When I boarded the bus this morning, a (perhaps overly) friendly gentleman of indian birth began talking to me about the US election. The bus was rumbling and he wasn't speaking very loudly though.
A note on mumbling. Cell phones (and, more specifically, their minutarisation) have creates a boon in accepance for self-talkers and mumblers. No long is a man walking down the street having a conversation with nobody considered mentally ill. Now people look for a cell phone, and not seeing one, they assume that it's just REALLY small, and presume that he must be terribly important to have a cell phone like that.
The opposite is also true. Too many times I've winced at the pain of seeing somebody mentally ill and carrying on a loud conversation with nobody - only to discover that they did indeed have a phone.
-GNC
Usually a friendly conversationalist who also happens to be a stranger isn't garishly looking you up and down or hovering closer and closer. Unless maybe they're trying to steal your wallet. That happens too.
I look suspicious when I'm on a cell phone. I hate to talk loudly into it (and no one cares about my conversation anyway) and so I cover my mouth and the mouthpiece. Another trait of a lurker.
Ahh yes, see, that would fall under the 'I wasn't there so didn't see the actions/tone of voice' part of my comment.
Yes, people like that are distinctly unfun.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home