Born and raised in New York, I find it easy to talk to strangers. I'm almost never at a loss for words, except maybe at a funeral service where it's best to say as little as possible. But other than that, I say hello to people I know and don't know on the street, or in the grocery store, or especially inside the lobby of our local post office, which is like a 10 x 10 foot space, so it's hard not to.
Today I went to get the mail and was the only person in there until a man entered and looked directly at me. A colleague of my husband, I had been to his home twice and had him over for dinner at my home, along with some weird woman he was dating. Naturally I smiled and said, "Hi." He said nothing and instead went to his mailbox. Had he gone deaf, I wondered?
Unlikely, since it wasn't the first time "Amos" (his real name) dissed me at the post office. It was the third time, but this time it pissed me off and put me in a sour mood. Fortunately I was on my way to acupuncture so my mood was quickly dispelled, but I want to make the point here that dissing people you know, especially when they have cooked you a meal, sucks and is to be avoided.
Lest you think this affliction applies only to Amos, the very same thing happened frequently with the brother of an old friend, who I shall call "Bobby Moore," who I met a dozen times and had dinner with on several occasions. Each time we would meet anew he introduced himself to me with a handshake, except when I saw him in the grocery store where he would stare blankly and say nothing.
I wonder, do the cold winters kill off brain cells?
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