Wednesday, April 18, 2007

You Too

I am subbing at the Middle School today. I passed a teacher in the hallway. It was one of those "Long Hallway" encounter where you see the person approaching from far off and then debate for the next half a minute what you are going to say. I decided that I would speak first so that I was not caught unaware. I went with the traditional opener:

"Hi"

which was met with the reply:

"Doing well"

Not the correct response.

He had obviously thought that I would opt for the "Hi, How are you?" or the ever present "'Sup? (accompanied by head jerk)" option. But his anguish did not stop there. The "Doing Well" was complemented by:

"Doing Well, uhh... (Mutter, mutter, indistinguishable words...) Nice day..."

And then his voice trailed off as he continued his long walk down the hall to encounter his next...er...victim.

I only recount this encounter because I have the terrible habit of "You Too" when it is not applicable.

"Have a nice trip." - You too. but they aren't going anywhere.

"Good Luck on your apartment hunting." - You too. but they still have years of college to complete

"Get well soon." You too. but they haven't been sick since last July.

And the such.

So "Doing Well, Nice Day" guy. Keep Looking up! Because it is hard to make eye contact in the hallway that way.

1 comment:

none said...

as interesting as she sounds, i'm not going to talk to her...one, because i've drawn a line in the electronic sands of the internet that lie between me and L; i'm not going to pay someone else $20 a month to find me an acceptable gal. not going to happen.

and two, because the second most important quality L's looking for in a man is musical talent. she may not have said so in her profile, or maybe she explicitly said that...either way, my experience with women, limited though it is, (especially if i cut the sample size down to just women i've ever met who consider music the second most important thing in life) suggests that musical talent is as much a relationship dealbreaker for her as religion, drug use, premarital sex, or anything else. since i have no musical talent, she would consider me a worthless man.