I’d just left Chicken Salad Chick where I’d enjoyed the Cranberry Kelly and a side of grape salad. The day, sunshiny and Forida-perfect, insisted that I take a stroll and pop into the shops in a strip mall on Market Street in Tallahassee.
With no agenda, no cash, and all my credit cards gone to live with a bunch of nasty thieves, I truly was merely window shopping.
I was dressed casually–cropped jeans and a soft white tshirt, flip flops. As I headed back to my car I saw a well-dressed woman walking toward me on the sidewalk. I smiled. I always smile, I can’t help it.
She began laughing. Not a happy laugh, an insulting laugh, like, “Lady, who do you think you are?”
As she passed, close enough to touch, she looked me up and down. Now I’m wondering if I have food on my face (it wouldn’t be the first time) or a breast exposed (it could happen) or perhaps I’ve developed a unicorn type appendage between my eyes (not likely, but might be worth a snicker).
As soon as I got to my car I flipped the visor down to check my image in the mirror. Ok, I’m no beauty, but I couldn’t see a thing to laugh about. Well, my hair was a bit Dumb and Dumber-ish, but still….
I needed to stop at a grocery store for a couple of items on my way home, so once I entered the store I made a beeline for the ladies room. Again, America’s Next Top Model isn’t going to be calling any time soon, but I looked like an average 59-year-old grandmother with a touch of hippie grunge.
So why did this stranger feel the need to laugh at me? I want to track her down and ask. Why does it bother me that she laughed? Insecurity? Curiosity?
Regardless, it was unnerving. Like that Denzel Washington movie, “Fallen,” where the devil keeps possessing different people, jumping from one host to another, singing The Rolling Stones’ Time is on My Side.
https://g.co/kgs/OnH8N
Hope she wasn’t possessed! That seems a good spot to end this.
Peace, people!
Praying for Eyebrowz 
I still think about a young woman who gave me a similar, condescending up/down glance, and a half-mock laugh from about ten years ago. I’m pretty sure we never forget cruel slights. But, yes, thank God for popular songs that can validate us. My go-to song has always been ‘Is She Really Going Out With Him” by Joe Jackson. I love the line, “Tonight’s the night when I go to all the parties down my street. I wash my hair and I kid myself I look real smooth” 😉
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Oh, one of my favorite songs!
More than once since we moved to Tallahassee I’ve been mistaken for another person–a nurse who must be my doppelgänger. After I published this I got to wondering if this woman thought that’s who I was.
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I guess she was just plain crazy. Some people are!
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It was in her head. Did she have headphones on?
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No. She looked like a business woman. I now think she mistook me for someone else.
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We all have a doppelganger
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Mobile conversation? Some people scare me when they start talking in front of my face.
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I really think she had mistaken me for someone else.
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