random thoughts about books, words, life, writing, and the occasional movie, of varying levels of significance, in no particular order
Saturday, September 19, 2009
An Important Question
How are you supposed to take it when you run into someone you haven't seen since high school and the first thing out of her mouth is, "I would never have recognized you!"
There are several choices: Good then, bad now. Good then, horrible now. Bad then, good now. Bad then, worse now. Bad then, horrible now. You get the point. Maybe I should be glad she didn't elaborate.
Good then, stunning now. (I wouldn't know, but ask your husband.)
Good/excellent/super then, and still good/excellent/super. (Unlike her, thus the surprise.)
Or, being a Southern belle of the Christian stripe, possibly she didn't think at all before she talked.
Or, being a Southern belle of the Christian stripe, perhaps this was a backwards way of dodging a slight she was afraid you'd deliver, by saying what she expected you to say, because that one other woman she ran into the other day said exactly that to her, that she wouldn't have recognized her at all, but this time she'd say it before you could, because when that other woman said it the other day, she spent the rest of the afternoon thinking about it, and what the other woman meant, and how much all the options could hurt, if she let them, which she did, and all evening she was thinking of great retorts, but now, when she met you, she panicked, and she couldn't say any of her good retorts unless somebody said first that she wouldn't have recognized her at all, and you weren't doing it, and so, bless her heart, it "just slipped out," this time, with you, and then you patted her arm and laughed, and she still couldn't get the good retort it, because she blew it again, and she went away kicking herself, but she didn't want you to notice she was embarrassed, so she pretended not to be, and she only cried a little when she got back into her car.
In any case, I'd pretty much take it to be about her and not about you at all.
5 comments:
That you have aged well.
At this point she was expecting you to have changed much in the way that she has, who hasn't.
So it's a compliment.
Or possibly she is confusing you with someone else.
There are several choices:
Good then, bad now.
Good then, horrible now.
Bad then, good now.
Bad then, worse now.
Bad then, horrible now.
You get the point. Maybe I should be glad she didn't elaborate.
Or:
Good then, stunning now. (I wouldn't know, but ask your husband.)
Good/excellent/super then, and still good/excellent/super. (Unlike her, thus the surprise.)
Or, being a Southern belle of the Christian stripe, possibly she didn't think at all before she talked.
Or, being a Southern belle of the Christian stripe, perhaps this was a backwards way of dodging a slight she was afraid you'd deliver, by saying what she expected you to say, because that one other woman she ran into the other day said exactly that to her, that she wouldn't have recognized her at all, but this time she'd say it before you could, because when that other woman said it the other day, she spent the rest of the afternoon thinking about it, and what the other woman meant, and how much all the options could hurt, if she let them, which she did, and all evening she was thinking of great retorts, but now, when she met you, she panicked, and she couldn't say any of her good retorts unless somebody said first that she wouldn't have recognized her at all, and you weren't doing it, and so, bless her heart, it "just slipped out," this time, with you, and then you patted her arm and laughed, and she still couldn't get the good retort it, because she blew it again, and she went away kicking herself, but she didn't want you to notice she was embarrassed, so she pretended not to be, and she only cried a little when she got back into her car.
In any case, I'd pretty much take it to be about her and not about you at all.
Or maybe it had something to do with my nose ring.
Or the eyebrow piercing.
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