Don't Mind Me

(Pre-Script: This post should be read as the song, "We Found Love," #45 on the playlist, plays in the background. Go down to the playlist, click on that song, then come back and resume reading. I'll wait...)(...still waiting...)

Whenever I see someone talking on his or her cell phone in public, I try to listen in. I am always amazed at the very intimate details a person will share from her end of the cell phone in a very public place. It's as if the phone pressed up against the ear makes a person forget that not only the person on the other end of the phone can hear her, but anyone else actually in sight of her physical mouth and spitting distance can, as well. Is this rude? And if so, who was rude first, she, for talking in my air space, or me, for gleaning all the dirt from it that I can? Aren't we each just doing out own thing?

Go to any coffee shop and observe: People everywhere, it is busy busy busy, but no one makes eye contact or talks to the people in our actual presence. Everyone is hidden behind his own cell phone, laptop, or ipod. I try to break the fro-zone by looking at you. I want to see if you react or look up. Usually you don't, so enrapt are you in this or that hilarious text that is causing you to smile shyly at the cell phone even though the person at the other end can't see it. But I can, and I think you're just trying to make me jealous.

Sometimes I say something as arbitrary as, for instance, "hi," and it startles you. Sometimes I say, for instance, "I like your jacket." and you'd think I just scooped dairy free calorie free whipped cream into your coffee. I watch you melt in a puddle right in front of me, to be spoken to by a living one, and not only spoken to, but complimented. By a stranger. A stranger in the flesh.

(Just so you know, I would never tell you that I like your jacket unless I actually like your jacket.)

-XOXO,