People

The twenty year old hostess at Swiss Chalet looks at me and smiles warmly, "getting ready to go back to school?"

I hesitate for a brief second, "yeah..."

She goes on to answer my father's question. She's taking hospitality and something-something at Ryerson. She turns to me, "are you in university, or are you in highschool?"

I smile coyly and reply stiffly just for kicks 'cause it's fun to make people feel dumb sometimes, "I'm doing graduate work at U of T."

Her face is funny to look at.

***

I had another good interaction to report but I've forgotten. Oh yes.

I'm talking to my mother on my cellphone while standing in the empty downstairs lobby of the walk-in clinic. She is reporting the latest difficult time my grandparents had with their aging selves. She cries and talks. I cry and listen. Not a noisy or obvious cry but a few tears escaping cry. A young guy about my age stops, looks conccerned, and asks quietly if I'm okay. I smile and nod, and he moves along.

What a stand-up fellow.

***

A guy I dated in September who has since moved to my street and become my friend told me why he wasn't all that into me then. (This wasn't the one I really liked who said he didn't feel romantic connection. This was the one I met in Tokyo months ago who came from my neighbourhood in Thornhill and was teaching in Osaka. And now lives on my street downtown. It's hard to keep them straight, I know.) My guesses would have been that I'm a bit weird and tend to say oddball things, or that, I don't know, my height bothered him. Turns out he didn't like the fact that he didn't feel dominant with me. Apparently I made the first moves and that didn't bode well. Interesting. I know about this dominance thing but doesn't a guy like when a girl takes the reins once in a while in a shocking over-the-table kiss? Come on, who's with me?