People watching. It’s something I love to do. Now if you know me, you know that I am not looking to be a part of a big crowd. It kind of makes my skin crawl a little bit unless I put myself in the right mindset.
It’s not like I am just this angry middle-aging woman who runs around with snarl on my face—but my “happy place” involves small groups at best. Otherwise, get ready for potential social awkwardness followed by me making my way to an exit for air—and fewer people.
I say all this to say, I am not necessarily a fan of people (you should hear me when I am driving), but if I’m having a grouchy day, sometimes a bit of of good ole judgmental-people-watching will do the trick.
Yes, I am judgmental with my people watching.
I’m not talking about giving nasty looks or verbally assaulting someone based solely on my opinion. I’m simply talking about me and MO (my inner MOnologue) silently roasting others to make myself giggle and lift my self-confidence some.
Oh, don’t act like you don’t do it.
You know good and well that when you are in Wal-mart there is such a wide variety of things you will see, it is almost impossible to not see at least one thing that makes you have to focus on “fixing-your-face.” Commonly understood in the south as not having your face reflect what you are thinking.
Here’s an example: I remember a friend of mine once told me about seeing a particularly tall, thicker lady—in fluorescent colored clothes at least 2X too small (if you aren’t going for nipples and butt dimples) in Wal-mart one lovely afternoon. It wasn’t even the eye-catching height or personal decision to wear early-90s style spandex… on the outside….it was this light tapping or clicking type sound they kept hearing as they walked behind her.
Once the lady turned to go down an aisle, it was discovered that she was wearing flip-flops with a thicker/stacked sole and her toe-nails were so long they literally tapped on the ground as she walked. Not something you see every day. Well, I can’t be sure it’s not a daily occurrence there, but I digress. It was definitely a giggle-worthy-distraction. One of those, “Whew, things could be worse,” moments where you try to stifle a giggle and fix your face.
I have also found much entertainment at how some people will not think twice about what they wear to a restaurant. Now, I get it. Some people have WAY more confidence than I do and I can’t really fault them for being comfortable in any situation, but it is entertaining to see someone walk in and you legit can’t determine if they are wet or greasy. I mean, maybe that sounds ugly to say…but I’m not talking about judging your hair color or even your zebra striped strettttccched out stretch-pants. I’m talking about you don’t know if there was a sudden down-pour outside or they ran a marathon and came directly to the Mexican restaurant. It is ridiculously hot, to be fair, but maybe carry a napkin or two with you moving forward. That, or swing by a shower.
Sure, maybe it’s not the best way to get a laugh or lift in confidence, but a lot of days I will take what I can get to distract me from a bad mood or yucky situation.
If you need a little boost or giggle, I say go look around and just watch people. We are all a bit weird, and we all do things that others might find peculiar. For instance, if you see me at the local Mexican restaurant and it looks like I may have just murdered someone mind your business (haha)– I promise it’s just red paint on my hands (and various other parts of my body and clothing) from that day’s art attempt.
Followed by my lack of effort to let that slow me down before getting my Mexican-food/margarita fix.
(I mean, priorities, right?)
