Wednesday, June 11, 2008

There is this woman here at work who is a member of the church my mother used to attend to before she moved to North Carolina. My mother dragged me to the 6am sunrise service on Easter Sunday last year, and this woman was singing in the choir and I recognized her from work..I think her job is to pick up and drop off mail. Apparently she recognized me too, because after church she came up to my mother and said "I know your son", and my mother was all happy, and we spent about 5-10 minutes sharing pleasantries. I shook the woman's hand, got her name, and then ignored both her and my mother the rest of the time. I wasn't purposely trying to be mean , but damn it was 7am on a Sunday, and I had just sat through a sermon. I was thinking about the bed, not meeting new folks.

Well since that magical day, I see that woman at work at least 3 or 4 times a month. I don't remember her name at all, which is embarrassing, because she knows mine. For that reason, I try to avoid her like the paparazzi, but she always corners me, and the conversations always go like this:

Her: Hey Rashad, how are you?
Me: Hey there buddy, i'm fine and yourself?
Her: I'm blessed, how is your mom?
Me: Oh she's fine I guess
**20 seconds of awkward silence**
Me: ok well let me run along now
Her: Ok tell you mom I said hi

Now when I do talk to my mom, I tell her that the weird lady from her old church says hello, and she scolds me. But the sad part is, not only does my mom know exactly who I am talking about, but she doesn't remember her name either. Anyway I saw this woman this morning, and she was about 50 feet ahead of me as I walked towards my building. I slowed my normally slow walk to a crawl, in hopes that she would go in the building and up the elevator, so I wouldn't have to chat with her...no such luck. She was lingering in the lobby talking to a security guard, and she chatted me up. And the conversation went exactly like the one above, except she told me I looked nice, which was sweet, but it wasn't worth the overall headache.

My larger point is, why can't people like that either diversify their conversation or leave me the hell alone? I see you basically once a week and you ask me the same shit? No comments about the hot weather, sports, Obama or something? And on top of that, I don't ask her JACK about her personal life, so why can't she take the cue. I know this sounds mean, but the world is full of enough small talk obligations as it is, why must they keep adding up? I would be delighted if she just said, "Good morning Rashad", and then I could see her and say, "Hey You!" What's wrong with that? It is pleasant, its concise, and everyone wins. She gets to say hi, and I get to do the same and keep it moving.

1 comment:

. said...

hello...goodbye.

truth man. if it could only be that simple with some folk.