Double-takes and optical illusions!
I had the weirdest morning. It felt full of self doubt, but not normal, self conscious self doubt so much as weird outerly perceptionsy doubt. I would do something, not think about it, and then half a minute later I would question if the thing that happened was really the thing that should have happened given the circumstance of what I had done. It felt like deja-vue... but more like I imagine what going crazy feels like... there is an episode of Star Trek where Worf somehow gets propelled into the future in gradual steps, so little inconsistencies occur for each step into the future, like the cake they are eating changing from chocolate to vanilla or people suddenly standing somewhere other than they were originally. And people kept asking "are you sure you're feeling okay?" but Worf could only assume that what he had previously percieved were true. I know it's maybe a lame way of explaining, but that's what this morning felt like.
Example:
I was walking along in the library, and I see an acquaintance. She says "hey," so I say "hi!" I pause for a second, then I ask "how are you doing?" And then she walks right by me, without seeming to realize I was there. I had assumed we had made eye-contact, and that she was greeting me, but I had to re-evaluate the situation. Were we standing close enough to each other to be able to hear each other in the first place? Did she see me at all? Was she talking to someone else? How loud was my voice, anyway? Did I just imagine that she'd said "hey," and then talked to no one under my breath like a fool? It was really confusing.
But something similar happened again. My (boring) job, as I'm sure you know by now, consists of cleaning computers in the library. I have a spray can of compressed air to use of the keyboards. It makes a sort of basic hissing/spraying noise, like anything compressed in a spray can. I sat down at a computer on the edge of a table (on my left were two women, each on their own computer, talking to each other about the assignment they were working on), and began to spray the keyboard. The one closest to me turned to me and gave me a weird look (which I am used to, mostly, because my job involves making a loud spraying noise in the library...) and I responded with an apologetic-ish smile. However, this woman said "Sorry!" moved her binder (which was between her and I) over about an inch (not out of my way... but it wasn't in my way in the first place), and abruptly stopped talking to woman #2. She then proceeded to PRETEND to work on her document on her computer. Once I left, I looked back, and she was still not talking to the other one...
I can only assume that she thought I was the computer-use police, and shushing her for talking (maybe the spray sounds like a "SHHH!") But that doesn't seem like a reasonable thing for someone to think. I can't really come to a conclusion on this one that makes actual sense, either from the perspective of what I did, or what she did.
Obviously this isn't really something exciting to blog about (I'm sorry! My next entry will be about debauchery!) but it REALLY threw me off-- like walking down the stairs and thinking there is one more step than there actually is...
People are strange.
Example:
I was walking along in the library, and I see an acquaintance. She says "hey," so I say "hi!" I pause for a second, then I ask "how are you doing?" And then she walks right by me, without seeming to realize I was there. I had assumed we had made eye-contact, and that she was greeting me, but I had to re-evaluate the situation. Were we standing close enough to each other to be able to hear each other in the first place? Did she see me at all? Was she talking to someone else? How loud was my voice, anyway? Did I just imagine that she'd said "hey," and then talked to no one under my breath like a fool? It was really confusing.
But something similar happened again. My (boring) job, as I'm sure you know by now, consists of cleaning computers in the library. I have a spray can of compressed air to use of the keyboards. It makes a sort of basic hissing/spraying noise, like anything compressed in a spray can. I sat down at a computer on the edge of a table (on my left were two women, each on their own computer, talking to each other about the assignment they were working on), and began to spray the keyboard. The one closest to me turned to me and gave me a weird look (which I am used to, mostly, because my job involves making a loud spraying noise in the library...) and I responded with an apologetic-ish smile. However, this woman said "Sorry!" moved her binder (which was between her and I) over about an inch (not out of my way... but it wasn't in my way in the first place), and abruptly stopped talking to woman #2. She then proceeded to PRETEND to work on her document on her computer. Once I left, I looked back, and she was still not talking to the other one...
I can only assume that she thought I was the computer-use police, and shushing her for talking (maybe the spray sounds like a "SHHH!") But that doesn't seem like a reasonable thing for someone to think. I can't really come to a conclusion on this one that makes actual sense, either from the perspective of what I did, or what she did.
Obviously this isn't really something exciting to blog about (I'm sorry! My next entry will be about debauchery!) but it REALLY threw me off-- like walking down the stairs and thinking there is one more step than there actually is...
People are strange.