Catching people's eye

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I hate it when I catch a stranger's eye and they smile at me and I don't react quickly enough to smile back before they pass by. Everyone should be smiling at people who catch their eye and now I'm just looking like an aloof, unfriendly thing.

― N., Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I hate this but because when I want to smile at them I can't smile at will and end up not making any expression. The same is true when I'm trying to feign laughter or something, I'm useless at it.

I'm told I have a "miserable face" and I've been asked at bus stops before is there something the matter when in reality I am on top of the world.

― Ronan, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

yep, I do that all the time. I even look away in a sort of "what are you actually smiling at me?" sort of thing. But even worse is when someone at work or a neighbour says hello or have a good weekend or something and I just mumble an inaudable "yeah...you too..hmmm...thanks" and shuffle off at great speed. I'm not unfriendly, really I'm not.

― jel --, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Life would be so much easier if we could just communicate by telepathy. Well, maybe not.

― jel --, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

What sort of weirdo goes round smiling at strangers? If people are going round acting like this it should be discouraged. The only eyes that should be caught are waiters, barmen/maids & sexy folk you want to get off with.

― Emma, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm not too bad at it unless I'm walking around with my head in the clouds and don't notice the person at all. However in this state getting run over is more of an issue than looking unfriendly.

Last night I ended up sitting on the train opposite a bloke with a Decca records t-shirt and a blob of mayonaise at the corner of his mouth. I couldn't help but look at the blob, but he kept catching me doing it, so we'd make eye contact and then I'd get embarrased and look down/ hide behind my hair. He winked at me when I got off, but I wasn't flirting with him, just looking at the mayonaise.

― Anna, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

How can you be sure it was mayonaise?

― Sean, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

He was eating a chicken burger as I got on.

I hope it was mayonaise.

― Anna, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Jesus Christ, always the lowest common denominator.

― Ronan, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Well Emma maybe I was a sexy bloke she wanted to get off with. Or she mistook me for a waiter.

― N., Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh I see, so in fact you fancied this girl and are kicking yourself for not smiling at her, taking her number, going on a date (UK ILE - 'a what?'), moving in together, having babies etc. etc.? I might've known!

Unless you were wearing black trousers, white shirt & an apron in which case she thought you were a waiter.

― Emma, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Sadly, I didn't fancy her. But I might try the black trousers and white shirt trick as a dating foot in the door next time.

― N., Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Sean started it!

Maybe the waiter will know if it's mayonaise? [clicks fingers] Over here please! Oh ... sorry Nick, didn't recognise you for a second there.

― Anna, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Nick and Emmas' superior typing speeds combine to make that post look very out of context.

― Anna, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The hardest thing about catching someone's eye is what to do with it once you've caught it.

― Tracer Hand, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I think Nick's great new pulling trick is misguided, if I summoned over a waiter & it turned out to be some bloke chancing his arm I would be VERY unimpressed indeed. If I want food I want food and if I want sex I want sex and that's that.

― Emma, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm no good at catching the eye of people I fancy, and no one seems to fancy me. So.

― Graham, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

What if it was a genuine food-bearing waiter who also happened to want to have sex with you? Perfect man, non?

― Archel, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

If he was a waiter I fear he would not have the bling-bling to be Emma's perfect mang.

― Graham, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Mmmm, but waiters aren't very well paid. Also I bet they get fed up with waiting on people & away from work want to sit in a big chair and be waited on. They can stick it, I am not bringing cans of lager to some povvy waiter on his day off.

― Emma, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

(Graham gets the prize for correctly predicting my response before I made it)

― Emma, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

What if he was a millionaire who had taken a job as a waiter just to serve Emma's gastronomic needs because he wuvved her so much?

― Archel, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Maybe he waits as a side job from managing international investment portfolios.

The hardest thing about catching someone's eye is what to do with it once you've caught it.

I would suggest not using it for dodgeball.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Archel posts too quickly for me and I am shamed.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The thing is waiters only BRING food, they don't actually MAKE it. A chef would be good though they work antisocial hours. Or a doctor though obviously that has nothing to do with food, more to do with the fact that Lewis from Hollyoaks has suddenly become attractive since becoming a doctor in Brookside. And you don't have to work at catching a doctor's eye, you just make an appointment.

― Emma, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I am shocked that you would waste valuable NHS time in such a way :)

― Archel, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

But in the long term it would be a good thing for the NHS as happy love life = less stress in general and therefore more productive at work. Or something like that. Mmmm if Dr Nummy was my doctor I would be going down (arf) with a whole array of ailments (not unpleasant ones with pustules though, that would be offputting).

― Emma, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I hate this too. I always think afterwards, what if I had reacted quickly enough? Would we have started a conversation? Would someone else in the world think I were nicer than I should be? This worries me so.

― jen, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

In the right mood, I can be gregarious beyond the point of common sense. Nobody wants funny-looking middle-aged strangers being unexpectedly friendly. My stupidest such moment was on a commuter train a few years back. I was on my way home with the Wu-Tang Clan's 36 Chambers playing. A teenage black male sat down opposite me, wearing a promotional baseball jacket not just for the Wu-Tang Clan but that very album. Before pausing to think, I said "Hey, that's what I'm listening to!" He saw a middle-aged white guy in a suit, and didn't seem keen to strike up a conversation, extraordinarily.

― Martin Skidmore, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

ya mean he didn't go "Hey, Tin Machine! That's what I'm listening to!" :)

― Tracer Hand, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

if you smoke a little pot, for some reason you can catch every bodie's eye, and I don't know why!

― Seriously, Sunday, 19 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Most people look down when they pass other people and I think that's stupid, it's like you're scared of them or something, so I prefer smiling to looking down. I have problems when i have to say words though, then i look down and mutter.

― Maria, Sunday, 19 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Will you date with me?

― Mandee, Sunday, 19 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I always think the smiley folks are either mad or know that I am,or they have a kind of vision that displays a small hologram of your genitals above your head. then when im drifting off to sleep that night I go ohhh I recognise you now. theyre never shaggable, though obviously I am.

― liquidpaper, Monday, 20 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

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