Another fairly productive day. My husband said I seem "almost normal." Gasp. Who the heck wants to be normal? Well, aside from anything I put in my mouth making a beeline through my system to the finish line, and my mouth dry and sore and burning, and my nose stuffed with clotting blood (ew) I do seem almost normal from the outside. I feel strong. I'm in a good mood.
It was weird this afternoon though. After Little C came home from school I grabbed her and we went grocery shopping. Not my usual time to go grocery shopping, I normally go during the day on Friday. But since we're supposed to get a big snowstorm tomorrow, I moved it up. Apparently between the hours of 4:30 and 5:30 it's Happy Hour at the local Safeway/Dominick's. People (women) kept looking directly at me and SMILING. Big toothy smiles. No less than 5 people did this. Of course I smiled back. After I checked my head to see if I was wearing my goofy penguin hat. (Nope) After the 4th woman smiled at me, I turned and asked C if I had boogers on my face or a sticker on my forehead. (Mo-om!) It was making me paranoid. Like they knew a secret. Or maybe they knew my secret? Was I wearing a "fellow warrior" vibe? Hmm. I don't "look" any different, I still have my hair... Or were they just shiny happy people? Truly, I'm not used to it. When I normally go to the store there are frazzled moms or Mr. Moms hauling screaming toddlers around, or people wandering around talking into their phones-or worse-hidden headsets so they appear crazy. There are focused people who never look you in the eye, let alone smile openly. Except for the pharmacists of course. (Hi Judy! Hi Jerry!) Everyone else pretty much ignores everyone else. See what I mean about weird?
I don't know. I think I could get used to it. I kinda like being smiled at. But I'll take the penguin hat off first, just to make sure they're not makin' fun of me.
(Note to sister: I love my hat. It keeps my ears really warm. And C is not embarrassed when I wear it!)
In our town people smile and say good morning, hello just friendly. Since it is a town with a large population of retirees we are not so stressed out.
ReplyDeleteInteresting-wonder what their secret is----they just got off work and are happy to be on the way home? they have a hot date coming for dinner? hmmmm
ReplyDeleteI believe it was because you were having a good day . . . people respond to that. And you respond to them. And a big circle of smiles is begun and Everybody feel better.
ReplyDeleteI think you should pencil that day/time into your dayplanner as permanent shopping day.
ReplyDeleteMore importantly though.... gimme that penguin hat or I'm not giving you back your ice cream....
The frazzled moms with screaming toddlers are long gone by that time, those people were really smiling at you! C definately would have told you if you had boogers or a sticker on your head!
ReplyDeleteI am glad that you like the hat!!