Saturday, December 13, 2008

47 - Staring at you from top to bottom

As I was on the train home the other day, I felt my phone vibrating in my pants pocket and when I motioned to get it out of my pocket, my arm, my elbow to be more specific, brushed against the side of this woman that looked somewhere between thirty and forty years old. She turned around and looked at me. Not just 'look' at me, but her eyes laid sight on my eyes and pierced through my skull as if wanting to read. my mind. Then, her eyes went down, down, down, all the way to my shoes and then back up again. It's weird. What is she inspecting?

Anybody else had such an incident?

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

yeah.. in a public transpo when we were going through a chinatown, and the streets were so tight, and traffic. there's this creepy, freaky man from a dealer truck just beside us, who kept staring at me throughout the traffic. i tried to stare back, hoping it would intimidate him, but he was not to be shaken. i tried to hide behind my mom, but whenever i take a peek, he's still staring at me all over, even if their lane had moved a meter forward, he's still facing back at me.

it was already several years ago. but if he would ever dare do it again now, he'll definitely receive a nice twisting eye-thrust from me.

Toivoa ja Elämän said...

yeeah, in my experience it tends to be older people, say, 40's up, who are disapproving and are trying to convey that by outright staring...

Douglas said...

I have to wonder who was more paranoid at that moment...

Michael said...

Ares: How 'bout a nice kick in the shin?

Toivoa: Can't they stare at people their own age...?

Douglas: Probably both of us. Hah.

Michael said...

Douglas: Probably me. I could very well be a pervert who wanted to graze her side with my arm. I, for one, had no idea what her motive was, yet I think there's something wrong. That makes me more paranoid as I am more afraid with less reason to be.

Douglas said...

I am cursed with a penchant for wanting to see both sides of almost any issue. The woman did not know you, she did not know why you grazed against her. You, had no knowledge of what she may have gone through in her life, no awareness of why she might be upset or concerned by the touch of a stranger. Both of you might have been a little paranoid or each of you might have simply wondered at the reaction of the other.

I think it is interesting, and good, that you are aware of these things. That you observe and consider their implications as you do.

yolanda said...

it's pretty difficult not to get paranoid when you feel someone is judging you!

Toivoa ja Elämän said...

My name is actually Larissa, my name on here is life and hope, i believe, in some random other language according to google translator, all thanks to my friend when i was trying to come up with a name for my profile on here in an effort to try to conceal my identity from certain people i know ;P
anyhow, yeah, i think it's the whole teenagers thing and how people have such a bad impression of us these days...
sigh.
you'd think coz they're older and have seen more of the world they'd be less judgemental, but no..

Douglas said...

Yolanda, yes, very normal.

Toivoa, it has always been that way.
Age eyes the young out of suspicion and, perhaps, jealousy.

Michael said...

Douglas: It's mind-boggling just thinking about how two people, any two people, can come together and interact in any way. It boggles my mind just thinking about where I am in the world and where all my viewers/readers come from. I wonder all the time about what each person who read my blogs thinks.

Yolanda: Exactly. She was judging me! ...I think.

Larissa: Sorry for the confusion concerning the name. I'm naive and I make rash assumptions like that. Perhaps it's because they've seen more of the world that they are made to be more judgmental. I am always judgmental, but if I were to be 'grazed' by someone, I would perhaps react a little subtler.

Gerry Hatrić said...

Maybe she fancied you? I've never had anyone look at me like that, sadly.

generic Brand said...

Just want you to know that this post was inspiration for me to write one of my own:
http://agenericbrand.blogspot.com/2008/12/ol-staredown.html

Trains are an especially difficult area because because tensions may already be high. Increased stress levels going to and from work or school, fear of public transportation, any number of other things. The way I often rationalize these events though, is "No one died, so it's all good." Simplistic, maybe, but no dies, so it's okay.

Michael said...

Mulled Vine: I thought of that possibility but then realized it would be vain to think so...

generic Brand: Thanks for being inspired! :D

I will come read it later today. I'm at school right now and people are staring at my screen and yes, the staring down shall commence.