Saturday, May 16, 2009

The word of the day is "uncomfortable"

I've had several incidents with strange characters in my office building elevator, but I think yesterday won the "most awkward" award. On the ascent it was just me and one other scruffy looking individual. In the front of the elevator is a TV screen that plays the weather, the news and each day there is a new "word the day". The "word of the day" feature consists of a word, its definition and a sentence using that word. Friday's word was "whinge", which means to whine, and the example sentence said something like, "the daughter whinged about not being able to go to the school dance." The other man in the elevator was already making me nervous just by the way he stood there; shifting his weight back and forth between his feet, subtle head twitches and aggressively scratching his mangy beard. It wasn't until he abruptly burst into laughter that my weirdo radar started to sound its full alarm. The "word of the day" was up on the screen and it had clearly been the trigger to his maniacal laughter.
Weirdo: "HA! Ha...hahaha...HAHA...HAAAAHAHA.."
Me: (slowly turning to my head to look at him out of the corner of my eye)
Weirdo: "HAAA...sounds like MY daughter!! Hahaha..."
............
Weirdo: (staring at me expectantly, clearly wanting me to respond to his comment)
Me: "Oh...um...how old is your daughter?"
Weirdo: (the bright expression on his face dropping) "Well....well I don't actually have a daughter. I....but....I mean..." (bursts out into awkward laughter and incomprehensible mumbling)
We arrive at my floor and I slip out before the doors are barely open.
Weirdo: "HAAAAhahahaha."
Me: "OK then...have a good day."
Probably one of those "you had to be there" moments to see the crazy shine in his eyes, but noteworthy nonetheless.

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