a stranger, a theft, and a loan
Jun. 4th, 2008 08:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deird_ljSome day soon, the Social Norms Police are going to break down my door, arrest me for "violating accepted standards of conversation with strangers, and profiting from said violation", and cart me off to the funny farm.
You see, I'm rather shy. Left to myself, I probably wouldn't end up talking to anyone. Ever. But, like most shy people, I have come up with several strategies to deal with this situation - the most useful being: Not Caring.
Sure, I might say something totally stupid that everyone laughs at. But it's okay! Because I don't care! So I can just say what I think, and I won't be nervous at all.
It's very useful.
Occasionally, though, this strategy of Not Caring If I Get It Wrong means that I actually do something that a normal person wouldn't even contemplate...
Which brings us to last night.
I was doing front-of-house at the 1812 (theatre where No Love Lost was, if you remember). Lots of handing out programmes, pouring drinks, and smiling at audience members despite the fact that I was freezing. Anyway, after the show, all the cast and crew came out to talk to the audience - and I happened to notice that one of them was carrying something rather interesting.
This is a guy I've never seen before in my life, mind you.
I think, in my situation, a normal person probably would have started some sort of conversation with him. And they would have slowly got around to discussing the item-of-interest, enthused a bit, and then said goodbye and gone home. Or something like that.
A shy person would have walked away quickly and said nothing. Being shy, and all.
But me? A shy person with A Strategy?
Well...
I saw what he was carrying, and my jaw dropped. I walked over slowly, took the item out of his hands, examined it carefully, and then looked up and asked "Is this really the Doctor Who Christmas Special? The new one?"
Doctor Who dvds come out fairly late in Australia, and I missed it when it was on tv. With season four about to start, I've been kicking myself that I haven't seen the Titanic episode yet. So this dvd is kind of on a par with the Holy Grail.
And, did I mention? This guy is a total stranger. And I've just walked into the middle of his conversation and stolen his dvd.
Thankfully, being enough of a DW fan that he ordered the dvd from England just so he could get it early, he was very understanding. In fact, he immediately suggested that I borrow it, and return it next time I'm at the theatre.
So! I have a Christmas Special to watch! Courtesy of a guy whose name I still don't know, who for some reason was at the theatre, and has no idea who I am either...
Screw social norms. This is much more fun.
Sure, I might say something totally stupid that everyone laughs at. But it's okay! Because I don't care! So I can just say what I think, and I won't be nervous at all.
It's very useful.
Occasionally, though, this strategy of Not Caring If I Get It Wrong means that I actually do something that a normal person wouldn't even contemplate...
Which brings us to last night.
I was doing front-of-house at the 1812 (theatre where No Love Lost was, if you remember). Lots of handing out programmes, pouring drinks, and smiling at audience members despite the fact that I was freezing. Anyway, after the show, all the cast and crew came out to talk to the audience - and I happened to notice that one of them was carrying something rather interesting.
This is a guy I've never seen before in my life, mind you.
I think, in my situation, a normal person probably would have started some sort of conversation with him. And they would have slowly got around to discussing the item-of-interest, enthused a bit, and then said goodbye and gone home. Or something like that.
A shy person would have walked away quickly and said nothing. Being shy, and all.
But me? A shy person with A Strategy?
Well...
I saw what he was carrying, and my jaw dropped. I walked over slowly, took the item out of his hands, examined it carefully, and then looked up and asked "Is this really the Doctor Who Christmas Special? The new one?"
Doctor Who dvds come out fairly late in Australia, and I missed it when it was on tv. With season four about to start, I've been kicking myself that I haven't seen the Titanic episode yet. So this dvd is kind of on a par with the Holy Grail.
And, did I mention? This guy is a total stranger. And I've just walked into the middle of his conversation and stolen his dvd.
Thankfully, being enough of a DW fan that he ordered the dvd from England just so he could get it early, he was very understanding. In fact, he immediately suggested that I borrow it, and return it next time I'm at the theatre.
So! I have a Christmas Special to watch! Courtesy of a guy whose name I still don't know, who for some reason was at the theatre, and has no idea who I am either...
Screw social norms. This is much more fun.
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no subject
Date: 2008-06-04 12:04 am (UTC)Enjoy your borrowed-from-a-stranger-without-any-small-talk-or-name-exchanging DVD!
no subject
Date: 2008-06-04 10:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-04 05:08 am (UTC)i love doingcrazy stuff like that :) who knows, this could result in looove
no subject
Date: 2008-06-04 10:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-04 11:40 am (UTC):-p
I almost brought you that DVD too! Nice to know there's nice people out there willing to lend things to strangers. I offer things like that all the time- I figure someone who likes the same show I do *must* be trustworthy...
Haven't been wrong yet :-)
no subject
Date: 2008-06-04 11:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-04 10:32 pm (UTC)I figure someone who likes the same show I do *must* be trustworthy...
That's generally where I'm coming from. Which really isn't logical, come to think of it. But... they like my tv shows! Of course they're wonderful people!
no subject
Date: 2008-06-05 12:54 pm (UTC)Last time that a random stranger talked to me on a train was to say "I know the answer! Have you got that one yet?" to my trying to get the crossword clues...that was just odd. She must have been reading my paper upside down, since she was standing in the doorway opposite me.
See? It's weird, how your brain will just go "you like my favourite show too? New bestest friend!!"
Suddenly you're lending books and DVDs to someone whose name you don't even know, and who you may quite likely never see again. But of course that won't happen, you just know it *can't*. The Universe just don't work that way.
:-)
no subject
Date: 2008-06-05 10:05 pm (UTC)Last time that a random stranger talked to me on a train was to say "I know the answer! Have you got that one yet?" to my trying to get the crossword clues.
This morning, I started helping the lady sitting next to me with her crossword.
Go on, laugh.
I couldn't help myself! You see, she had all but three clues done, and I couldn't bear the thought of her not being able to finish for a fairly trivial reason, so I butted in and told her that she had a spelling mistake.
She was actually quite thankful...
no subject
Date: 2008-06-10 07:20 am (UTC)Ooh, spelling mistake. Hate seeing those!
I also hate it when I fill in a perfectly good word, and it turns out the crossword creators of course chose the *other* perfectly good word in that instance. Argh. Once a word fits, I have trouble admitting that any other word *might* just be good too, even if no other words then have letters that match into my wonderful word.
Ohhhh, and even bigger annoyance- when the crossword clues are wrong, so the numbers for the clues don't match the numbers on the grid...so when '31 Down' for instance is actually '31 Across', '9 Across' doesn't exist, etc. I've seen that on at least two occasions in mX now.