Christmas Chagrin

Location: Gresham Station
Mood: Awkward

I would like to share with you an embarrassing moment that I just had.

I'm home alone, and needing human contact. Also, I have two Christmas gifts I to buy. So, I head to the local shopping station to scare up some presents. It is littered with people. I mean the most amount of shoppers I have ever seen at this particular location.To give you an idea of how many people were there: I waited in line at the register for 30 minutes.

When I finally get out of one store, I learn that it has begun to pour rain. So, I flip up my furry hood, and head to the next store. While crossing the street I walk past two of my next door neighbors. A girl my age, that I grew up with and played with all of the time, and her mom. They were mid conversation, but I was pretty confidant that they caught my eye.

I stop dead in my tracks. I very loudly and enthusiastically shout out "Well hi there! How are you?" in an entirely over-animated type fashion. I waved my arms about as though I was painting them a glorious Native-American Style "How Do You Do?" mural with my hands. It was so attention-grabbing that several people around stopped what they were doing and turned to see who this energetic girl was saying hello to.

Now, that wouldn't really have been all that bad. However, my neighbors halted their conversation, and stared right at me with zero recognition on their faces. They were dumb-founded. They clearly had no idea who I was. To make matters worse, both of them knit their eyebrows together and let out a very skeptical "uh...hi?" Their expressions were doubtful, like those you might expect to see on a person who had just been offered a brand new car free of charge with no strings attached by a nefarious seeming gangster type.

So, now that I have the eyes of the entire busy street corner, and it's obvious that no one knows who I am, I respond in the only logical way. My face flushes, I hang my head a little, and very swiftly say "well it was good seeing you," and dart into the nearest doorway like a woman on a mission.