"I suppose there are people who can pass up free guacamole, but they're either allergic to avocado or too joyless to live."— Frank Bruni

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

i was kissed by a stranger

I was kissed by a stranger on the train to work this morning. Said stranger was a petite middle-aged, put-together, soft-spoken woman with sunglasses who I have never seen before. When I boarded my train, I took my usual seat, which happened to be directly across the aisle from her. I can't remember how she got my attention, but when I turned to her, she said "You look nyyyce!!" She then proceeded to elaborate on her mental digestion of me, none of which I could understand or hear, given the loud roar of a fast-moving train, but based on her hand gestures, I think she was talking about my skirt. Then she ended with an a-ok gesture (see picture). Her facial expression was that of someone describing something really tasty.
(illustration courtesy of Wikipedia)
I was taken aback - our exchange was long by morning-commuter-complimenting-a-stranger standards, but was appreciative of her even noticing me and said "Thank you." We then rode about 4 more stops together without any further exchange - her tending to her makeup and hair, me reading Bossypants. When we arrived at her stop, she got up, I turned to her, and before I could say "Have a good day," she said it, then approached me and gave me a cheek-ear-area "muah," as if we just said goodbye after having brunch together. I closed with a "Thank you, you have a good day too."

I deboarded the train at the next stop. I tried to act unphased by the whole experience, and maybe I came off as so on the outside, but inside I had so many questions! What just happened? Where am I? Who's that friendly to strangers? Did she sense I was having a rough morning? (I didn't get up to run as intended, but didn't get any additional quality sleep either; worried about the next earthquake.) Does she give out kisses and compliments to strangers all the time? Is she aware of how she just completely and simultaneously made my day and freaked me out?

Then I just decided to appreciate that there are still decent people in our world, and tell you all about it by writing this post. I hope we're all lucky enough to have mornings like this once in a while...or maybe, if we're brave enough, to grant someone else such a morning. ...and, in the meantime, I'll just relish in the fact that, hell yeah, I look cute today.

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