Friend or No


Have you ever seen someone you haven't seen in ages and are pretty sure that it is that person that you think it is, but there's that .01% of doubt that prevents you from initiating the "catching up" conversation?

One instance of this occurred just last week at the Harry Potter Premiere. As I mentioned on July 16, I saw Captain Gable at the bookstore. When I saw him, I immediately recognized him, but as I approached him to greet, I suddenly doubted myself. I don't think its necessarily a case of forgetting what someone looks like, but the fear of embarrassment if that person is not who you think it is.

Case in point. I know all my co-workers' names. But when I see someone pass through the halls and they greet me, I can't bring about myself to greet them back by their name. I always look five seconds forward at the worst possible scenario where I have called them by the wrong name. To me, it's safest to say just "hi" back. No risk at all.

So, back to my encounter with Captain Gable. I approached him, but didn't say anything. I looked away until from the corner of my eye, I saw that he recognized me. Then and only then, I turned and said something.

Well that brings us to yesterday. At the gym, I was running on the treadmill when someone jumped onto the treadmill next to mine. I looked over and I was fairly/pretty damn sure that it was an old friend from high school; one who knew how much of a Disney freak I was and made fun of my cartoon loving ways. Well, the level of doubt was higher than usual because she looked exactly like she did back in high school and I fully expect that people change in six years time. I was thinking that it could have been her younger identical sister.

Well anyhoodle, I just kept to myself and kept on jogging and walking. I was wearing glasses at the time, so perhaps she didn't know if it was me or not. I think she was looking over at me, but I couldn't really see. Then, because of the massive oil runoff from my forehead into my eyes, I took off my glasses. I could see, through the corner of my eyes, this blur looking over toward me continuously, but still she said nothing; perhaps because I was listening to my iPod.

The time came for me to end my cardio, so I took out my earphones to give her a chance to say hi, if it was indeed her. Then I stopped the treadmill. She didn't say anything in the 1.3 seconds I gave her, so I just hopped off the treadmill and walked away, never looking back. Maybe next time I see her at the gym, she'll say hi. I mean, if it was really her, she would have totally known it was me. My face hasn't changed much since high school. I have just about the same stringy hair. And I was wearing a big giant Mickey Mouse T-shirt!



Standoffish,

Ricky
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