March 5, 2012

What is going on in the world?

There’s this guy who works in the cafĂ© in my building who I’ve met a few times while he made my coffee. Today he asked me if I’m Australian (which I am). I simply thought that he, like many other strangers, had heard my supposedly ‘ambiguous’ accent and wondered where it hails from. Not so. Instead he explained that he has been working there for the last 5 months and he’s never seen me before and was just wondering who I was.
Never seen me before…? Interesting. Because I’ve seen him plenty of times. Face to face, even. Exchanged greetings and everything. I suppose maybe he meant never ‘noticed’ me before, which actually is no better when I think about it - in fact it’s kind of an insult that I made no impression on him whatsoever. Like that whole ‘blanking someone you have already met’ think from 30 Rock. I know his name, and his country of origin… because he told me. That’s correct. He told me.
True, I have just returned from a 10 day holiday in tropical relaxing Darwin, so maybe I’m looking rather refreshed for once, and not sporting the usual burning the candle at both ends look I have so expertly mastered. But back to the thing…what was wrong with me before that he didn’t even see me? Was I so repulsive to look at and/or talk to? It almost seems like a compliment that he now is interested in my existence as a human being I suppose, like I must be doing something right in a small way, but seeing as I was once treated like the Elephant man, and elephants never forget, I won’t be forgetting this.
This makes me realize that perhaps I should start being super nice to people. Good for the soul and all that. Sort of seems like hard work though… :P Nah, lesson learned, lesson learned. I'll be nicer