So yesterday, as I was participating in a charming “let’s take ice cream to daddy at work” activity with my sister, Amy Lynn and her three darling children, I passed by a guy who was standing in the building lobby talking on the phone. He looked familiar, and without much guessing I knew it to be a former fellow Scottish Mission missionary.
I said (rudely butting in, for he WAS on the phone),”You’re “M”, right? You were in my mission…” Notice how I said he was in MY mission? Why does it always have to be about me? Oh yeah, because I’m a narcissistic-egomaniac who is also surprisingly shy….See how I go on about myself?
He said, “Yeah, you’re…(wheels turning) Sister Oscarson.”
“Well, you’re on the phone so…” I said as I continued to make my way through the lobby and up the stairs. I wished we could have chatted a little since he happened to marry the sister of someone I know well (the one and only Christian f ), and it would have been a pleasant thing to make that connection.
Once I passed on by he continued his phone conversation, as is proper, but then I heard him say to the person on the phone, “Yeah, I just saw a sister from my mission…creepy…”
Creepy? CREEPY?! Did running into me necessitate the description of CREEPY? I am many things (see above) but I am not, nor have I ever been, CREEPY.
It WOULD have been creepy IF:
1. He would have run into say, 6 other sisters from his mission that same day…
2. He had recalled to that very person he was talking to a witty antidote from his mission that involved me just as I was walking through the door…
3. There is a girl who looks just like me who he THINKS is me, and she stalks him day and night…
What is NOT creepy is a person just recognizing you and saying “hi”.
While HE looked pretty much the same, I do as well if you just take the missionary me and stuff 40 lbs of adipose tissue under my skin concentrating heavily on the butt and thigh regions. No big whoop. But maybe this former Elder “M” finds weight gain “creepy.”
All I can say for him, and maybe this is all anyone can ever hope for after not being seen for ten years, is that he looked on the positive side of neutral. I definitely would have taken that over creepy.
Certain creative acknowledgements should be made to the one and only Kacy .
7 comments:
I think two things are going on here, Carrie. First, cell phones are a both a blight and a blessing. They are a blight when they isolate us from the real-live people who are standing right in front of us and draw our minds elsewhere. It often borders on rudeness. Second, I really think the guy has a vocabulary problem. I really can't believe that seeing you was "creepy." He must only have five adjectives in his memory bank and that was the best he could come up with. You could never in any way shape or form be considered creepy. Trust me, I know these things.
Blog credit from Carrie! Thank you. That is such an honor, and so not creepy. My poor brother-in-law: doomed to be maligned by all the Carrie devotees. I really must second your remarks: Being on the positive side of neutral is where it's at.
Wow - that must have made you feel real special. :/ What an odd thing to say. I'd love to say more about this odd person, but I'll just keep my thoughts away from my typing fingers...
i would have had to been there to really pass any kind of judgment on what happened.... i am with mo though, poor choice of words. i want a wife who'll bring me ice cream at work... i nedd a real job too... sigh...
I don't know if you'll see this, but Carrie, you are so hilarious. Mo has to be right. He probably just said it cause it's been a long time. You are smashing and wonderful. Not creepy.
1. I just looked up the definition of 'creepy' and it was a bad choice. My bad luck, I had just finished using my other 4 adjectives and 'creepy' was all I had left. I didn't want the person on the other end to think I only had four adjectives, so I had to use 'creepy'.
2. I did not use the word 'creepy' to describe Sis 0. anyway. I used it to describe the situation, not the person, who is entirely not creepy, well at least until I read about myself on her blog, that was creepy, but no, I just have the wrong definition again.
3. The story says she 'passed by a guy ... in the lobby'. I remember seeing some people with arms full of ice cream cups walking up to the door and me walking over to the door to hold it open for them, that part is missing from the story. Maybe that was someone else I did that for, it happens a lot and I may be remembering the wrong group.
4. I am not ruling out the stalker possibility, I have never been able to get a good look at her, I don't know for sure who it is.
5. Somehow my description of the situation as creepy (which I now take back based on the dictionary) turned into you as creepy and then you made the leap that it was your 'adipose tissue' that was creepy. I never made that move, that was all you and your creative license, but it is your blog, I won't tell you how to tell stories.
6. It was pleasant to see a familiar face, I have nothing against you and can only remember positive things about you in Scotland, nothing creepy.
7. I will take positive side of neutral over creepy, thank you for the compliment, I am right chuffed.
Dear Elder "M,"
I am only slightly on the positive side of neutral about your explanation. Is it just that you are uncomfortable seeing people from your past (as I am most of the time)?
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