bunchofgrapes

Friday I was down in our building's cafe, in line to pay for my sandwich order when the woman behind me tapped me on the shoulder and said, "I'm going to fix your tag" because the tag from my sweater was sticking up. I thanked her and then as we both went to wait for our orders, we started talking about embarrassing clothing incidents. I told her about the time many years ago when I walked from my car, down a very long sidewalk, through the lobby to the elevators and up to my desk before I realized the back of my dress was caught in my pantyhose and how it would have been nice if the receptionist has pointed that out to me. I also told her that I never wore that stupid dress ever again. She told me about an unfortunate shoulder pad incident where she walked by several people, rode up in the elevator with several people, and no one said anything. This led to a pretty good conversation about how in this area no one probably notices these clothing incidents because everyone is so busy looking at their Blackberry, iPhone or Droid. Either that or they do notice but they don't care. This then led to something she observed that I've definitely noticed around here and that's the lack of eye contact when talking to someone.

I was taught at a very early age that I should always look a person in the eye when I'm talking to them. Whenever I'm talking to someone and they don't look me in the eye, I find that I don't always trust what they're telling me. I also find it very distracting. Now I realize that certain cultures interpret eye contact differently so I do make allowances but the people I'm talking about are Westerners. Specifically, I work with a guy who does this and when he looks off to the right, I find myself following his gaze, trying to figure out what exactly he's looking at. If he's looking up at the ceiling, I'm wondering if he's making up a story and should I believe him.

Anyway, our sandwich orders came up and we each went our separate ways but it was a great conversation to have with someone all because she fixed my tag.