Misanthropic is one of my favorite words. Partially because it describes me a lot of the time. If you aren't familiar with the word, well, good for you. Being a misanthrope means that you really don't like people very much. I have a t-shirt, a favorite of mine, that reads "People are idiots. And I hate them." The shirt came from the comic strip "Pearls Before Swine," which is created by Stephan Pastis, one of the kings of Misanthrope Island (although I wonder how the dude can have close to 4,000 friends on Facebook... must be a clever marketing ploy for him). I love the comic, but I also share the sentiment on what seems like far too many occasions.
SUCH AS THE PAST FEW DAYS. Now, I knew when I moved into a house two miles from my school, I was going to occasionally run into people from school since I'm only separated from the neighborhoods where they live by a big ol' sprawl of a shopping center. This was fine. But MAN. The past few days I wouldn't be able to grab a dead cat by the tail and swing it around my head without hitting someone I know.
It's not always bad. This list of acquaintances I've seen includes: two women I work with or have worked with on different things at the district level (I saw these two in a space of about 20 minutes in two completely different random settings), a really friendly police detective I've known for a long time, the husband of a good friend of mine, and a woman I've mildly lusted after for quite awhile now. Yeah, I know. I'm a sinner. Anyway.
All good encounters. I'm at least friendly with all of these people and hadn't seen any of them for at least a month, so a little small talk isn't so bad. Good to see the peers. What I don't always like? Seeing the parents from school. Or the students. Or the former parents. Or the former students. And this often has little to do with whether or not I got along with them when they were involved with me at school.
Sometimes chance encounters like this can be fun. Running into SuperKyle at Valleyfair, and at Target once. Those were nice. Waiting in line at the theater to buy a movie ticket and nearly getting tackled by eight 5th grade girls, all my students, who were there for a birthday party and spotted me, then made a big scene with the rest of the line watching. Kind of a funny moment. Watching a student from a LONG TIME ago try and get someone else to work the register at Panera for her when I was in line because she was too shy to wait on me. And luckily I think I've had a pretty good relationship with most of the families I've worked with over the years, so most people don't cringe too much when they see me. But man, I tell ya, there are times when you just want to be LEFT. ALONE.
Tonight. I get home from Nephew #3's birthday party, and since I was up late writing the night before, I was dead tired. I turned on the TV and sat down to watch a Harry Potter marathon, fully knowing and in fact planning that I would fall asleep in less than ten minutes. And I did. But when I woke up an hour later and went to fill the dog's water dish, I realized that the dog needed water. Yeah, I buy my dog bottled water. He's got white hair and I have hard water that stains his face, and he has stomach problems that don't go well with city water so SHUT UP. Anyway, I see I need to get some more and make a run to my local Rainbow, which is kind of scuzzy but closer to home and a quicker drive.
I'll spare the details here just in case, but suffice it to say I was in a grouchy mood and had to actively avoid running into someone from my former school years that I really did not want to talk to who happened to be in the store at the same time. And I mean actively, because every time I turned to a new aisle, there they were. As soon as I had the water, I was out of there.
Summer break just isn't quite as satisfying when you aren't allowed to fall off the face of the Earth when you want to.
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